Will Ospreay: I just don’t enjoy WWE

Will Ospreay has respect for WWE, but he’s never really been a fan of the wrestling they offer.

During an interview with Daily Star to promote Forbidden Door 2025, Ospreay gave his thoughts on WWE, saying he liked their programming as a kid but started to think it was lame when he became a teenager. There were wrestlers he enjoyed like Eddie Guerrero, Edge & Randy Orton and cool moments like CM Punk’s “pipe bomb” promo, but Ospreay got bored of the “recycled” product.

“WWE are on fire now, but like I still as not only just as a viewer but as a wrestler, I just don’t enjoy it,” Ospreay said. “I haven’t watched WrestleMania. What I’ve heard is it wasn’t the best Mania. Maybe like IYO [SKY], Rhea [Ripley], and Bianca [Belair] was the only sick match on there — which, the three of them are sick, three of the best wrestlers period. But for me, I just never was a WWE guy. I respect it and I respect the guys doing it. That schedule is like crazy, and I commend them all for doing it. I just didn’t like it. I don’t like the show, I don’t like the style of wrestling, I don’t like the presentation. It’s gotten better, I love the one-shots that they’ve been doing. But I’ve just — I’ve never been a big fan of it. So that’s why when like AEW came along and they went with more like the sports-based style of it, it was something that I could sink my teeth into.”

Ospreay loves that AEW takes risks, even when they don’t work out. He would happily volunteer to compete in an exploding barbed wire death match despite how fans mocked the ending of Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley from 2021.

WWE might have the business advantage over AEW, but Ospreay believes the AEW roster is much stronger in-ring.

“Of course like I respect WWE. And I admire everyone there. A lot of people think I hate Triple H, and I really don’t. I’ve never met the guy before in my life,” Ospreay said. “But for me, there’s always this little bit of rivalry where I’ll just be like, ‘Yeah, you guys are the biggest. Yeah, you guys are drawing the bigger houses. Yeah, you guys have got the bigger deals.’ But the moment the bell rings, I think we’re better than all of them. Like, I think honestly on my worst day, I’m better than a lot of the guys in-ring. In-ring. Promos, you guys have got a bunch of guys. Punk’s sick. [Roman] Reigns is sick. There’s still things that I need to catch up on. But in-ring, I generally don’t think there’s anyone from that side that like matches any of our guys.”

At AEW Double or Nothing on May 25, Ospreay is facing Hangman Page in the finals of the men’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. The winner earns an AEW World Championship shot at All In this July.

Forbidden Door is being held in London on August 24. It’s the fourth straight year that AEW & NJPW have joined forces for the pay-per-view. Ospreay named AEW’s Kazuchika Okada and NJPW’s Zack Sabre Jr. and Gabe Kidd among the opponents he’d be interested in wrestling at Forbidden Door.