Chris Jericho Reveals AEW Talks With Will Ospreay

Le Champion believes the Aerial Assassin will eventually end up in AEW.

by Andrew Pollard
Will Ospreay
NJPW

Could Will Ospreay end up becoming #AllElite? If Chris Jericho's prediction is correct, the Aerial Assassin will indeed make his way to AEW at some point in the future.

Speaking on REINVENTED with Jen Eckhart, Le Champion revealed that he himself reached out to Ospreay during the early days of AEW. While the Englishman didn't end up signing with AEW at that point, Jericho believes that Ospreay will eventually compete full-time "in America", presumably meaning for AEW.

As Jericho detailed (via Fightful):

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"I'd love to see Will in AEW. I actually called him way back when we were first starting out to see what kind of interest he had. I think there are a lot of guys that want to work in Japan and spend time there. I know, because I was one of them. I've been to Japan over 60 times in my career. There will come a time when Will decides he wants to work in his own country. I know he's English, but in America. That idea is much more similar to England than Japan is. There's something to be said about being a worldwide television superstar. You won't get that working for New Japan Pro Wrestling. It's great to be there, but the real big leagues lie in America. I would love to see Will working in America, and I think at some point that will probably happen."

At the moment, Ospreay is parading around the Los Angeles-based NJPW Strong setting, proclaiming himself to be the real IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, having had to vacate the title earlier this year due to neck injury.

Additionally, it's worth noting that Will Ospreay is one of the many names announced for this year's Jericho Cruise. Taking place between 21 October and 25 October, Chris Jericho's Rock 'n' Wrestling Rager at Sea: Triple Whammy will travel from Miami to the Bahamas.

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Tickets and further information for Triple Whammy can be found here.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.