Will Ospreay was a guest on a special episode of Wrestling Observer Radio with Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez (subscription required). The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champ was asked about getting involved with the G1 Climax for the first time, touches upon being called one of “The Best In The World,” opens up about his mental health and finishes up with comments about his Twitter rendezvous with Seth Rollins. Quotes below:
(Transcription by @DominicDeAngelo of WrestleZone)
Will Ospreay on being called one of the best in the world:
“I don’t care about being the best in the world, I just care about doing the best of my abilities. If you ask me my genuine opinion who the best wrestler in the world is I generally think it’s just a toss up between Okada and AJ Styles. I mean to be fair you can put Kenny [Omega] in there as well because I think Kenny’s on just another level, but for me just the consistency with Okada and there’s just different aspects to it for and that’s the thing like you said, there is a list of guys that you probably call “The Best In The World.” There’s way too many guys, but I’m not fast on being best in the world, I’m just doing the best of my abilities. I just want to give my best…and forgive me for bringing this up Dave, the moment I get in my head like star ratings are the only thing that matters to me or anything on those lines, that’s when you’ll get into my head that maybe I’m pushing my body too far, I just want to the best that I physically can every night. Like I don’t want to push myself I just want to do the absolute best that I can physically do.”
Ospreay follows up with this:
“I’ve got a lot of attention on me. Right now I think a lot of people are looking my way and using that term, “Best In The World” I do want to give those guys a showing to perform at the very best of my abilities, but I just want to wrestle and prove that I do belong up there with that list of guys.
“With me, New Japan Pro-Wrestling is everything I’ve ever wanted and this is my dream and now I’ve been giving the opportunity apply my trade. I feel that everyone’s trying to say that I’m filling in Kenny’s shoes why he’s away, but I’m just like I’m creating my own shoes. I generally just want to give back to a company that’s given me everything.”
On wrestling Lance Archer in the G1 and knowing that he’s ready to take advantage of the opportunities in NJPW:
“This is gonna be a big one for him. I generally hope, if I know Lance Archer, the match we had in the New Japan Cup, he really brought it to me. I hope he comes in all guns blazing and just gives me everything just cause that’s how I’m gonna wake up, like I want a really great opening match. I want to see him the next day, I want to see him the next, week so that way I can be ‘alright, this is what a heavyweight’s gotta do, then I gotta step up.’ I feel like I’m ready. This is so weird of me saying it because once again, if I look at my phone and the whole list of matches, all the tihing I want to do before I sell my soul. The G1’s in there, the Heavyweight Title’s in there. There are little things that are in there. It’s not impossible anymore. That was just an impossible thing for me, just like ‘Oh, like five years down the line or something,’ but now is the time. I’m in the best shape I’ve ever been in my entire life, I’m more motivated than ever. Like I really feel in my heart of hearts I can do this. If someone just gives me the ball, like I can run with it further than anyone else, in that block or in the other block. I feel like I’m bloody ready to spring with this thing.”
On opening up about his mental health and keeping himself motivated:
“I am that type of person that wears my heart on my sleeve and I show people the real me every now and again. I wouldn’t lie to anybody, like I’ve been really really struggling with my mental health recently and it’s just, with all the stress of everybody leaving and the company’s relying on me to really step up and the things at home were going really wrong and moving here was just becoming one of the only options that I really had, but then I had to have a break and think about it, I was like ‘No, I want to move here, because I can help the company and I can give more’ and this does like help everything out, from the personal standpoint. It’s just like, this is where I’m happy. Japan is my happiness.
“I do have huge insecurity issues, I don’t really like me as a person, I always make mistakes and I always feel like I am a little bit of a failure, but when it comes to wrestling this is when I’m happy and I can forget about all my problems and I’m in like a meditation where nothing else matters except for these minutes that I’m in the ring and that’s where I feel happy and the thing is that I thought about it for a second and I was like, ‘Oh I’m going through all this, but somebody else is probably going through all this as well.’ So if I can show them that I’m dragging my ass out there every single night, lacing up my boots, going in there, performing as hard as I can, then hopefully someone is going to see that and it motivates them to do something else. I want to motivate people and I want them to just realize that there is a battle inside your head that 100% in life, there is a war that is worse than any Super Junior or G1 Climax that goes in my head, that like if I can drag myself out of bed and do the minor steps to get myself healthy again, then 100% I’m going to do it and I hope that someone else sees this and inspires this so then that way they are going to take a chance on themselves. That they’re going to gamble. It’s a real thing.”
On his Seth Rollins Twitter beef:
“I don’t think it’s anything malicious behind it at all I just feel like the question he asked is find me someone alive that has the same type of schedule that I do, that can do what I can do, all I just said that I’m alive. I am. I’m very much alive. The things that make me laugh more about it, is that he brought in Ricochet to try and tear me down. You brought in another person to try and just be like, ‘Oh, no, you’re not…’ It’s like dude, you don’t have to do it. You just have to be like, ‘Oh okay, maybe we can have a match one day,’ but I think the thing is maybe it just gets under his skin that my championship, my Junior Championship means more than his Universal Championship. I don’t know. Like, who knows? It’s factual though!”
Ospreay also talks his recent move to Japan (he just moved to the country last week) and the wrestling styles of Kenny Omega and Tanahashi.
