Will Ospreay Wants To Face “Grassroots” AEW Talent At Forbidden Door

Will Ospreay has revealed why he wants to face a homegrown AEW wrestler if he appears at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door.

AEW and NJPW announced on April 20th that they will be joining forces for a cross-promotional supershow on June 26th appropriately titled AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door on June 26th. As soon as the event was official, fans began speculating on the dream matches between the two rosters that could finally take place.

During an appearance on Wresthings, NJPW’s Will Ospreay spoke about the event, revealing that he only found out it was happening when the announcement was made on Dynamite. He says he has no idea if he’ll be competing on June 26th or not.

“They didn’t even fucking tell me it was happening. I was sat next to my Mrs. and was like, ‘Are we doing a show with AEW?’ ‘Yeah’ ‘Oh, no one told me.’ That’s honestly how I found out. They don’t tell me shit. For all I know, I’m not even on the damn show. I don’t know.”

The Commonwealth Kingpin went on to say that, if he is able to compete at the event, he would forego the obvious dream matches with veteran AEW talent, instead wanting to take on someone who is “grassroots” and not a performer who was already a big name before joining the promotion.

“The obvious ones are (CM) Punk and (Bryan) Danielson. I like a challenge. I would like a homemade guy. Someone that didn’t come from NXT, that didn’t come from New Japan. That’s the challenge. Can I do a sick match with someone that was born and made in AEW? That’s something I would like to challenge.

“Jungle Boy, I’d love to tear it up with him. AEW, I love the product. It’s brilliant and makes me excited to be a wrestling fan. The real challenge for me is, there are guys like Keith Lee. Mox [Jon Moxley], yeah, but this show should be ‘let’s go balls to the wall,’ what are the dream matches? Okada and Punk, (Hiroshi) Tanahashi, Shingo (Takagi) and Hangman (Page) would be a good one, Kenny and Shingo would be a banger. Dante (Martin) is a good one, lovely young man.

“I would really like somebody who is grassroots. That’s the mark. You have all these stars guys, they are the dream ones, Punk, Danielson, whatever. The guys that were there from the start, I would like one of them because I believe I can have the best match with one of them because they are hungry and are going, ‘we should be in one of those spots.’”

Will Ospreay is currently recovering after being rushed to the hospital with a serious kidney infection, there is still no timeframe for his return.

H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.