Will Ospreay turned down a WWE offer at the height of the promotion’s cruiserweight push to chase his dream of becoming a New Japan star first, a career gamble that shaped everything that followed.
Speaking on Marking Out with MVP, Ospreay revealed he was courted for the Cruiserweight Classic around the same time NJPW came calling, and he decided he could not split his focus between the two.
For Ospreay, the choice was never really close. New Japan sat at the top of his list from the start.
New Japan, which I really, really wanted to do because that was the only thing I ever wanted to do,” Ospreay said, laying out the three roads in front of him at the time.
I’ve got to weigh all my options because now I had TNA, which was nowhere near an option for me at the time, New Japan, which I really, really wanted to do because that was the only thing I ever wanted to do, and obviously WWE.
The Okada Match That Opened The Door
The whole path traced back to a single night. Ospreay faced Kazuchika Okada for Revolution Pro Wrestling on June 14, 2015, at York Hall in London, with several of New Japan’s key figures watching closely.
When I was 22, I wrestled Okada in England for RevPro… Gedo was managing him, Tiger Hattori was in the stands watching, and I had Hiroshi Tanahashi behind the curtain watching,” Ospreay recalled. “By the time I was done… Hattori came and was like, ‘Hey man… you’re good. We’re bringing you for the Super Juniors.’ At the time, that was the craziest thing for me.
Betting On Himself Over WWE
WWE’s interest arrived soon after. The Cruiserweight Classic was a marquee project, and NXT’s black-and-gold era was climbing, with names like Finn Balor, AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows all making the jump. Ospreay admitted the pull was real, but he noticed a pattern that convinced him to wait.
I remember saying to my mum, all the guys that have gone there have come from here, and their stock has gone up because they’ve gone here, because New Japan was so hot at the time,” Ospreay said.
Rather than accept the invitation, he made a request that surprised the promotion. He asked New Japan to sign him full-time.
I politely declined the offer to be part of the Cruiserweight Classic, and I said to New Japan if I could be a part of them more than just being in the Super Juniors,” Ospreay explained. “They sat me down and they said, ‘You know, you can do WWE as well. You’re not locked down.’ And I went, ‘Well, I want to be locked down. This is where I want to be.’
Eight Years That Made Him A Star
The move dropped him into a country whose language he did not speak. Ospreay signed with NJPW in early 2016 and debuted on April 10 of that year. He described the isolation of those first days bluntly.
Then they gave me a contract deal, and I spent eight years of my life there… I was literally by myself in this country that I couldn’t even speak the language in, furiously trying to follow Google Maps trying to find the nearest McDonald’s,” Ospreay said. “But it was honestly the thing that made me a man… I can’t tell you enough, I love that country so much.
The gamble paid off. Ospreay went on to hold the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship three times, the IWGP United States/United Kingdom Championship and the NEVER Openweight Championship, becoming the promotion’s top foreign star before his contract expired in February 2024 and he joined All Elite Wrestling.
The bet is still paying dividends. Ospreay is a two-time AEW International Champion and, on June 29, 2026 at Forbidden Door in San Jose, he defeated Swerve Strickland to win the Men’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. That victory earned him an AEW World Championship match at All In on August 30, 2026, a homecoming shot at Wembley Stadium in London: the kind of stage he decided years ago he wanted to earn on his own terms.
