Will Ospreay Talks NJPW Return, Brotherhood and Evolution

Will Ospreay admitted that his recent health scare has made him up his game.

“I didn’t know how bad my neck really was until they told me I couldn’t wrestle. Coming back, the key thing for me was I didn’t want to be a shadow or a parody of myself in any way, so it made it all the more important to be able to show I could hang in Japan, at the same level of work ethic, both physically and in terms of my psyche,” he said in an interview with NJPW.

Ospreay returned to NJPW and The United Empire in April at Sauka Genesis. He and The Great-O-Khan and Henare of The United Empire defeated Yuya Uemura, Taichi and El Desperado. The reunion didn’t go off without a hitch though. After the bell, The Great-O-Khan had El Desperado in a claw hold. Khan held Desperado open for Henare and Ospreay to strike. Ospreay looked conflicted. Henare super kicked Desperado in the face. Ospreay seemed confused.

“We won. What was the point in that?” Ospreay asked Henare and Khan.

“This is how we do things now,” answered Khan.

Khan then booted Uemura out of the ring. Khan, Ospreay and Henare raised each other’s hands in victory.

Ospreay was also in Callum Newman’s corner that night when he challenged and defeated Yota Tsuji for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. During that match, Newman waved to Zayne Jay motioning for him to bring a chair into the ring. Ospreay stopped Jay though. Newman and Ospreay had a tug of war over the chair.

“You are better than this. You can do this on your own,” said Ospreay. Newman eventually let go of the chair.

It was also revealed soon after his return that Ospreay had purchased “The United Empire” trademark. The faction was formed in 2020 by Ospreay and The Great-O-Khan when Ospreay turned his back on Chaos and its leader and mentor, Kazuchika Okada.

Ospreay told NJPW he felt reuniting with his allies in NJPW.

“It was so great to be with those boys! Some of my best memories in United Empire would be on tour in somewhere like Morioka where there’s nothing open after a show. Me, HENARE, at the time the Aussies (Aussie Open) would just start walking in one direction until we found a bar, and it would end up being one of the coolest nights ever. I missed that, I missed the competition that New Japan brings. I missed the thrill of being on the cerulean blue canvas. That’s my home, that’s what I’m about as a pro-wrestler,” he said.

Ospreay maintained he won’t be maneuvering to be the leader either.

“It’s different, yeah. I don’t want to say too much about it because it’s not my place to say what United Empire should be. Is it the vision I would have? No, I would say it’s not. You and I have talked often about how I hated being called the leader before I left, because I was only ever as good as the team. Just as an example, I knew Jeff Cobb could beat my arse, and he had done, you know, in the G1. So I always saw us as a coalition, and I never thought O-Khan or HENARE as anything lesser than,” he said.

Ospreay hopes there will be more back and forth from NJPW and AEW.

“I can understand there can be a certain perception because a lot of guys did go from New Japan into AEW, myself included. But NJPW has always been exceptional at creating new stars; it just took time for New Japan to really identify who was going to be the top guy carrying things forward. And if you just looked at Wrestle Kingdom this year, Kazuchika Okada, Konosuke Takeshita, Andrade as well on that card were all major moments that could only really happen with the AEW relationship. At the same time I do think there could be more guys sent from AEW into NJPW, and not just big names to pop a house but for a tour, or longer than that. Especially with the sheer size and the number of people AEW has under contract, I think it would be a great chance for AEW talent to grow and come back even better. And vice versa as well,” he said.

At NJPW’s Wrestling Dontaku Night Two on May 4th The United Empire (Will Ospreay, HENARE and Great-O-Khan) will challenge Bishamontin (Boltin Oleg, Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI) for the NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag Team Championship.

The main event of the Night Two will be Callum Newman (c) versus Shingo Takagi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.