Will Ospreay has thanked Tony Khan for paying for the neck surgery that was “more expensive than his f**king house.”
In September 2026, Will Ospreay underwent surgery to address two herniated discs. While that type of procedure has often left wrestlers out of action for a year or more, the Aerial Assassin returned to AEW at Revolution, only six months after going under the knife.
Reflecting on his recovery in an interview with Forbes, Ospreay admitted there were times he wasn’t sure he would ever get back in the ring, but said he kept doing everything he could to make his return as quickly as possible. The star also credited his surgeon and the advances in medicine over the past decade for getting a second chance in wrestling.
“I mean, that always kind of creeped in, but I knew I was going to do everything physically possible to make this go as quickly as possible and get back in the ring.
“It was always a conversation, and I had great phone calls with my surgeon, Dr. Wallace, who deserves the biggest shoutout because he’s given me a second chance at having a career doing this. I mean, 10 years ago, this was the type of thing that medically disqualified you from wrestling. So the fact that medical science has come so far, man, I’m just grateful and so blessed.”
Will Ospreay also gave a shoutout to AEW President Tony Khan, who paid the “crazy” bill for the procedure.
“And I must give the biggest shoutout to Tony [Khan] for paying for that surgery because the moment I saw that f**king bill — bro, it was more expensive than my f**king house. It was crazy.”
Who Did Will Ospreay Speak To Before Undergoing Surgery?
Ahead of the surgery, Will Ospreay spoke to other wrestlers who had been in a similar position, including Adam Copeland and Bryan Danielson.
“Yeah, I spoke with Adam Copeland quite a lot about it, just because I guess he’s kind of the godfather of this surgery. He’s had three of them. I think he’s had a [triple fusion neck surgery].
“I remember when I got told how severe it was because I didn’t realize how bad it actually was. I’d been wrestling on it for like 10 months. It only really started getting bad around May, and then it started f**king destroying me. But I spoke to him, and he gave me the whole backstory of when he found out about his surgery and what was going to happen.
“He gave me his number to keep in contact because he knows it can get really depressing at times. So if I ever needed to vent or bullshit, he was always a great person to call or text about stuff. There were a lot of times he was in London too, so I got to chat with him during good hours. I never felt like I’d text him and have to wait until the next morning because of the time zones. So he was really good.
“I spoke with Kyle O’Reilly as well. He was great. I spoke with Roddy and Bryan Danielson a little bit, but not much. Everybody’s just been super cool because it really is such a good group of people backstage. I feel like news got around very quickly, and it was one of those things where it was really lovely having the support of my peers and everybody wishing for me to come back.”
Will Ospreay is currently appearing in both AEW and NJPW, and recently captured the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Title alongside his United Empire allies Henare and Great-O-Khan at Wrestling Dontaku.
