Will Ospreay is all for a match with Ricochet, but he says the new AEW star has to earn it. Ospreay captured the AEW International Championship from MJF at All In, while Ricochet made his debut for the company in the Casino Gauntlet match. Ospreay has called out Ricochet previously, and he spoke about a potential match with him in the post-All in media scrum. You can see the highlights below:
On a match with Ricochet: “I mean, dude, so do I [want to see it]. Man’s gotta work for it though, you know what I mean? There’s a long list of people that he’s going to have to beat before he can call out the International Champion. But honestly mate it’s been — I think it’s been eight years since that Best of Super Juniors match, and we’ve both gone in our separate directions. We’ve both done well, but like, now he’s under this microscope. And maybe, just maybe, I called him out all those times to see if he’s got any bollocks. And he’s shown up, right? He’s shown up. So I’d like to see what he’s going to be doing in AEW. I’m excited and I’m really, really happy for him.”
On what he wants to do with the title going forward: “Excitement for the championship, just because there is so many challenges that I could easily do. And once again, this championship knows no borders. It can be defended anywhere, so I’m open and I’m willing to travel wherever our partnerships lie and test myself against the best wrestlers in the world.”
On how his match with Ricochet changed his career: “It put me under a microscope that I don’t think I was ready for. Because… I was 23 back then, and it was the first time I was a part of like a real wrestling company. I was just grafting away at the indies. And not like the indies aren’t real companies, but there’s so much to it. There’s the promotional side of things. And then when that blew up and than I had like… You either loved it or you hated it. And for me, it was just a case of like, ‘This is a learning experience for me.’ To take all of this on board, this criticism, this love, here’s where I could have done better, here’s where I could have done worse. Taking that on board and then learning from other people.
“The one thing I’ll always say is, the Ricochet match did wonders for me, right? But that was just what we would do in PWG, that was what we would do in RevPro. And when it was along the lines of ‘I did that,’ and they were like, ‘Get in the ring with Shibata.’ And I was like, ‘Oh f– he’ll beat the piss out of me!’ And it was taking that match, and wrestling Shibata. And taking that match, and wrestling Okada. And taking that match, and wrestling Kenny. And taking that match, to wrestling Takeshita, taking that match to wrestling Danielson, and taking that match, to wrestling Max [MJF]. I’m constantly evolving. And that beginning step, I’ll never forget those days when I wrestled Ricochet and my life kind of just changed from there.”
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit AEW with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.
