Will Ospreay shares some advice given to him by the great Chris Jericho.
The Aerial Assassin recently spoke with Fightful about a number of different topics, including a conversation he had with Jericho back in 2018. Ospreay says that the Ocho told him that if he kept doing dangerous moves in the ring it would lead to an early grave, a declaration that made Ospreay changes his ways.
Jericho gave me advice back in 2018 when I landed on my head against Kushida. He was like, ‘You keep doing that, you’re gonna have an early grave.’ I did take that advice on board. I really did change up.
Ospreay then discusses how he transformed his wrestling game into something that wasn’t as high-risk, adding that many fans were unaware of this change because NJPW was restricted by COVID more than other companies.
I really did change up. Even like if you look at 2019 world compare to 2020 world—which makes me sad in a weird way because of those 2020, 2021, even 2022 because all that’s in a pandemic situation, nobody wanted to watch pandemic wrestling. I did my best work in that space. So if you actually watched my matches and watched my abilities, I changed up everything. It finally hit me. The injury was I had a torn pec. A grade two, so no surgery, thankfully, and my rotator cuff tore. So thankfully no surgery, but it just sat me down. It was just a moment where I was feeling my knees for the first time ever. I always remember when Okada was telling me in CHAOS. He said, ‘All the old boys used to tell me when you’re thirty, you’re gonna feel it.’ I didn’t believe him. Now I’m thirty, I can feel it. I’m starting to get there. I can feel my knees. So it is time to change the style. It is mentally taxing because there are things that I want to do again. A little while ago I was trying the reverse 450 splash I used to do and I just can’t do it. I’m too fat now.
Later in the interview Ospreay would be asked if there were moves that he is now uncomfortable doing. Here is what he had to say.
There’s been a few. I’m scared of doing the shooting star press again. I nearly fucked it up a little while ago. I done it on a random indy show and as I started going I got stuck. Thankfully I knew which way was up and down, so I was able to push through it. Even my physio said it’s not fully healed. So there is a chance if you’re lifting someone over your head this could fucking rip off again. It is making me question whether I should be doing the Storm Breaker anymore. That is the biggest move that I fucking have. I hit that, it’s game over. But I am fucking scared, bro. It is one of those things where I don’t want to be out for nine months. I don’t want to be out for a year. So I’ve got to think about what’s worth it now. If it means I’ve got to say goodbye to Storm Breaker, then I just gotta perfect the Hidden Blade more and hopefully that’ll do the job.
Elsewhere in the interview, Ospreay spoke about his promo abilities as a wrestler and how he is a big fan of using curse words. You can read about that by clicking here.