Latest news with #WillOspreay
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Anita Vaughan Reflects On Will Ospreay's Pedigree on ‘Triple H' Going Viral
Once upon a time in the Multiverse Rumble, Will Ospreay nailed Triple H Anita Vaughan with the Pedigree. Luckily, Vaughan has lived to tell the tale with WrestleZone. On February 7, Pro-Wrestling EVE hosted its Multiverse Rumble event from London, England, with over a dozen competitors in the rumble match. For this particular bout, competitors dressed up as and paid homage to figures in both wrestling and pop culture. In Vaughan's case, she parodied WWE Hall of Famer Paul 'Triple H' Levesque, fake beard and all. This decision later came back to haunt Vaughan, however, as EVE producer and AEW star Will Ospreay flipped the bird and laid her out with a Pedigree, Triple H's iconic finishing move. Advertisement Clips of this scene have since gone viral across social media, revealing that Ospreay suffered instant karma by being eliminated by Rayne Leverkusen, dressed as Shane McMahon, right after. 'That spot was a lot of fun,' Vaughan told WrestleZone. 'The Multiverse Rumble is just that, it's just meant to be fun. Will obviously helps producing the shows and he plays such a big part. It's unbelievable to have someone like Will Ospreay backstage and helping out and everything he does with Eve as well, how he platforms it, how he supports it. Of course, he gets to be a part of the product as well in sometimes the most fun ways I've ever been involved in wrestling.' Vaughan Explains Pedigree Backstory How did this spot come together? According to Vaughan, who now reigns as the EVE International Champion, they planted the seeds for it a while ago. Advertisement 'Before [my tag partner] Debbie Keitel went to Japan, I remember we had [an idea of] like 'Oh maybe we can do DX or something.' She could be Shawn Michaels. I could be Triple H. I was like 'That would be really sick.' Then I just couldn't get it out of my head that I could be Triple H. I've done jokes and stuff with people backstage where like I'm Triple H. We'll do like the water take and stuff. It almost was a private joke coming into real life in the ring. Then you just add the layer of Will Ospreay hitting Triple H a pedigree. It was really sick. 'I've never hit so many Triple H moves in my life in that time,' Vaughan added. 'I found out I can do a decent spine buster, so now it's part of my moveset. I hit many a pedigree and I took my first ever pedigree from Will Ospreay, so that's a part of history now. ' Watch our full interview with Anita Vaughan below: The post Anita Vaughan Reflects On Will Ospreay's Pedigree on 'Triple H' Going Viral appeared first on Wrestlezone.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Will Ospreay Gives Honest Advice To Latest Round Of WWE Releases
Will Ospreay has some advice for the latest round of WWE releases regarding what their next steps should be. All Elite Wrestling's Will Ospreay was also a recent guest on The #JJRBTS (rehashed). When asked about the process of joining the company, Ospreay gave some honest advice to the latest round of WWE releases on what their next steps should be. Advertisement 'For example, one of the guys who (just came in) is Speedball Mike Bailey, who was like the Indie King at one point,' Will Ospreay began. 'He was going everywhere and putting on some of the greatest matches ever. 'I think that's what we're looking at more now instead of guys that just got let go from WWE, and my heart goes out to them all, but we're looking for guys that are appreciative of this position, who are grafting and improving the markets elsewhere instead of they just got let go from WWE and instantly assume they can come here. Nah, go out and prove to other people you're wanted and desired. Will Ospreay basically wants to see recently released WWE talents improve the houses elsewhere 'My heart goes out to all of them. It should never be assumed that 'Oh, I got let go here, I can just walk into AEW.' Nah, bruv. The bar is too high now. I want to see all of these guys cut their teeth elsewhere and improve the houses elsewhere. Go to New Japan, go to NOAH, go to STARDOM. Go elsewhere and improve their houses before you can think, 'Oh, I'll just come here.' Advertisement 'That's just me. There are certain guys, like Swerve (Strickland) got let go from WWE and came to AEW straight away. He's a special one. He's special. MVP is another, he's special. (Bobby) Lashley, special. Shelton (Benjamin), special. I want people to be like, you can't just come walk in. I really do think the independents need it right now. 'They need someone to help guide this next generation to come through. That's just me, personally. I don't mean that in any type of disrespectful way. Right now, AEW we are the best wrestlers right now, and all those guys who have been let go, tragically, are really good pro wrestlers, but you can't just be good anymore. You've got to be elite.' [H/T: Fightful] READ MORE: Will Ospreay Responds To Critiques Of How He Dresses In AEW What do you make of Will Ospreay's overall comments? Do you basically understand where Ospreay is coming from with his logic? Let us know your overall thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below. The post Will Ospreay Gives Honest Advice To Latest Round Of WWE Releases appeared first on Wrestlezone.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
AEW Collision Spoilers For 5/31 From El Paso, TX
On May 28, All Elite Wrestling taped AEW Collision at the El Paso County Coliseum in El Paso, Texas, for May 31. These matches will air on this Saturday's episode. The spoilers, courtesy of PWInsider, are as follows: spoiler alert AEW Collision for May 31: Claudio Castagnoli defeated Komander AEW International Title Number One Contender Tournament Match Tony Schiavone interviewed FTR and Stokely Hathaway in the ring. Atlantis Jr. and Templario interrupt and fend off an attempted attack from FTR Don Callis Family (Trent Beretta, Rocky Romero, & Konosuke Takeshita) defeated Tomohiro Ishii & Paragon (Roderick Strong & Kyle O'Reilly) Kazuchika Okada (c) defeated Anthony Bowens in an AEW Continental Championship Eliminator match Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland brawl backstage Mina Shirakawa defeated Skye Blue. Julia Hart attacked Shirakawa after the match, which brought Toni Storm out to make the save. Gates Of Agony (Toa Liona & Bishop Kaun) win a tag team squash match RUSH, Dralistico & The Beast Mortos defeated AR Fox & Top Flight Mascara Dorada defeated Hechicero in an AEW International Title Number One Contender Tournament Match Advertisement WrestleZone will have live coverage of AEW Collision as it airs on Saturday evening. READ MORE: Will Ospreay Gives Honest Advice To Latest Round Of WWE Releases What do you make of these spoilers for AEW Collision overall? Do these results make you more excited to check out the show on Saturday? Let us know your overall thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below. The post AEW Collision Spoilers For 5/31 From El Paso, TX appeared first on Wrestlezone.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The D'Amore Drop: AEW Double or Nothing was the best wrestling show of 2025, but ...
Few wrestlers in the world could've pulled off the kind of match Will Ospreay and Hangman Adam Page did at AEW Double or Nothing 2025. () The D'Amore Drop is a weekly guest column on Uncrowned written by Scott D'Amore, the Canadian professional wrestling promoter, executive producer, trainer and former wrestler best known for his long-standing role with TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, where he served as head of creative. D'Amore is the current owner of leading Canadian promotion Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling. AEW put on the best wrestling show of 2025 with their Double or Nothing event this past Sunday in Glendale, Arizona. AEW's tagline is 'Where the Best Wrestle,' and Tony Khan has a roster of world-class talent who take that mantra as an absolute promise on every pay-per-view event. Advertisement I mean every word of this: Only a handful of wrestlers — ever — could have put on the match that Will Ospreay and Hangman Adam Page did last Sunday. It was breathtaking, a roller-coaster that left you almost emotionally exhausted. Nevertheless, I stand behind the concern I expressed last week: I think Double or Nothing was the time to pull the trigger on Will Ospreay. Hangman vs. Moxley for the AEW Title is going to be awesome, but I don't understand why this isn't Ospreay's time. And I mean 'I don't understand' — because Tony Khan and his creative team will know a great deal about their plans for Will, their title, and their long-term vision that I simply don't. I'm going to wait and see how this plays out and give these talented people time and space to tell the stories they believe are the best stories they can tell. Advertisement Hangman challenging for — and potentially winning — another AEW World Title in his home state of Texas will be a great moment. Obviously, any promoter would much rather have 'too many' potential world champions than too few, and it'll be interesting to see how AEW picks its way through this 'good problem.' AEW's Anarchy in the Arena match — with the nonstop chaos and playing rock music on a loop — has joined Hell in a Cell, War Games, the Royal Rumble and, I would humbly suggest, Ultimate X, as one of the industry's top-tier gimmick matches. Anarchy has done for falls-count-anywhere brawls what War Games and Hell in a Cell did for cage matches — and what the Royal Rumble did for battle royals. It took a staple gimmick and elevated it to something unique and truly spectacular. WWE's NXT Battleground PLE went head-to-head with AEW's pay-per-view on Sunday and also featured some awesome action and minor milestones for the industry. Advertisement I continue to be proud of Jordynne Grace, who had an absolute barnburner with mega-star-in-the-making Stephanie Vaquer. Jordynne didn't get the NXT belt this time, but she continues to adapt to the WWE style and is paying her dues with some great performances. And then … a WWE PLE was headlined by the TNA World Champion, Joe Hendry, against Trick Williams. As someone who was at TNA for two long stints, including the iconic AJ Styles era, I got chills running up and down my forearms when I heard AJ's voice introduce the TNA World Title match on WWE programming. AJ Styles is TNA Wrestling — and him doing the voiceover just hit so right. I get that TNA fans are upset that Joe got beaten by an NXT/WWE talent. Let's talk about Joe first. Advertisement We're not even in June, and Joe Hendry has gotten the biggest reaction at the Royal Rumble, the biggest pop at WrestleMania, and now headlined a WWE-branded PLE. All of this heading into contract negotiations! Someone is going to pay Joe Hendry A LOT of money very soon, so don't feel bad for Joe. Don't feel bad for TNA, either. NXT does many times the viewers that TNA does on AXS TV. That exposure is critical to TNA. Now the key is how often the TNA title and this story is featured going forward on NXT — and how much Trick shows up on TNA programming. Obviously, there are parallels to what we did between TNA and AEW in 2020, with Kenny Omega coming to TNA to begin a year-long crossover storyline. Kenny gave TNA its biggest viewing figures and buyrates in many, many years, along with some incredible matches despite being almost unable to walk backstage. But this NXT/TNA crossover is much deeper and is doing even more for the TNA brand. Advertisement To me, it looks like Santana is getting prepped to be the new face of TNA when Joe inevitably moves on. I think we'll see Santana get 'revenge' for TNA fans and bring the belt back home. BUT — that should happen at TNA's Slammiversary event on July 20, in Santanta's home of New York, and not in the match scheduled for next week. All of that will give his title win a huge boost. That's smart booking. TNA fans obviously don't want Joe to go, and I'm not sure anyone — not even Santana — wouldn't get booed for beating Joe Hendry. TNA is coming out of this just fine. Speaking of Kenny Omega's TNA Title run, we used Christian Cage as the transitional champion to get the belt from Kenny to TNA's new top babyface, Josh Alexander. Advertisement For a minute, it looked like that talent was going to be Penta, who already had a short-lived run as TNA champ some years before. But then Christian — my old roommate and a TNA legend — came into the picture, and that made more sense as an emotional return as TNA Champion. I get asked online, so I guess I should say here that, of course, it is bittersweet seeing TNA do all these great things with WWE. Ultimately, in wrestling and in life, being happy and positive is a choice you make. I am proud of what we did: Turning around the dead, lifeless corpse of a company called IMPACT Wrestling and bringing it back to a vibrant — dare I say, important — part of the wrestling universe. Advertisement You focus on your wins. I felt very strongly that, as good as the product had gotten, we would never have gotten enough fans to take a chance on IMPACT Wrestling. Myself and a few others believed 'Come back to TNA — it's great again' was a far more compelling pitch to fans. I was also convinced that pretending TNA was a 50/50 rival to WWE, or even AEW, did nothing positive for us. On Sunday night, we were proven right yet again. I saw a clip online of a reporter using code words to suggest to Becky Lynch (and by implication, others like Charlotte Flair) that she should step aside from her spot atop the WWE women's division. Advertisement No one would dream of saying that to 40-somethings like CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Randy Orton and Jey Uso (who turns 40 in three months). All of them — male and female — are doing incredible work. Good for Becky for shutting that down. Becky Lynch isn't here for your bull. (Michael Marques/WWE via Getty Images) (WWE via Getty Images) My passion project (aside from this column, of course!) Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling keeps continues to exceed my expectations. Just seven months on from our inaugural show, we are on our way to another sellout with over 1,800 tickets flying out the door already for our July 5 event in Montreal, MLP: Resurrection. We are looking at five consecutive sellouts — and in real arenas with historic significance. We've locked down real sponsorships with legit Canadian companies, like The PoP Shoppe and ShipNerd, and we've had overtures from major streaming/broadcast platforms. I am skating the borders of 'cringe' here, but I'm blown away by everyone's support. Advertisement To get you ready for PCO's triumphant return to the 'House of Pain' in Montreal, check out his recent MLP match below. Bronson Reed was revealed to be the fourth man in the Seth Rollins/Paul Heyman/Bron Breakker heel faction. (What are we calling these guys? 'The Dangerous Coalition'? 'The Revolutionaries'?) Great choice. Who'd ever pick a fight with Seth Rollins now that he has Bron Breakker and Bronson watching his back? I signed Bronson to TNA in late 2021 after he was cut from WWE. He's a massive man, a massive talent, and a good guy. If TNA could have afforded him, I'd have loved to keep him in TNA. But as it was, WWE realized its mistake and brought him back just 13 months later. Advertisement He'll kill it in this new role with Seth and Heyman. Younger fans seem to have found Jesse Ventura's commentary at WWE Saturday Night's Main Event jarring. Kids, Jesse is a true heel commentator — and in that role, he'll contradict himself, refuse to give credit to your heroes, and bend over backward to talk up the villains. Jesse's performance has some shortcomings — like talking over the ring announcer — but he is the best ever in that role. And to be honest, I think wrestling needs more truly heel commentators. AEW's resident lunatic daredevil Darby Allin has completed his climb to the top of Mount Everest and is on his way home. I love that Tony Khan understands his talent shouldn't have to live in a wrestling bubble and should have goals outside the ring. But … climbing Everest?? I'm just thankful someone was there to talk Darby out of doing a Coffin Drop from the summit — because we all damn well know the thought occurred to him.
Newsweek
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
WWE Hall of Famer Names Real Face of AEW
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Although Jon Moxley is currently the AEW World Champion, there are plenty of talented wrestlers that could be argued to be the face of the company. This includes the likes of MJF, Swerve Strickland, Darby Allin, Kenny Omega, and More Pro Wrestling: WWE Superstar Chelsea Green Gives Update on Brutal Injury However, one WWE Hall of Famer seems to have narrowed down who the true face of AEW really is. Dec. 18, 2024 – Darby Allin executes a Coffin Drop on Will Ospreay during AEW Dynamite. Dec. 18, 2024 – Darby Allin executes a Coffin Drop on Will Ospreay during AEW Dynamite. Lee South/AEW During an episode of Busted Open, WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray (Bubba Ray Dudley in WWE) addressed who he thinks is the real face of AEW. "It's Will Ospreay," Bully Ray stated. "Will has stature, that's first of all. Darby doesn't have the same stature. Darby paints up, so he almost looks like a comic book [character] or a cosplayer. Will talked about the way he dresses, relatable dress. The number one thing, the passion in Will's voice, the tone in his voice." In the time that Ospreay has been with AEW, he has had countless matches, including with Bryan Danielson, Kenny Omega, Ricochet, Kyle Fletcher, and Darby Allin. In addition to being the face of AEW, Bully Ray believes that Ospreay would have thrived in ECW. "You want to hear the most profound thing that I can say about Will Ospreay? Will Ospreay would have survived in ECW, and that's why he should fly the flag for AEW. "There have been so many people who thought they could have survived in ECW. It was my pleasure to tell them to their face you would have gotten eaten up and spit out alive day one. Will would have survived in ECW, I'm talking ECW '93 to '98, OG ECW, real deal ECW." More Pro Wrestling: Aleister Black Breaks Silence On WWE Return While Ospreay is not particularly known for his hardcore style, his in-ring storytelling and high-flying style would fit perfectly alongside the likes of Rob Van Dam, Sabu, Dean Malenko, Yoshihiro Tajiri, and, of course, The Dudley Boyz. Needless to say, Ospreay's talent and determination can seemingly translate to any era. There's no doubt that he will reach the top of AEW sooner rather than later. More Pro Wrestling: Triple H Confirms New PLE for New Orleans After WrestleMania Relocation Bryan Danielson Makes Surprise Wrestling Appearance Amid AEW Hiatus WWE Notes: Bronson Reed Returns, Evolution 2 Officially Announced, More For more AEW, WWE, and professional wrestling news, head on over to Newsweek Sports.
