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It’s another big wrestling weekend with WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event and AEW Double or Nothing and on a new Wrestling Weekly, Vic Sosa and Les Thatcher have all their predictions for both shows.
Thanks for listening and have a great weekend~!
John LaRocca and I, Garrett Gonzales, are back to talk about the major topics in the world of wrestling on this week’s Fight Game Podcast.
We kicked off this show by giving out our Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down winners and losers of the week before hitting the major AEW and WWE topics of the week.
Here are some of the things we talked about:
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Despite a difficult travel schedule that regularly takes him back and forth from the United Kingdom to the United States, Will Ospreay has no interest in relocating.
Ospreay is still based in his home country of England while traveling to the U.S. nearly every week for his job in AEW. It’s a lot of time in transit, but Ospreay is happy in the U.K. and doesn’t want his stepson to have to move to a different country.
“There’s nothing in my being that makes me want to move to the United States,” Ospreay told Bleacher Report. “I respect it and understand why people do it, but I have such a lovely life here and my son’s doing really well in school. I am very happy here. I don’t have any aspirations to want to move.”
Ospreay noted that, because of his in-ring style and travel schedule, he feels like the AEW training staff is sure to prioritize him and make sure that he’s always getting treatment.
“We’ve got a great medical team backstage at AEW. I do feel like they put me on priority quite a lot because they do realize that my travel schedule is quite insane,” he said. “They get angry when I don’t show in the trainer’s room. I appreciate every single one of them that looks after me.”
Ospreay told Bleacher Report that he’s been doing a lot of producing work for women’s indie promotion Pro Wrestling Eve in the U.K. He named his significant other Alex Windsor as a potential breakout star from the country, along with Nina Samuels, TNA’s Leon Slater, and NJPW’s Callum Newman.
At AEW Double or Nothing in Arizona this Sunday, Ospreay will face off against Hangman Page in the finals of the Owen Hart Foundation tournament. The winner earns an AEW World Championship shot at All In 2025.
The main event for this Sunday’s AEW Double or Nothing pay-per-view is official as former AEW World Champion Hangman Page will take on Will Ospreay.
The bout marks the finals of the men’s Owen Hart Foundation tournament with the winner moving on to challenge for the World title at AEW All In Texas on July 12th.
It will also be their first-ever singles match against each other.
The two shared final words to open up Wednesday’s go-home edition of Dynamite where Ospreay said he wanted to go on last and was confident in following other matches like Anarchy in the Arena or any of the other great wrestling on the show.
The two shared a beer in respect to close the segment with it later confirmed they were indeed the main event.
Page defeated both Josh Alexander and Kyle Fletcher to advance to the finals while Ospreay beat both Kevin Knight and Konosuke Takeshita to advance.
John LaRocca and I, Garrett Gonzales, are back to talk about the major topics in the world of wrestling on this week’s Fight Game Podcast.
We kicked off this show by giving out our Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down winners and losers of the week before hitting the major AEW and WWE topics of the week.
Here are some of the things we talked about:
Click Here to Listen (sub needed)
Image: AEW
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with tons to talk about including the latest on the Janel Grant case, WWE in Atlanta, SNME, Will Ospreay’s comments regarding WWE, tons of Japan news, ratings, ESPN Select, AEW Dynamite and NXT TV reviews, Collision spoilers and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Timestamps:
Start: Janel Grant lawsuit update
9:52: WWE loading up on Georgia events during All In weekend, SNME lineup
15:01: Will Ospreay says he prefers AEW’s style over WWE’s
21:56: NJPW Dominion lineup, AJPW Champion Carnival update
25:50: Arena Mexico notes
29:17: Ratings, ESPN’s new streaming service
38:37: AEW Dynamite recap
1:01:49: WWE NXT recap
1:09:01: AEW Collision spoilers, Karl Snyder arrested
Will Ospreay says AEW’s roster “smokes” WWE’s roster.
During a recent interview, Ospreay was asked about WWE running NXT Battleground on the same night as AEW Double or Nothing later this month. He responded by saying AEW is better than WWE in “every field of wrestling.”
“We smoke them in every field of wrestling,” he said. “Mate, we’re just better.”
“I respect them. I respect every single one of them there,” he continued. “They’re all vets, they all know what they’re doing, they’re great at their job, they understand getting people on their feet, but we are so much more of a better wrestling company than them.”
“Our guys smoke them every single day of the week. They’ve got good guys like Gunther, they’ve got great guys like Orton, they’ve got good guys like Chad Gable, I respect all of them but on our worst day, we smoke all of you guys.”
Earlier in the interview, Ospreay was asked which NJPW wrestler he wishes he’d faced.
“Strangely, the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion right now, Goto, we never wrestled one another,” he responded. “Look, Forbidden Door’s coming up, so could be doing that.”
Ospreay also spoke highly of working with Jerry Lynn backstage in AEW.
“Backstage, I’ve been working a lot with Jerry Lynn. I’m fascinated (by) his knowledge and his tenure, and he’s really been helping me understand and break down a lot of things where I feel like I lacked and needed those fine-tuning pieces. Getting to work with the legend that is Jerry Lynn has been beautiful.”
Up next for Ospreay is a match on tonight’s episode of AEW Dynamite: Beach Break. He’s scheduled to team with Hangman Page against Konosuke Takeshita and Josh Alexander. Then at Double or Nothing, Ospreay will face Page in the finals of the Owen Hart Foundation tournament.
Ospreay’s full interview with YoJoshMartinez is below:
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With WWE Backlash this weekend, Les Thatcher and Vic Sosa look at the scheduled matches and give their predictions on this week’s Wrestling Weekly.
Can Randy Orton end his rivalry with John Cena by becoming WWE Champion again?
The guys also look at a busy week in AEW and what lies ahead for the Beach Break edition of Dynamite next week.
Thanks for listening and have a great weekend~!
Will Ospreay has respect for WWE, but he’s never really been a fan of the wrestling they offer.
During an interview with Daily Star to promote Forbidden Door 2025, Ospreay gave his thoughts on WWE, saying he liked their programming as a kid but started to think it was lame when he became a teenager. There were wrestlers he enjoyed like Eddie Guerrero, Edge & Randy Orton and cool moments like CM Punk’s “pipe bomb” promo, but Ospreay got bored of the “recycled” product.
“WWE are on fire now, but like I still as not only just as a viewer but as a wrestler, I just don’t enjoy it,” Ospreay said. “I haven’t watched WrestleMania. What I’ve heard is it wasn’t the best Mania. Maybe like IYO [SKY], Rhea [Ripley], and Bianca [Belair] was the only sick match on there — which, the three of them are sick, three of the best wrestlers period. But for me, I just never was a WWE guy. I respect it and I respect the guys doing it. That schedule is like crazy, and I commend them all for doing it. I just didn’t like it. I don’t like the show, I don’t like the style of wrestling, I don’t like the presentation. It’s gotten better, I love the one-shots that they’ve been doing. But I’ve just — I’ve never been a big fan of it. So that’s why when like AEW came along and they went with more like the sports-based style of it, it was something that I could sink my teeth into.”
Ospreay loves that AEW takes risks, even when they don’t work out. He would happily volunteer to compete in an exploding barbed wire death match despite how fans mocked the ending of Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley from 2021.
WWE might have the business advantage over AEW, but Ospreay believes the AEW roster is much stronger in-ring.
“Of course like I respect WWE. And I admire everyone there. A lot of people think I hate Triple H, and I really don’t. I’ve never met the guy before in my life,” Ospreay said. “But for me, there’s always this little bit of rivalry where I’ll just be like, ‘Yeah, you guys are the biggest. Yeah, you guys are drawing the bigger houses. Yeah, you guys have got the bigger deals.’ But the moment the bell rings, I think we’re better than all of them. Like, I think honestly on my worst day, I’m better than a lot of the guys in-ring. In-ring. Promos, you guys have got a bunch of guys. Punk’s sick. [Roman] Reigns is sick. There’s still things that I need to catch up on. But in-ring, I generally don’t think there’s anyone from that side that like matches any of our guys.”
At AEW Double or Nothing on May 25, Ospreay is facing Hangman Page in the finals of the men’s Owen Hart Foundation Tournament. The winner earns an AEW World Championship shot at All In this July.
Forbidden Door is being held in London on August 24. It’s the fourth straight year that AEW & NJPW have joined forces for the pay-per-view. Ospreay named AEW’s Kazuchika Okada and NJPW’s Zack Sabre Jr. and Gabe Kidd among the opponents he’d be interested in wrestling at Forbidden Door.
Will Ospreay wants to see Revolution Pro Wrestling’s Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship defended at Forbidden Door 2025.
Forbidden Door is being held in London this year with The O2 Arena set to host the pay-per-view on Sunday, August 24. It’s the fourth straight year that AEW and NJPW have joined forces for the event. While speaking with Q101’s Case Lowe, Ospreay said that — in addition to AEW, NJPW, CMLL, ROH, and Stardom wrestlers — he’s hoping that RevPro will be involved because of how important the British indie promotion was to his development.
“I really do hope we can get RevPro on there, because they was such a huge hand in my upbringing and my journey in pro wrestling,” Ospreay said. “Like, I would really love to have the British Heavyweight Championship defended on that show.”
The Undisputed British Heavyweight title is currently held by Michael Oku, who is on his second reign as champion. Oku competed for AEW at an ROH taping in Boston earlier this month.
AEW star Mercedes Mone is RevPro’s Undisputed British Women’s Champion, holding that belt in addition to the TBS Championship and NJPW Strong Women’s Championship.
RevPro has an official partnership with NJPW and has also worked with AEW despite not having a formal relationship with them at the moment.
Ospreay is the most prominently featured wrestler on the poster for Forbidden Door 2025. He told Q101 that being able to wrestle at The O2 is truly a blessing. He grew up 35 minutes from the venue and will now be competing there for the first time
“The fact that I’m going to be front and center for that show truly is a blessing and a huge responsibility that I’m willing to take on and ready for that responsibility,” Ospreay said.
No matches for Forbidden Door have been announced yet.
Three wrestlers advanced in the Owen Hart Foundation tournament on Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite Spring BreakThru.
Half of the women’s tournament finals are set following Dynamite, as Mercedes Mone defeated Athena in the semifinals show opener to advance.
Mone will wrestle in the finals of the women’s bracket at the Double or Nothing pay-per-view on May 25, where she awaits the winner of the Jamie Hayter vs. Kris Statlander semifinals booked for next week’s Dynamite.
Later in Wednesday’s show, Hangman Adam Page defeated the debuting Josh Alexander in the last men’s quarterfinals matchup to advance to the semifinals. Page will take on Kyle Fletcher of The Don Callis Family in the semifinals in the men’s bracket.
Also at Spring BreakThru, Will Ospreay defeated Konosuke Takeshita in a men’s semifinals bout to advance to the finals at Double or Nothing. He awaits the winner of Page vs. Fletcher.
The winners of the Owen Hart Foundation men’s and women’s tournament will receive a World Championship match at AEW All In set for Saturday, July 12 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. Jon Moxley currently holds the AEW World Championship, while Toni Storm is the current Women’s World Champion.
Our full report from Dynamite Spring BreakThru is available here.
Three big Owen Hart Foundation tournament matches are now set for this Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite from Boston, Massachussetts — a night where Dynamite becomes the longest-running weekly prime time wrestling show on the Turner networks.
TBS Champion Mercedes Mone will take on reigning Ring of Honor Women’s World Champion Athena in a women’s Owen Hart Foundation tournament semifinal.
Athena punched her ticket on Saturday’s AEW Collision with a win over Harley Cameron in a quarterfinal bout while Mone defeated Julia Hart this past Sunday at Dynasty. While they have shared the ring many times before, this will be their first-ever singles match.
The winner will advance to the finals at May’s Double or Nothing where the winner earns a Women’s World title shot at July’s All In.
Will Ospreay will face Konosuke Takeshita in a men’s Owen Hart Foundation tournament semifinal.
Takeshita advanced by defeating Brody King on Saturday in the main event while Ospreay defeated Kevin Knight at last Sunday’s Dynasty to get to the semifinal. It will be the latest chapter in a rivalry that dates back nearly a year. The two have had just one singles match against each other which Ospreay won at 2023’s Revolution.
The winner will advance to the finals at May’s Double or Nothing where the winner earns a World title shot at July’s All In.
The Death Riders will defend the AEW Trios titles against The Opps.
As announced on Collision, AEW World Champion Jon Moxley will take PAC’s place in defending the titles following his injury on Dynamite. Samoa Joe offered up the challenge at the end of Dynamite this past Wednesday and it was made official Saturday. The Death Riders will look to extend a lengthy title run that has seen them defend the titles eight times.
AEW Tag Team Champions The Hurt Syndicate will defend against The Gates of Agony.
After picking up a quick win on Saturday, the Gates of Agony (Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona) issued a challenge to reigning AEW Tag Team Champions The Hurt Syndicate for Boston, later confirmed on social media to be a confirmed title match.
The new additions join the previously announced Owen Hart Foundation tournament quarterfinal bout between Hangman Page and the wild card. The winner of that bout will face Kyle Fletcher in the other semifinal.
Working with ECW legend Jerry Lynn has helped make Will Ospreay a better wrestler.
Lynn, a former ECW World Champion, joined AEW as a coach during the promotion’s inaugural year in 2019. Ospreay told Sports Illustrated that Lynn’s coaching has helped him a lot, especially when it comes to making his in-ring offense mean more.
“I’ll be honest. I’ve been working a lot with Jerry Lynn, and he’s been a real guiding light on how to make stuff a little bit more important for me in those matches,” Ospreay said. “So I do put a lot of love and admiration towards Jerry as he’s been such a great help in my matches.”
Ospreay has now been a full-time member of the AEW roster for more than a year. Because he’s working a regular schedule of TV matches, Ospreay has reigned in his style a little bit. He still wants to deliver on TV while saving some of his biggest moves for pay-per-view.
“A little bit, yeah,” Ospreay said about changing his style. “Because you can’t do those epic clashes on TV that much. It’s very rare that you can actually follow through with those epic New Japan-style main events. So you have to pick your spots wisely and now, I feel like I’m really finding my groove at the TV matches. And obviously, when the pay-per-view comes around, I just go balls out, and I hope that people respond well to the matches that I’m trying to put on.”
Ospreay defeated Kevin Knight at AEW’s Dynasty PPV this past weekend. With the victory, Ospreay advanced to the semifinals of the Owen Hart Foundation tournament. He’ll be facing either Brody King or Konosuke Takeshita in that round.
The winner of the Owen Hart Cup earns an AEW World Championship shot at All In Texas this July. The World title is currently held by Jon Moxley.
Will Ospreay would love the opportunity to renew his rivalry with Josh Alexander in AEW.
The two have a 1-1 record against each other in matches for TNA Wrestling that took place in 2023 and 2024. With Alexander now a free agent and rumored to be joining AEW, it’s been speculated that he could be the wildcard entrant in AEW’s Owen Hart Foundation men’s tournament. Ospreay told Sports Illustrated that he does not know if Alexander has signed with AEW, but he is a huge fan of him after their TNA matches.
“It’s not been confirmed that he’s signed anything yet,” Ospreay said. “But I mean, look, I had two epic matches with him in TNA. If anyone is a big Josh Alexander fan, like, I am. When we wrestled that first time, I had no problem telling him, like, I didn’t really know much about him, but I was a fan the moment, like, that first five minutes I started wrestling with him. I just knew, ‘Oh my God, this guy is actually genuinely incredible.’
“So like, having to have that, and then when we done the rematch and he bested me, I would love it for him to be him, and if we were able to meet in the finals to settle the score. I can’t really confirm. I don’t think he has signed yet.”
The yet-to-be-named wildcard entrant is set to face Hangman Page in the first round of the tournament. Ospreay is on the other side of the bracket and has already advanced to the semifinals with a win over Kevin Knight. The finals are taking place at AEW’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view this May with the winner earning an AEW World Championship shot at All In Texas.
Ospreay also named NJPW star Gabe Kidd as someone he thinks could possibly be the wildcard competitor.
Alexander, a former TNA World Champion, became a free agent when his TNA contract expired in February. He made a surprise appearance for Scott D’Amore’s Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling last month and has another MLP appearance scheduled for May.
Image: JJ Williams
Two bitter rivals and former partners both advanced in the opening bouts of the men’s Owen Hart Foundation tournament as part of AEW Dynasty.
Former AEW International Champion Will Ospreay opened up the pay-per-view with a victory over Kevin Knight in their first ever meeting. Ospreay picked up the win to end an extremely athletic bout by connecting on a Hidden Blade after Knight kicked out of both a Styles Clash and an Oscutter.
Later on the show, Kyle Fletcher won his trilogy series with former ROH World Champion Mark Briscoe to also advance. Fletcher battered Briscoe throughout the match, power bombing him on the ringside floor and on the ringside barricade, later hitting back-to-back brainbusters on the ring apron and inside the ring. Fletcher survived a Briscoe offensive rally late, hitting two running kicks and a turnbuckle brainbuster for the win in a hard-hitting bout.
Ospreay now moves on to face the winner of Brody King vs. Konosuke Takeshita in the eight-man tournament while Fletcher awaits the victor of the Hangman Page vs. surprise entrant/wild card match. The dates for those bouts has yet to be announced.
The finals of the tournament will take place at May’s Double or Nothing. The tournament winner will challenge for the AEW World title at July’s All In Texas.
