Why AEW star Will Ospreay turned down WWE and how he made his name without 'the machine'

AEW star Will Ospreay has explained why he does not regret rejecting an offer to sign with WWE back in 2016 as he expressed pride in forging his own path in professional wrestling.

The Brit has the chance to make history at Wembley Stadium for 'All In' on 30 August when he headlines the pay-per-view in an AEW world title bout.

Ospreay takes on Omega in the main event and hopes to do what what England failed to do in football during the summer - become world champion.

Starting out in backyard wrestling when he was a teenager, the 33-year-old has honed his craft all over the world and grown into one of the biggest stars in AEW - the alternate $2billion wrestling company majority owned and operated company by Fulham executive Tony Khan.

Ospreay has risen through the ranks and become a top star without ever needing the help of WWE, who did want him to feature in their 2016 'Cruiserweight Classic' that many of his fellow British wrestlers participated in.

Despite being arguably the best high-flyer of his generation, Ospreay turned down the advances and believes he made the right call.

"I watched it, I thought it was OK but the wrestling that I was surrounded by was wildly better," Ospreay told SPORTbible in an exclusive interview.

"And I say it all the time, I've never been a WWE guy. I loved the Cruiserweight wrestling and the fact that they brought it back and I got to see so many guys that I worked on the Indies getting to perform under this spotlight.

"It was so cool to see. But it just never took my interest. It never was something that I was really fascinated in.

"It was good to be able to watch as a viewer. But other than that, this wrestling in Japan that I was surrounded by, like, trumped it."

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For many who got into wrestling of this current generation, they were inspired by The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, John Cena but they didn't do anything for Ospreay - who loved the fast-paced, athletic style adopted in the WCW cruiserweight division and TNA's famed X division a few years on.

Failing to listen to the 'Don't try this at home' warnings, he effectively taught himself how to do aerial manouvers on the trampoline and after more than paying his dues, he hit the big-time on his own terms.

He still lives in Essex and instead makes regular transatlantic trips to perform for AEW across the pound.

Ospreay explained: "I was more entertained with the WCW cruiserweights and the TNA X division than I was with your main eventers. I found the athleticism way more interesting than the microphone moments. I get that it enhances the story, but I always gravitated more towards the action rather than the talking. And then when you're a kid, you're kind of bulletproof and you're kind of made out of rubber. So I was able to test what my body physically could do.

"When one of my friends would be like, 'All right, we're going to do a moonsault'.

"I would say, 'Okay, I'm going to try and twist with my moonsault' And I would just do it. A load of people thought I had gymnastic training. I just had a trampoline in my back garden and I had access to a television, and I'd just watch WCW and I'd just pause and rewind, pause, rewind and that was just my life."

He continued: "I I think that's kind of something that I do tip of feather in my cap is just that I made my name without the machine. I made my name touring Japan and going up and down the country in the UK and Europe. I made my name that way and America found out about it.

"And then by the time I reached over to America, like, I already, I already had a name and a reputation that preceded me.

"That was because of the style that I put out there to the world. This is what my vision and my brain of what pro wrestling looks like.

I feel right now I'm the most complete that I've ever been. My ground game has improved dramatically. I'm doing a lot less aerial stuff and more, like, nitty-

gritty stuff. But I'm the aerial assassin I need to sprinkle in that little bit of athleticism where I can, because I don't think there's many people in the world that

can rival me in that sense. I do feel like there's guys like Ricochet who who have the longevity in his arsenal.

"But I was able to evolve out of, just being a high flyer and being able to go down the strong style route, go down, the technical route, and finding other avenues

to explore."

AEW All In London will be at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 30 August. Tickets available from LiveNation.co.uk