Will Ospreay has revealed that he believes he would still be wrestling for New Japan Pro-Wrestling today if AEW had never been created.

AEW launched in 2019 following the success of Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, with Tony Khan backing the new promotion. The company quickly established itself as a major alternative to WWE in the United States while also developing working relationships with wrestling promotions around the world.

During a recent interview with Ariel Helwani, Ospreay reflected on his career in Japan and explained just how important NJPW was to his development, both as a wrestler and as a person.

“I’ve never had that connection. I’ve always loved my stuff in Japan. Honestly, if AEW wasn’t a thing, I’d probably still be in Japan.

“It made a man out of me. They were patient with me. They were kind with me. I was young, 22 years old, and never really been out of England. I’d done two PWG and Evolve and some European indies,” Ospreay said.

The AEW star went on to explain that moving to Japan at such a young age forced him to grow up quickly while learning a completely different side of the professional wrestling business.

“And then all of a sudden they threw me in Japan. Man, I can barely speak English, let alone Japanese. So it’s one of these things where I had to learn, and there were loads of mistakes along the way because I’d never been exposed to this level of the industry.

“I still saw myself as a backyarder, even in Japan, and I feel like I needed to learn the trade of what wrestling was. And that was the fun of it. They realized I was just a 22-year-old kid just learning how to be a man,” he added.

Ospreay became one of NJPW’s biggest international stars during his time with the promotion, eventually capturing the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship before making the move to AEW.

Elsewhere during the interview, the former AEW International Champion also discussed interest from WWE earlier in his career. Ospreay revealed that WWE offered him a contract in 2016, but described the money involved in the proposed deal as “terrible” and ultimately turned it down.

Ospreay would instead continue building his career in Japan before eventually signing with AEW years later.