Tony Khan experienced Will Ospreay as a brilliant in-ring performer on occasion since the summer of 2022, but the AEW president has been blown away by what he has seen since working with him week in and week out.
Ospreay, who had occasionally wrestled in AEW, left New Japan Pro-Wrestling and officially joined Khan’s company as a free agent in February.
The current AEW International champion is arguably the best wrestler in the world, but Khan said he’s gotten to see Ospreay’s understanding of wrestling psychology, storytelling and attention to detail more now that they work more closely.
“I think as I’ve gotten to know him better and gotten to know him week in and week out, I’ve been fascinated by his mind [for wrestling],” Khan said. “I think the headline for Will Ospreay is he’s such an amazing athlete. The things he can do in the ring are so unique and his talents are so special, the headline is always going to be what a phenomenal athlete he is. But he’s a brilliant, brilliant mind.
“I think people are seeing that as he’s done interviews more and more on television and it’s gotten a lot of attention. The charisma he possessed is obvious on television and as he’s connected with the TV audience more and more, people are seeing there is so much to Will Ospreay as a person and as a human being.”
Ospreay will be vying for the AEW world championship against Swerve Strickland in the main event of Forbidden Door at UBS Arena on Sunday (8 p.m., Bleacher Report, Triller).
The match is coming just two months into Strickland’s reign and so quickly into Ospreay joining AEW surprised many fans, but Khan saw it as something that the company’s audience wanted to see, and fit its summer season being “all about making unexpected matches and unexpected moments possible.”
Strickland and Ospreay are friends in real life and have already shown a natural storytelling chemistry on screen in the buildup to Forbidden Door.
Khan sees a rivalry with “incredible potential” long term, knowing what each had delivered in big feuds and matches on their own.
“Imagining what they can do against each other is very exciting,” Khan said.
The third edition of Forbidden Door — which started between AEW and New Japan — has seen the inclusion of talent from CMLL of Mexico and Stardom, New Japan’s sister all-women promotion, for the first time.
It comes as we see increased cooperation across pro wrestling with WWE even forging partnerships with the likes of TNA and Japan’s Pro Wrestling Noah that would have been unheard of before.
Khan said it’s always great to see pro wrestling companies collaborating.
“We all have this common goal to make our promotions strong and help each other in the process,” Khan said of AEW’s relationship with NJPW, Stardom and CMLL. “We have definitely seen more cooperation in professional wrestling in recent years and I think that’s a good thing.”
That partnership with New Japan helped Jack Perry, one of AEW’s top young stars, begin to come into his own as a performer, transforming from “Jungle Boy” into his new “Scapegoat” persona that now has him aligned with the new Elite faction of The Young Bucks and Kazuchika Okada.
Perry, the son of the late “Beverly Hill 90210” star Luke Perry, worked in New Japan from March to May after being suspended and absent from AEW television after his backstage altercation at All In with CM Punk, which was the last straw before the current WWE star was fired from the company in September 2023.
AEW has turned it all into one of their main stories, which saw Perry and The Elite unleash a storyline-launching attack on Khan to close Dynamite on April 25.
Perry took advantage of his time in New Japan and now has an opportunity in a six-man ladder match at Forbidden Door to win the TNT championship for the first time.
“It was fascinating to see and just how compelling as well [to see] just how far Jack has come and how connected he was with that crowd and his presence as a big wrestling star has only continued to grow and grow,” said Khan who was in attendance for Perry’s last New Japan appearance in Chicago. “He’s been a great wrestler for us. Even as we have crossed paths and disagree on things, I think he’s a tremendous wrestler who’s evolved and continued to get better. I think he’s come so far as a wrestler.”
Khan, whose father and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shad came out to check on him after he took a top-rope spike piledriver as part of the angle, stayed in kayfabe by wearing a neck brace in the team’s war room during the 2024 NFL Draft.
NFL Network commentator Rich Eisen kept showing Khan and talking about it during their draft coverage.
Khan eventually autographed the brace and donated $100,000 to St. Jude’s in lieu of the initially proposed auction.
“I’m glad it all paid off for something good to come out of it with Rich Eisen drawing so much attention to me being injured during the NFL draft and every round Rich added more and more insight and talked more about AEW and what happened on Dynamite, the stakes and the situation,” Khan said. … “I was just glad we were able to do something nice and help people out of what happened in the pro wrestling ring.”
AEW is kicking off its big summer of events with Forbidden Door as Khan is working on the company’s next media rights deal with things still in the exclusive negotiating window with current partner Warner Bros. Discovery.
Khan, who said earlier this week the two sides are moving closer to agreement, noted that AEW is open to reshuffling how its television time is distributed.
They currently run five total hours weekly, with Dynamite on Wednesdays and Collision on Saturdays being two-hour shows and Rampage an hour.
AEW has done three-hour blocks of TV time in different combinations — including with the “Battle of the Belts” specials — particularly during the NBA playoffs.
It’s a concept Khan is open to exploring along with sticking with multiple pay-per-view distributors over a single entity if best.
“I really love that cadence [of shows we have],” Khan said. “We’ve been given opportunities to work with a three-hour format and it’s very interesting and at the same time there are challenges with that, but there also are a lot of positives. We’re very flexible to what’s going to be more beneficial to our media partners, so I’m very open to entertaining a number of different formats if it’s going to be the best thing for AEW and especially for our media partners.”
