Subscribe
Follow Us
With All In rapidly approaching, one of the biggest potential surprises of the show might have already been spoiled, as it has been widely reported that Ricochet, the former WWE Speed Champion, has officially signed a long-term contract with AEW heading into the promotion's biggest weekend of the year.
Now granted, Ricochet landing in AEW is hardly some big surprise, as he's been expected to land “where the best wrestle” since before his final days in WWE, but now that the deal is done and all but officially official, fans have started to theorize about where he will debut and how it will impact the promotion long-term.
Will Ricochet appear in the Casino Gauntlet match in the pursuit of a World Championship shot? Or will he instead come out after Ospreay's match with MJF to either come to the “Billy Goat's” defense or to immediately turn heel on the “Ace of AEW?”
Discussing the prospects of Ricochet officially becoming #AllElite in an interview with talkSPORT, Ospreay let it be known that if he comes to AEW, he'd better come correct, as he can't just phone it in for Tony Khan's company.
“That whole match kind of changed my perspective on wrestling; it changed my output and how people viewed me. But I feel like him coming in now, it's one of those things where we [did] that match, and we went off on our separate journeys, and now we're coming back together again. For me now, it's like, this is your chance now. This is your chance to show people. Because look around. Look at this generation of wrestlers, look what everybody is doing when it comes to that athletic style of pro wrestling, right? It's him. He is the guy that did it, and he's just got to find that fire within himself because he knows he can do it,” Ospreay told talkSPORT via Fightful.
“I honestly feel like he's just been downplayed for so bloody long that people have forgotten the freak athlete that he is. So if it is true, and if he is coming to AEW, I'm calling out to remind everybody who the f**k you are, bruv. Because you, without a shadow of a doubt, were the man. Dragon Gate, PWG, the indies, around the world, no one could f**king touch you. So I am calling you out, bruv. I am saying, remind the world that you are one of the best to have ever done this s**t, man. Because I believe it, and if I believe it, you've gotta believe in yourself now, boss.”
Widely considered the prototype of the high-flying, hard-hitting style of acrobatic in-ring action AEW has built its entire business around, Ricochet's talents were largely wasted by WWE since he graduated from NXT to the main roster, with Vince McMahon, and even Paul “Triple H” Levesque unsure of how to use him other than as a plucky underdog who eats Ls before winning the “big one” every now and then. If TK can tap back into the old Ricochet, it will be nothing but money for AEW.
Even Ricky Steamboat warned Will Ospreay about the Tiger Driver 91
Elsewhere in his pre-All In promotional tour, Ospreay discussed one of his signature moves, the Tiger Driver 91, with Renee Paquette on Close Up, which is widely considered so lethal it has been soft-retired by the “Aeriel Assassin” for hurting Bryan Danielson's neck back at AEW Dynasty. While Ospreay doesn't want to use the maneuver moving forward, even before Dynasty, there were questions about hitting Mitsuharu Misawa's signature maneuver, as Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat believed it was simply too dangerous to use if not perfectly executed.
“We're told in wrestling, like if I throw an elbow at you for a Hidden Blade, yeah, you can put a guard up. If you're trained enough, you put a guard up. But I don't want to take anyone's livelihood away, and I don't want to take anyone's career away. So back at Revolution, I remember talking to Ricky Steamboat, and he just wanted to chat with me about strategy, which I've never done with a man [like him],” Ospreay explained to Renee Paquette on Close Up via Fightful.
“So I start talking to him, and I said, ‘If this doesn't work, I'll hit him with the Tiger Driver.' He was like, ‘What is that?' So I got it up on my phone, and I showed him. His face completely changed. He said, ‘Don't b**tardize that move.' I never understood what he meant. It's only when, the aftermath of it all, when I wrestled Bryan, I remember hitting him with a Hidden Blade. I just said, ‘Do a Tiger Driver. Go for it.' I remember hitting it, I remember firing up. I didn't see the referee calling for the doctor, so I nail the Hidden Blade, one, two, three, done. It was only when the doctor started coming in and I was just, I don't know. I've never felt like that. Bryan, I genuinely hold; he's my hero. I have never felt this awful about a man who was on his last legs with pro wrestling, who's had neck issues before.”
When Paquette noted that Danielson is doing just fine, with the “American Dragon” set to headline the biggest show of the year, Ospreay noted that he still has to have neck surgery later this year, and no one is to blame for that but the “Commonwealth Kingpin.”
“I understand people are like, ‘Well, he's in the main event of Wembley, you should do it again.' Yeah, but you're not seeing the cortisone injections going into his neck. I am. Man's going on TV to say, ‘I've got to have neck surgery this year.' Whose fault is that? It's mine,” Ospreay noted. “I live with that burden. No one else does. It's so easy for everyone to be like, ‘This is stupid, just hit it.' I genuinely have some remorse and sympathy for hurting someone that I genuinely look up to, and I know there are rules in wrestling; there are some unwritten rules. I just want to avoid it. I'm good enough without it. I was good enough without the move before; I can do it again.”
Can Ospreay theoretically still beat MJF without the Tiger Driver 91? Yes, but come on, this is professional wrestling; after spending four months doing a will-he, won't-he over the future of the Tiger Driver 91, Ospreay has to hit it to secure the win, or not hit it and lose as a result. Considering Danielson has endorsed the maneuver for All In, why not go all in, right?
