When it comes to high flyers in the world today, few performers are on the same level as Ricochet, and yet, if you watch WWE and WWE only, you wouldn't know it.

Sure, he's had a few elite matches, gone viral for spots with Carmelo Hayes and Logan Paul, and even became the first-ever WWE Speed Champion, his first belt since being defeated by Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship a few years back, but for the most part, Ricochet has been a house show staple who wins about as many matches as he loses and is just as likely to earn an interesting opportunity as he is to be wrestling on Main Event in a pseudo-dark match.

So, when news broke that Ricochet was not going to re-sign with WWE when his contract comes due this summer, it really shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise, as frankly, what has the promotion really done to keep him happy enough to stick around? In 2024, Ricochet has been on exactly one Premium Live Event, the Royal Rumble, where he entered the match at spot 28, eliminated no one, and was jettisoned from the ring after a little over 5 minutes with little fanfare. Since then, he's wrestled about as many matches on house shows as he has on RAW and has only really picked up broadcasted wins on X, where he won the initial WWE Speed Tournament.

Now, considering “The Only and Only” was once in a program with Logan Paul, and featured on the television graphic for RAW alongside the likes of Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins, his fall from grace has been pretty incredible to see, especially when the front office knew he was approaching a contract year but who knows, maybe they believed that the employment of Samantha Irvin, Ricochet's fiancée, was enough to keep him on the roster long-term, with their time together and compatible schedules being a worthy trade-off for inconsistent booking? If that's the case, they must not have predicted that performers around the industry, most notably Will Ospreay, would come out of the woodwork hoping to see more indie matches featuring the “Highlight of the Night,” as he remains an indie legend for all of his efforts in PWG, New Japan, Lucha Underground, Chikara, and beyond, and would happily line up at their local fed, or tune into Dynamite on Wednesday nights, to see what he's capable of against the best of the best in the world today.

Will Ospreay was disgusted by WWE's usage of Ricochet in 2024.

Speaking of Will Ospreay's advocacy for Ricochet, the AEW Intercontinental Champion told Liam Crowley in an interview with ComicBook.com that he was downright disappointed with how WWE was using the former PWG World Champion, noting that he's one of the greatest high-flyers in the world today and deserves to be booked like it.

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“I keep up with him all the time and sometimes I get a little bit sad about it. I hope he's not sad and I hope he's real happy. I keep up with him as much as I can, but I feel like people are forgetting who Ricochet was once upon a time,” Will Ospreay told Comicbook.com. “All of these high-flyers that you see, and myself included, we all took inspiration from Pac and Ricochet. The fact that they only value his time for under five minutes is appalling to me. I just want people to remember who he is. If you go and look at 2012-2013 Dragon Gate Ricochet, he was untouchable at the time. When it came to this generation of high-flyers, he was the greatest. He's the greatest high-flyer ever. I know it sounds weird, but I do put him on the same level as Rey Mysterio.”

Ospreay then put on his recruiting cap and helped to pitch Ricochet on another indie run, telling anyone readying his story that he has fans in AEW and around the world who happily book him into the future.

“I don't know how much longer he has got in his contract, but I think it might be up soon, man, I don't know. I want him to know that there are people here that genuinely appreciate his work and I want to wrestle him again,” Ospreay said. “I want him back here. I want him to know that there isn't a bar. You are the f**king bar. I just want to see him with more time and ability to showcase himself how I saw him. He's one of the best going, and if the opportunity presents itself, I think he should bet on himself. I think he should remind himself that he's one of the best high-flyers to ever do it. If it means he's got to come for me, then do it, boss, because I'm right here waiting for you.”

Will Ricochet land in AEW? Only time will tell, but considering he isn't re-signing with WWE and Tony Khan has the financial resources to field a competitive offer on par with any other promotion in the world, things are certainly pointing in that direction.