Will Ospreay Felt “Nothing” Headlining NJPW Wrestle Kingdom During the Pandemic

Will Ospreay is regarded as one of the greatest wrestlers working today, but the Covid-19 pandemic proved to be especially tough on the Brit.

Due to the pandemic, several wrestling promotions brought in strict measures to stop the spread of the virus, with WWE, AEW, and Impact going without live fans.

New Japan has kept some of its pandemic-era rules in place, including a restriction on cheering to lower the risk of oral transmission.

Despite the Pandemic, Ospreay and the New Japan roster attempted to make the best of things by putting on high-quality matches when they had the chance.

Speaking to Renee Paquette on The Sessions, Ospreay recalled an emptiness inside him during arguably the heights of his career.

“For the last three years I do feel I’ve been on auto-pilot a little bit. I remember last year’s Wrestle Kingdom, and Great-O-Khan is massaging my shoulders just as I’m about to go out and he goes ‘how are you feeling?’ And I went ‘I feel nothing’ because honestly, it was one of those where even though it was the main event of the Tokyo Dome, it wasn’t the real thing. It wasn’t the real experience.”

Ospreay went on to say that he tried to make the best of it by trying to goad the crowd into an audible reaction.

“It’s heartbreaking, but I tried to see it almost like a game where I was like ‘okay I’m going to be so good, that I make you make noise.’ I saw it like that but you can only play that game now and again before it becomes tedious and tiresome.

“It was heartbreaking at points because I really did feel like I was doing the best work I’ve ever done, and it was kind of going under the radar because I’m not on national TV. I’m not on weekly TV. New Japan at one point was the hottest thing going. When 2019 came in, all of our arenas were sold out. It was the best G1 we’d ever done, we performed at Madison Square Garden. All systems were go and then that f***ing pandemic came.”

For this year’s Wrestle Kingdom, New Japan relaxed its policy on cheering and allowed fans in the Tokyo Dome to be as loud as they wished.

Speaking of the difference from last year’s show, Ospreay was grateful and much more relaxed thanks to the change.

“I don’t know anyone who likes watching clap-crowds at all. I want to hear the people, I want to engage with them, and for three years, it’s felt like I was in a prison. So it was really nice to let the doors open and let them all make noise again.

“Getting to walk out there [this year] to my music, to be in my own skin again, it felt like the old me. To do it on that platform, it felt like, for the first time that the eyes of the wrestling world were really on me.”

Ospreay would lose the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship to Kenny Omega, a result that “gutted” the British wrestler.