AEW Management Reportedly Leaked Positive Will Ospreay Story To Take Attention Off Of Bad Booking

At the AEW Forbidden Door event, most people expected Will Ospreay to beat the current AEW World Champion, Swerve Strickland. The idea was that Swerve was considered nothing more than a transitional champion. However, AEW chose to keep Swerve as World Champ. It’s no surprise why people expected otherwise, considering Ospreay is one of the top names in the industry today. The two had a good match, but the outcome was unexpected. AEW Management reportedly only chose to have Swerve beat Ospreay because Will requested it himself.

The report leaked online, mostly because Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer put it out there. For those unaware, Dave is a massive Ospreay mark and always has been. Look at his 5-star rating system; you’ll find that Will has the most 5-star matches that Dave has ever given one athlete. It’s also important to note that Dave has a massive “in” with AEW, as he has been heavily connected to the company from the start.

This is likely due to his buddy-buddy relationship with Matthew and Nicholas Jackson (The Young Bucks). Both are executives at AEW and often help to make each booking decision. Due to Meltzer’s massive conflict of interest, it’s unsurprising that he’d want the report to get out about Ospreay. To be fair, Dave was reporting the truth and not making something up. Therefore, he “did” do his job. However, it still came off odd as it yet again led to Dave overpraising Ospreay.

THE AEW LOCKER ROOM BIAS

Will Ospreay, for his part, has pushed back against Dave over the years. That is especially true for his match rating concept. When presented with the fact that Kurt Angle was never given a 5-star match from Dave, he automatically called out the journalist/insider for it. Ospreay believes he is the best wrestler in the world, but match ratings are still suspect to opinion only. The fact is, the report came out claiming that Ospreay was a “class act” about “his decision” to lose to Swerve.

While it was the right move to make, it never should have been Will’s decision. Does AEW Owner Tony Khan or AEW management entirely just let his top guys have full creative control so much that they get to decide when they lose? If so, why the heck is his World Champion not given the same ability?

Forbes writer Alfred Konuwa questioned this as well. In all fairness, Alfred is known for blowing a lot of stuff out of proportion to get reads and clicks for his articles. Yet he is not wrong for calling out AEW management and this entire report surrounding Ospreay. He wrote on his Twitter/X that:

“Swerve beat Ospreay at Forbidden Door and disappeared off TV long enough for a narrative to develop that Ospreay was doing Swerve a favor by volunteering to lose. What a hero. I wonder how that story got out? If Ospreay really was a class act, the story would have stayed backstage.”

WRESTLING MARKS:

Konnan, also never known for staying away from controversy, responded to the post, claiming:

“[The] biggest marks are in the dressing room.”

He isn’t wrong about that. Professional wrestlers are huge marks for themselves or their “character.” Obviously, this is because they believe they deserve the spotlight. They want to be in the big matches on the biggest stages, having great matches with top stars. They want championships and want to go down in history as one of the best. How can they expect others to do so if they do not stand up for themselves?

While the AEW locker room is filled with marks who love themselves, they also want to make their company look good. Therefore, they talk up themselves and their company and might even talk up other guys. In this case, though, many believe AEW management ensured this story about Will came out. They likely felt that Swerve beating Ospreay would be negatively received, considering his popularity.

In Ospreay’s case, he likely wanted to lose to Swerve as he knew it could “make” Strickland and create a long-term rivalry between them. Swerve can have a good match with anyone, so Will knew losing was best. However, we still come back to how this decision should have never been his to make.

AEW MANAGEMENT IN DAMAGE CONTROL

Konuwa has since gone off on AEW for the Ospreay situation even further. In a series of tweets, he claimed:

“The irony of Ospreay “heroically” volunteering to lose is that it was done to diminish negative internet press about Swerve’s title run. But by leaking this story, all Ospreay and/or AEW did was give a Twitter narrative more attention, making Swerve’s biggest win about Will Ospreay. It warms my heart to know that a lot of people see right through AEW’s attempt to lionize Will Ospreay for doing his damn job (by doing a job).”

He went on to compare Will Ospreay to Hulk Hogan. It is very true that Hogan was a massive mark for himself. This is so true, in fact, that he has blatantly lied about his past, including the size of his “male member.” He claimed that Terry’s “Johnson” was not massive, but Hulk Hogan’s is because they are apparently two different people, we guess?

Hogan claimed, similar to the story about Ospreay in the past, that he was the one who decided to let Bill Goldberg beat him for the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. While some might not like it…Hogan did have creative control and could have easily said no to management. They could strip him of the title and do a lot of the Vince Russo-era stuff but did not at the time. Hogan did realize the best business move was a rivalry with Goldberg, which is why he was fine losing to him.

He’d also get the title back after Kevin Nash beat Goldberg for the title in a bizarre way. Hogan took the title back via the infamous “Finger Poke of Doom.”

That said, Alfred is not entirely wrong in what he is saying here. However, we do need to point to the obvious.

BIAS GOES BOTH WAYS:

Alfred is a black man, so it’s not surprising that he is happy to see Swerve as champion. Heck, we love Swerve around here, too. However, Alfred has specifically referenced Swerve’s race in his videos and articles on this subject. Specifically, he referenced Swerve as a “proud black champion” in his video comparing Hogan and Swerve.

While AEW management likely did leak the story about Will to make him look good…there is another narrative here. Yes, the AEW booking has been bad. That has led to Swerve being poorly booked as the AEW World Champion, which is not his fault. Ospreay comes in and suddenly attempts to change things and is praised for it. Yet, the real question for “Big Nasty” over at Forbes is…why do you seem to care so much?

It’s likely because you’re upset that Swerve, a terrific black wrestler who is being poorly booked, is not being given the credit you feel he deserves. Now that a random white wrestler is getting it, and he’s the one in the news, you’re mad that Strickland isn’t. We get it, Alfred, Swerve deserves more respect. However, there is a clear bias here because it isn’t as if this journalist is attacking AEW, WWE, or any other organization for similar issues.

THE REAL ISSUE

AEW has plenty to go after, trust us. WWE is not exactly clean right now, either. However, based on how Alfred has ignored a lot of this, he’s made a much bigger deal about the story because the AEW locker room did not leak anything positive about Swerve. He wants us to talk about him over Ospreay, but the type of tirade he’s on won’t change that narrative either. Plus, guess who is still talking about Will Ospreay and keeping him trending?

On top of that, we clearly have another biased journalist, Dave Meltzer, who has a clear history of loving Ospreay. As a result, we cannot assume that Will wanted to put all of this good press out about himself. Ospreay may be nothing like Hulk Hogan here, as Alfred suggests. In fact, it might be that he never thought that the knowledge of what he requested would get out for Dave to report on it.

He might have thought Swerve would mention it years later in an interview at random or something. Alfred also seems fine with going after AEW management, as they were the ones who likely leaked the story. Ospreay did nothing but exist and make a request he thought was right. Ironically, it is a decision that Alfred himself agrees is best. At the same time, he criticizes Will because he assumes it was Will who leaked the story.

Could it not have been that management leaked it, and Will never wanted that? In numerous promotions, Will has requested to win or lose many times over the years. Yet you never heard about it because management did not leak it. Therefore, maybe the real target for Alfred’s ire should be AEW, not Ospreay.