Will Ospreay offers advice to released WWE wrestlers looking to join AEW:
“My heart goes out to them all, but I just think, like, we’re looking for guys that are just appreciative of this position… instead of just being like, ‘Uh, got let go from WWE,’ and just instantly assume that they can come here. It’s like… no, man. Like, go out and, prove to other people that you’re wanted. I want to see all these guys cut their teeth elsewhere and improve the houses elsewhere. Like, go to New Japan, go to NOAH, go to STARDOM, go elsewhere and improve their houses before you can think, ‘Oh, I’m just going to come here.’
For example, one of the guys that has come through now… Speedball Mike Bailey, who was just like the indie king at one point. He was just going everywhere and just putting on some of the greatest matches ever. And I think that’s what, like, we’re looking at more now instead of guys that just got let go from WWE.
I don’t mean that in any type of disrespectful way, but I think right now AEW is just like… we are the best wrestlers right now. And all those guys that have been let go, tragically… are really, really good pro wrestlers. But, like, you can’t be just good anymore. We gotta be Elite.”
(source: JJRBTS rehashed)