Will Ospreay Addresses Criticism Of His AEW Dynamite Match Against Ricochet
On this week's episode of "AEW Dynamite," Will Ospreay and Ricochet rekindled their rivalry with a battle over the AEW International Championship. The match yielded inconclusive results, as Ricochet and Ospreay initially wrestled to a draw, and attacks from Konosuke Takeshita left its continuation as a no contest. This International Championship match also yielded more criticism from fans, which Ospreay later addressed on X (formerly known as Twitter).
"Man 8 years on and it still sparks emotion out of you guys," Ospreay wrote. "I appreciate the love & hate. It's all criticism to take on board to help grow us as performers. But I think more is to come."
As Ospreay alluded to, this is not the first time he and Ricochet have attracted negative commentary for a match of theirs. In May 2016, the two collided in New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Best Of The Super Juniors tournament, with Ospreay emerging victorious. In the days following, however, disapproving remarks emerged online, with WWE Hall of Famer Vader famously calling out Ospreay vs. Ricochet as "blatant acrobatics" with "no story." Despite this, Ospreay asserted that each in-ring move served a purpose and contributed to a story of two men dueling with counters, until one firmly gained the upper hand.
Ospreay and Ricochet's battle in All Elite Wrestling comes just weeks after the latter made his officially AEW debut in the Casino Gauntlet at All In. Prior to that, Ricochet spent six years under the banner of WWE, where he notably boasted reigns with the Intercontinental and United States Championships.