{"id":9821,"date":"2016-02-04T10:43:08","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T16:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=9821"},"modified":"2016-02-04T14:00:57","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T20:00:57","slug":"9821","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/02\/04\/9821\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Ospreay &#8211; top int&#8217;l star&#8217;s interesting journey to New Japan through U.K., TNA &#038; WWNLive"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-2718121067\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>With the U.K. independent wrestling scene becoming more popular in recent years, wrestlers like Will Ospreay are in high-demand.<\/p>\n<p>Ospreay has already had an interesting start to 2016 and it will get more interesting in the second quarter of this year.<\/p>\n<p>PWTorch has learned that Ospreay has a deal with New Japan to join their roster in April. It&#8217;s unclear if he has signed a deal or is working on a handshake agreement like most foreign talent. But, he is expected to be a featured wrestler and not just brought in to work preliminary matches.<\/p>\n<p>Ospreay gained attention from New Japan officials as part of NJPW&#8217;s international expansion into the European market. They are expected to make him a part of the\u00a0&#8220;Best of the Super Jrs.&#8221; tournament this spring.<\/p>\n<p>Ospreay will also be in Texas\u00a0as part of WrestleMania Weekend. WWNLive has announced Ospreay for their <a href=\"http:\/\/morethanmania.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;More Than Mania&#8221; Weekend shows April 1-2 in Dallas<\/a>.\u00a0Ospreay is then expected to join New Japan.<\/p>\n<p>WWNLive&#8217;s announcement this week reads: &#8220;We are very excited to announce that Will <span class=\"il\">Ospreay<\/span> will make his EVOLVE debut in Dallas. <span class=\"il\">Ospreay<\/span> is making headlines all over the world from TNA to New Japan. He is signed for EVOLVE on <span class=\"aBn\" tabindex=\"0\" data-term=\"goog_1175010108\"><span class=\"aQJ\">April 1 and April 2.&#8221;<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Another layer to the story includes\u00a0Ospreay&#8217;s involvement at TNA&#8217;s\u00a0U.K. TV tapings in January in his home country.<\/p>\n<p>TNA booked Ospreay along with Jimmy Havoc and Big Damo, then marketed their inclusion\u00a0by running a poll on which star\u00a0the U.K. fans wanted to see on the tour. All three ended up being announced for the tour.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3843823729\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>At the tapings, Ospreay informed TNA officials that he had agreed to a deal with New Japan, which he wanted to be kept under wraps\u00a0until New Japan announced him for shows.<\/p>\n<p>TNA went ahead with their plans\u00a0for\u00a0Ospreay at the U.K. TV tapings. PWTorch has learned that TNA wanted to do more with Ospreay in the future if they were able to sign him. Once it was known that he was heading to New Japan,\u00a0TNA went ahead with the scheduled plans from when they booked him in December, and limited his involvement to that.<\/p>\n<p>Also of interest is the\u00a0week before the TNA TV tapings, Ospreay dropped the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.progresswrestling.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">PROGRESS Title<\/a> to Marty Scurll at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/01\/24\/8921\/\" target=\"_blank\">PROGRESS 25 in London<\/a>. This quietly freed him up from the role of top champion for one of the U.K.&#8217;s premiere\u00a0promotions. He is currently not advertised for the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.progresswrestling.com\/event\/chapter-26-unknown-pleasures\/\" target=\"_blank\">next PROGRESS show on February 14.<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3235614024\"><div id=\"pwtor-903012384\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>With the U.K. independent wrestling scene becoming more popular in recent years, wrestlers like Will Ospreay are in high-demand. Ospreay has already had an interesting start to 2016 and it will get more interesting in <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2016\/02\/04\/9821\/\" title=\"Will Ospreay &#8211; top int&#8217;l star&#8217;s interesting journey to New Japan through U.K., TNA &#038; WWNLive\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1228,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[539,6,4],"tags":[87,404,120,1383,488],"class_list":["post-9821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indies-news","category-news_japan","category-news_tna","tag-new-japan","tag-njpw","tag-tna","tag-tna-uk-tour","tag-will-ospreay"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/NJPWdark_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9825,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9821\/revisions\/9825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}