Speaking on his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T gave his thoughts on Will Ospreay’s comments that he made towards Triple H on Dynamite earlier this month after Triple H noted without naming Ospreay that he wanted talent in WWE who are willing to embrace the grind of a WWE schedule.
“The stuff with Will Ospreay, he’s a young guy, we’ve interviewed him. He seems like a really good dude. I don’t know if he’s playing into the AEW antics and wanting to get a little piece of the action and feels like ‘it’s a buzz around my name’ for a comment like that. I think that comment is going to come back to hurt him more than help him. I know wrestling in that bubble, it feels like the greatest thing in the world until you get out of that bubble and see, ‘Man, what the hell is this, this is something totally different.’ I say that because when I worked in WCW, WCW was huge. We were doing house shows with 20,000 people. I understand the position Will Ospreay is in, making good money too. I was making damn good money in WCW. When I came to WWE, it was a totally different ball game. It was a machine like I hadn’t seen before. The money was guaranteed, not just guaranteed, but the money I could make on top of that was astronomical. When I look at Will Ospreay, who is probably getting paid a nice grip in AEW, or one would expect, but I’m not talking about today. I’m talking about tomorrow when this thing is over with. I’m talking about your legacy and how people are going to look at you and praise you when this thing is over with. I don’t see AEW doing any of that, from a merchandise perspective, none of that is popping from an AEW perspective.
“Personally, I always want to stay above or away from anything the company was doing, especially if they were going back and forth with the other company just because I might be working for that company one day. I have no dog in that fight, that’s why I’m shocked by Will Ospreay and what he said. It was nonsensical. It didn’t even have a place. I don’t know the conversation he had with Triple H. The world doesn’t know the conversation he had with Triple H. That’s a conversation that should have been between him and Triple H. It sounds pretty simple. What we’re looking for is guys that are going to go out there and grind. Guys that are going to look at work. This is a no days off business. If that’s what the conversation was and you’re upset about him saying ‘we’re looking for grinders.’ ‘Okay, cool, I appreciate it, but I’m going to go over here where I don’t really have to grind that hard and get that check.’ That seems like it would be it. For him to make that comment, it definitely put him in a position where, I would not want to be Will Ospreay when my contract came up, or if things went right in AEW because his options are going to be limited. Maybe Tony Khan will pay him enough to retire.”
He added, “Will Ospreay, if you ever hear this, I thought you were smarter than that.”