AEW star Will Ospreay spoke with Muscle & Fitness about various topics, including his experience of being expelled from his first wrestling school.
Ospreay said, “Thank God they did because all the things that I could do with springs, I can do without them now. [On getting kicked out] Because I was doing some backyard wrestling outside the facility while they were training. Honestly, looking back now, I would have kicked me out too.”
On his battle with body dysmorphia:
“I first discovered my body dysmorphia, and I won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, in October of 2017, and I remember one tweet was saying ‘he is in the worst shape,’ and they were right,” says the wrestler. “I didn’t understand working out, why you do sets, and why you focus on one body part, and macro counting. I would go to the gym, but I really didn’t know what I was doing, I’ll be honest, and I was so embarrassed to ask the boys, they’re all jacked, I felt like such an idiot, to try and (ask) ‘could I workout with you?’ so I never went to the gym.”
On his ADHD diagnosis:
“I was on the spectrum for autism, but I didn’t find out I had ADHD until I was 27. I was like, five years into Japan, I had already made a bunch of mistakes, like a lot of issues going on. At first, they thought it was depression. They thought I had insomnia because I couldn’t sleep. (The ADHD diagnosis) opened my eyes and gave me a lot of insight into why I’ve been making these mistakes and how I could mitigate them. I still have triggers, I had one a little while ago on Twitter (X), where I just went back at somebody, and I wish I didn’t do that, but on the positive side, wrestling is something that I have been able to lock in and focus on.”
On his workouts following neck surgery:
“Five months removed from surgery, and I was able to do a 440-pound (200kg) deadlift. I think my weight was sitting at 202 pounds (92kg) at the time, so for me, that was a huge lift.”
