Will Ospreay Says Adam Copeland Was Someone He Could Talk To During Neck Surgery Recovery

Will Ospreay names the AEW stars he could confide in about his neck surgery.

Having been written off AEW programming at the hands of the Death Riders at Forbidden Door, Will Ospreay underwent double fusion neck surgery on September 17. The procedure sidelined him for over six months, getting the all clear to return to the ring at the end of February after recovering from the procedure, and ‘The Aerial Assassin’ has now discussed who on the AEW roster he was able to lean on to help him through the process.

Speaking to Rob Wolkenbrod of Forbes, Ospreay discussed confiding in Adam Copeland about recovery from neck surgery, noting that he also spoke to Bryan Danielson, Kyle O’Reilly, and Roderick Strong.

“I spoke with Adam Copeland quite a lot about it, just because I guess he’s kind of the godfather of this surgery. He’s had three of them. I think he’s had a [triple fusion neck surgery]. I remember when I got told how severe it was because I didn’t realize how bad it actually was. I’d been wrestling on it for like 10 months. It only really started getting bad around May, and then it started f****** destroying me. But I spoke to him, and he gave me the whole backstory of when he found out about his surgery and what was going to happen. He gave me his number to keep in contact because he knows it can get really depressing at times. So if I ever needed to vent or bullshit, he was always a great person to call or text about stuff. There were a lot of times he was in London too, so I got to chat with him during good hours. I never felt like I’d text him and have to wait until the next morning because of the time zones. So he was really good. I spoke with Kyle O’Reilly as well. He was great. I spoke with Roddy and Bryan Danielson a little bit, but not much. Everybody’s just been super cool because it really is such a good group of people backstage. I feel like news got around very quickly, and it was one of those things where it was really lovely having the support of my peers and everybody wishing for me to come back.”

-Will Ospreay

Famously, Copeland had to retire from the ring in 2011 after unfortunately suffering from cervical spinal stenosis. The Canadian underwent triple-fusion neck surgery, and, for around nine years, it looked as if his wrestling career was firmly in the past. Thankfully, ‘The Rated R Superstar’ was able to make a stunning return during the 2020 Royal Rumble, and he now finds himself as a key part of AEW having signed with the company in 2023.

As for Ospreay, the 32-year-old returned to our screens at AEW Revolution, having been cleared for action less than three weeks earlier. Despite picking up wins on Dynamite, the Brit lost his first pay-per-view match back against Jon Moxley, though most still expecting Will to be in the world championship picture come the summer.

On that note, Ospreay recently discussed what it would be like for him to headline Wembley Stadium against the current AEW World Champion Darby Allin. You can read more about that here.

As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on Will Ospreay as soon as we hear more.