NJPW: Will Ospreay is the 2019 wrestler of the year so far

Will Ospreay has had an incredible year thus far and we’re not even halfway through 2019.

Coming off of his second Best of the Super Juniors tournament championship, Ospreay rolled into Dominion on that following Sunday and defeated Dragon Lee to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. His resume in 2019 is something to behold, leaving me to proclaim Will Ospreay the 2019 wrestler of the year so far.

Will Ospreay began his year opening up NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13 vs. Kota Ibushi in an instant classic. As a matter of fact, there are quite a few Will Ospreay matches this year which can be classified as instant classics. Ospreay defeated Ibushi to win the NEVER Openweight title in a brutal, beautiful battle. This match would lead to a transition of sorts for the ‘Aerial Assassin.’

Ospreay would head to England for the month of January and proceed to display a more aggressive, mat-based style. He has the engine of a Tesla, packed on 15 pounds of muscle and has maintained most of his acrobatic agility. The NEVER Openweight Title would give Ospreay confidence moving forward, showing the world that he wasn’t just another gymnast turned professional wrestler.

What has opened my eyes to just how good Will Ospreay has been seeing how he’s honed on his weaknesses. Often criticized for taking unnecessary chances in the air, Ospreay has adapted this year and wrestled a more ‘safe’ style which will prolong his career. It has made him one of the most complete performers on the planet.

Still, he doesn’t abandon what brought him mainstream attention in the first place. He’s still just as much of an aerial based attacker who runs out of superlatives to describe his amazing athletic ability.

Ospreay sported an undefeated record throughout the opening month of the year. A much-anticipated showdown with fellow British wrestler PAC would end in a 30-minute draw that had fans in England and worldwide wanting more. After a tag team match in Ireland, Will would return to Japan for the month of March.

Ospreay would fly in for the NJPW Anniversary show, main eventing vs. the man who was IWGP Heavyweight champion at the time, Jay White. Once again, Will Ospreay would go toe-to-toe with one of the world’s best in a very methodical and well fought main event.

White would hand Ospreay his first singles loss in NJPW of 2019, but Will proved that he can hold his own against heavyweight competition. This would continue to be true as he would take aim at winning the New Japan Cup in March. The winner would main event the G1 Supercard in New York City vs. the IWGP World Champion Jay White.

Ospreay would prove to be a tough one in the tournament. He defeated two much larger opponents – Bad Luck Fale and Lance Archer – in the opening rounds. Ospreay was able to connect with his ‘Stormbreaker’ finisher on the 6’8 Archer to defeat him in round two.

Will would ultimately fall to fellow CHAOS member and leader Kazuchika Okada in an incredible match which would prove to be a stalemate between the two men. Okada wrestled Will back in 2015 at a RevPro event and immediately pleaded New Japan brass to bring him into NJPW. Ospreay has ran with the ball ever since landing on Japanese soil.

In yet another amazing opening contest at a major New Japan event, Ospreay would lose his NEVER Openweight Title to Jeff Cobb at the G1 Supercard. It would be a small blip on his radar this year, but the loss would also cause Ospreay to make his decision to return to the Junior Heavyweight division in New Japan.

Before he would enter the Best of the Super Junior tournament, he proceeded to make a few one-off appearances which would open the rest of the wrestling world’s eyes.

First, Ospreay would head to Spain and wrestle one of the biggest up and coming high flyers in the world: A-Kid. He would pin A-Kid in a mind-blowing affair that lasted close to 30 minutes. Ospreay then travelled to WrestleCon in New York City where he defeated Bandido in what many fans in attendance would proclaim to be their match of the year in April.

Two weeks later, Ospreay would take on luchador Rey Fenix in Wolverton, England. In yet another show stealing performance, Ospreay would emerge victorious in front of a raucous Fight Pro crowd.

Night after night, Will Ospreay electrifies crowds with match of the night quality achievements. While he toned his “flippy” persona to an extent to focus more on well-rounded wrestling and psychological offerings, he remained a ‘human highlight reel’ when called upon.

It was time for a bulked up Will Ospreay to head back to Japan and compete in the BOSJ. In the round robin portion, Ospreay would win seven of his nine matches and emerge as the B Block leader.

While he lost to Bullet Club members El Phantasmo and Robbie Eagles, he ended up with a better win-loss record than the two men. In the finale of B block action, Opsreay defeated Junior heavyweight legend Ryusuke Taguchi to advance to the BOSJ finale against the undefeated freight train Shingo Takagi.

While we have seen countless breathtaking performances from the ‘Aerial Assassian’, the best was yet to come in his bout with Shingo Takagi. For over 30 minutes, the two men went toe to toe, move for move and had the crowd in an uproar for the last 10 minutes.

Ospreay would hand Shingo his first pinfall defeat in New Japan Pro Wrestling and claim his 2nd BOSJ tournament championship. While hardly the be all, end all metric of professional wrestling, Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer would name this match his highest rated contest of 2019. Ospreay would cap off his tournament victory with a win at Dominion, defeating Dragon Lee to claim his 3rd IWGP Junior Heavyweight championship.

Now, according to profightdb.com, Opsreay has unofficially been involved in 56 singles or tag team matches in the first half of this year. The aforementioned matches with Bandido and Rey Fenix were not listed in the databases. Ospreay has wrestled close to 60 times in 160 days and been on the winning side in 85% of his singles matches.

Ospreay checks every box we look for as wrestling fans to qualify him as a wrestler of the year candidate.

He wrestles frequently, entertains the crowd, usually performs in the match of the night, has improved his story-telling and psychology and produces quality bouts with any wrestler he steps in the ring with. Whether it’s with Rocky Romero, Lance Archer or Kota Ibushi, Will Ospreay adapts to every style and will provide us with superior and inconceivable performances night after night.

The big storyline in this is whether he can do what men like Finn Balor (fka Prince Devitt) and Kenny Omega have done in the past: move from the top of the Junior Heavyweight division to the pinnacle of the ultra competitive New Japan heavyweight division.

It took Omega three years to finally win the IWGP Heavyweight championship after many failed main event opportunities. With his experience in this year’s New Japan Cup under his belt, can Will Ospreay ascend to the top of the New Japan mountain?

You may not like Will Ospreay’s style of wrestling, but you have to admit that he has improved dramatically as an in-ring talent.

In the next six months, it’s likely he will enter the G1 Climax. This is another tournament which is grueling and demanding on the body. It will require him to wrestle nine singles and nine tag team affairs in 36 days. If anyone has the resilience and endurance to wrestle that many high impact matches, it’s Will Ospreay. Add on his full-time move to Japan and it’s likely that his stock in New Japan will continue to rise to meteoric levels.

Over the last six months, Will Ospreay has proven to be the 2019 wrestler of the year thus far. Whether he continues on this path to being the best throughout the year remains to be seen, but he continues to take on all comers in all weight classes and is staying on course with his break-neck schedule.

For that, I expect Will Ospreay to maintain his strangle hold on the mythical title of 2019 wrestler of the year by the year’s end.