A former World Champion has come out to criticize AEW stars. He believes they take advantage of their stature while competing in a top promotion outside Tony Khan’s company.
The star in focus is the dastardly Callum Newman, a mainstay in New Japan Pro Wrestling. The former youngest IWGP World Champion in history was once an understudy to AEW World Champion Will Ospreay before the latter moved to the Jacksonville-based promotion. Meanwhile, Newman remained and picked up the reins of their United Empire stable in NJPW. The Prince of Pace has expressed issues with Ospreay and AEW for most of the year, and recently took aim at the company’s talent.
In an NJPW interview, Newman said he gets angry with some in All Elite Wrestling whose resumes make it seem like they can easily make their name in New Japan.
“I’m not salty about them, I just feel angry because when their wrestlers want to make a name for themselves in Japan, they feel NJPW is an easy in for them just because they have AEW on their resume,” said Newman.
He adds that NJPW isn’t easy and that All Elite stars do only one show, never a full tour.
“New Japan is not that easy. For all the people who do all the squats in that Dojo every day to get here, an [All Elite Wrestling] wrestler who can hop, skip and jump their way into a main event rubs me the wrong way. Because most of those guys as well, they only come in to do one show. They never do a full tour, never know how hard touring actually is. They fly in day before, do a match and fly back home. That’s it. I don’t think they get the schedule.” [H/T: WrestlePurists on X]
Callum Newman and Will Ospreay almost came to blows outside AEW
At NJPW’s recent King of Pro Wrestling event, Will Ospreay teamed up with his United Empire mates, Henare and Great-O-Khan, to battle Jeff Cobb, Oskar, and Yuto-Ice. Ospreay and co., defending their NEVER Openweight six-man tag team championships, lost the match, which also featured shocking interference from Callum Newman.
Things got heated backstage between Newman and the Aerial Assassin as they both brought up what each did for the United Empire. They eventually started trading insults.
“He got hurt, he got hurt, he doesn’t give a f**k [Ospreay shouting] You f **ked up, You f **ked up [I mean how]. Where were you two years ago [Opsreay still shouting] You f**ked a 21-year-old, you left a 21-year-old kid in a dojo.”
Callum Newman and Will Ospreay have not been on good terms for a while, and it feels like a potential future match between the two is brewing.
Get all the hottest wrestling news FIRST by clicking here
Edited by Karan Raj
