Every now and again, a movie will come along and make us think about our lives and whatever may be bothering us before heading into what can essentially be a two-hour therapy session. That’s pretty much what happened with AEW wrestler Will Ospreay, who’s no stranger to living with anxiety and mental health, when he saw Inside Out 2, one of the most cathartic experiences on the 2024 movies schedule.
I recently sat down with Ospreay and spoke with him about everything from his thoughts on having 42 five-or-more-star matches, his then-upcoming three-way match at the AEW WrestleDream pay-per-view, and his candor surrounding anxiety, something that I’ve long admired about him. During the chat, I asked the former AEW International Champion about his journey and how it’s going, and he responded with an “eye-opening” Inside Out 2 experience:
Honestly, it comes at an amazing time because Inside Out 2 only came out a little while ago and that's like the sole point of the story, right? And I'm taking a 5-year-old child who has never heard of anxiety, he only cares about dinosaurs, but I'm taking him and it was kind of like a real eye-opening experience to be like sitting next to a 5-year-old and watch him taking all these notes and then like to see this being presented and being a young man and being like flipping out. Like, I can remember going through those types of emotions and I can remember those feelings of like doubt and like feeling like you're not worthy enough. And then it's only when I came out of the cinema, I was like I still go through that now.
It may sound wild, but it’s easy to find something relatable in Inside Out 2, one of the best Pixar movies in some time. Just like Riley Anderson, who is going through her first experience with anxiety while at hockey camp, Ospreay has been putting on killer matches around the world, like his AEW Dynasty bout with Bryan Danielson, over the past decade while living with anxiety; the emotion, not the non-traditional movie villain.
During our chat, the wrestler, who lost his AEW International Championship to Konosuke Takeshita during one of the premier matches on the WrestleDream card, explained that he still has moments of self-doubt and anxiety just before he walks through the curtain, but he still has to push forward:
And although I get scared, it's like, I can now safely be like my faults don't really hold me back anymore and more excel me forward. And I think that comes from a level of like going through all of those emotions and going through all that hardship and knowing that I've come out the other sides on quite a lot of them relatively unscathed.
Just like the mindset he had heading into the next chapter of his story with the Don Callis Family in the ring, Ospreay has faced his demons and doubts in life. Having done that and coming out on the other side a better person and wrestler, the former two-time AEW International Champion says still has air in his lungs, still puts his shoes on and makes sure his brain is as healthy as his body.
We don’t yet know what’s in store for Will Ospreay, but with AEW Full Gear set to hit pay-per-view on November 23, we’ll find out very shortly. As for Inside Out 2, it is currently streaming for anyone with a Disney+ subscription.
