Jim Ross Wishes Current NJPW Champion Worked For AEW

On the latest episode of Grilling JR, Jim Ross talked about Will Ospreay becoming the new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion at NJPW's Sakura Genesis pay per view. Ospreay defeated Kota Ibushi to become champion and since then, WWE superstars including AJ Styles, Ricochet and Drew McIntyre have all commented on the new champion.

Ross said he can't believe what he's heard online with everyone falling in love witho Ospreay since he won the NJPW title. JR said he's a great hand and a great wrestler but needs time to prove he's one of the best.

"He's now the greatest champion in the history of wrestling and nobody's been better, are you shitting me?" Ross said. "Come on. He's a very good hand. I called some of his matches back in the day, he's very good and very unique, he creates his own style with a lot of British stuff.

"I think Will Ospreay is a great talent, but all of a sudden, because he did have a fantastic NJPW experience, is he the greatest ever? Is he even the greatest NJPW champion? It's hard to say he's better than [Hiroshi] Tanahashi, it's hard to say he's better than [Kazuchika] Okada or the list of all luminaries that held that title. I do think he's very good, it might be a little early a week after his win to consider him the greatest ever."

Ross continued to say he'd love to see Ospreay come to America and wrestle for AEW. The AEW commentator said AEW would offer more to Ospreay than WWE could because they would give him the ability to handle his own creative.

"I wish he wrestled in AEW, he'd do great here," Ross said. "He's not from here you know, I don't know if that means a lot to him or not. I know he could probably make more money than he's making where he is, that's my guess.

"We know he'd have more creative freedom if he wrestled for Tony Khan than if he wrestled for Vince McMahon. I think that's one of the attractive things about our company that's ever growing, you get to have a bigger influence on your creative. I know guys here in AEW that outline their whole program, I think that's cool as hell. It gives them some creative release and wrestlers are creative by nature."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Grilling JR with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.