AEW's Will Ospreay Promises NJPW Return Following Injury Recovery

By Sam Palmer
Will Ospreay on AEW Dynamite AEW/Ricky Havlik

AEW star Will Ospreay has been out of action since August 2025 after revealing that he needed neck surgery to repair two herniated discs in his spine. However, not even that could stop him from traveling to Japan to be a part of Hiroshi Tanahashi's retirement ceremony at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20 on January 4, but Ospreay stuck around one more day for the New Year Dash!! event on January 5, where he went face-to-face with his old friend and current leader of the faction he created, the United Empire, Callum Newman.

Ospreay cut a promo revealing that when he his fit and healthy again, he will return to New Japan Pro Wrestling to fight alongside his former brothers in the United Empire, all while following orders from Newman, and supporting whatever decision Newman may make. Ospreay did say that he needed to take care of some business in AEW before anything happens, implying that he will be returning to AEW before he makes the trip back over to NJPW, but made sure to note that when he does return to NJPW, it won't just be a one time thing.

With that said, the segment could have gone very wrong for Ospreay. As he, Great-O-Khan, HENARE, and the newest member of the faction Jake Lee threw up the faction's signature hand signal, Newman grabbed a steel chair and looked to attack Ospreay from behind. HENARE and Khan spotted him and quickly intercepted before Newman could do anything, leading to Newman storming out of the arena in anger, all while Ospreay was blissfully unaware of what had just happened behind him.

At the time of writing, there is still no word on when Ospreay will be back in action. The man himself is targeting the AEW All In London pay-per-view on August 30 as a potential return date, which lines up with most theories that the former AEW International Champion would be out for around one year. However, Dave Meltzer believes that the All In event at Wembley Stadium might be too early for Ospreay to come back, not only because Ospreay actually had his surgery in September 2025 instead of August, but because Ospreay's injury and surgery usually takes around 14 months to fully heal from, meaning that "The Aerial Assassin" could realistically be back for the 2026 Full Gear pay-per-view, or even miss the entirety of 2026 if his recovery process had any complications.  

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