Will Ospreay | |
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Ospreay in May 2016
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Birth name | Charles Williams |
Born |
Havering, London, England |
10 November 1993
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Dark Britannico Neo Britannico Extreme Dude Will Ospreay |
Billed height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) |
Billed weight | 194 lb (88 kg) |
Billed from | Essex, England |
Debut | 1 April 2012 |
Charles Williams (born 10 November 1993) is an English professional wrestler. He is currently signed to New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and Ring of Honor (ROH), where he performs under the ring name Will Ospreay. Among other accolades, Ospreay is a former ROH World Television Champion, a former Progress Wrestling Champion, current WhatCulture Pro Wrestling Tag Team Champion with Scott Wainwright and was also the winner of the 2016 Best of the Super Juniors tournament.
Williams was born in Havering, London.
A fan of light-heavyweight wrestling since his youth, Ospreay was a fan of Essa Rios and Eddie Guerrero as a child. He cites the three-way match between AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels and Samoa Joe at TNA Unbreakable 2005 as the match that made him want to become a wrestler. He began wrestling on the trampoline in his garden under the name Extreme Dude and before long his mother had bought him a wrestling ring to make sure he was being as safe as possible. He also wrestled for other backyard wrestling promotions as Ace Pain and Tinkerbell.
He received his training at Lucha Britannia's London School of Lucha Libre in Bethnal Green, London. He made his professional debut at the co-promoted BritWres-Fest on 1 April 2012 as the masked character Dark Britannico, the evil twin of Lucha Britannia's signature wrestler Leon Britannico who was played by Paul Robinson, Ospreay's future tag team partner in the team The Swords of Essex. While wrestling with Lucha Britannia he twice won the Lucha Britannia World Championship. Ospreay said in his interview with the Huffington Post that his nickname, "The Aerial Assassin", is an allusion to Assassin's Creed video game series and was a persona he adopted to stand out from other British high flying wrestlers, particularly Pac.