Swerve Strickland on Forbidden Door Opponent Will Ospreay: ‘We’ve Been Friends For Over 10 Years, He’s Grown As A Man’

Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay are headed for a collision at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, and Swerve is making clear this one carries real personal weight.

Ahead of the matchup, Strickland spoke about his relationship with Ospreay, noting that the two go back more than a decade. “We’ve been friends for over 10 years,” Swerve said, adding that Ospreay “has grown as a man in the past year.” It’s a telling framing — not animosity born from rivalry, but something more complicated, the kind that comes when two longtime friends end up across the ring from each other with something meaningful on the line.

The two have history in AEW beyond just their friendship. They’ve already shared a ring in the company for the AEW World Championship, so neither man will be going in without a frame of reference for what the other brings. That prior encounter gives this Forbidden Door bout an added layer — a chance to settle something that may have been left unresolved, or to rewrite how their rivalry is remembered.

Forbidden Door continues to serve as one of the most ambitious cards AEW puts together each year, pulling top talent from both AEW and New Japan Pro-Wrestling into a shared event. Strickland vs. Ospreay — two of the most celebrated performers working today — is exactly the kind of match the event was built to deliver.

With their friendship acknowledged and Ospreay’s growth as a person noted, it’ll be worth watching how that dynamic plays out once the bell rings.