I recently traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana for WWE’s annual “Wrestlemania” event. I arrived on Thursday and stayed until Monday, attending seven professional wrestling shows during that time frame.

Considering I went to so many events hosted by various different companies from all over the world, I was bound to see many different wrestlers.

During my time there nobody impressed me as much as a wrestler who goes by the name of Will Ospreay. Ospreay is a British wrestler from Essex, England. He primarily wrestles in Japan for a company called New Japan Pro Wrestling.

During a match in Japan about one week before the weekend of WrestleMania, Ospreay was nearly paralyzed on a move gone awry where he landed awkwardly on his head and neck. This obviously put his ability to perform at the six events over the three days he was scheduled to be there for in question.

Instead of backing out for his medical issues, Ospreay decided to fly in and perform at each one. I was at five of the six events he wrestled at and I was blown away with his ability to perform at such a high level despite the injuries he was facing at the time.

Ospreay received a standing ovation after every match I saw him wrestle in, partially because many in attendance knew what he was going through to be there, but also because of the quality of his performances.

Ospreay has only been a professional wrestler for about six years, but he wrestles with a very fast paced and high risk style. This has led him to a somewhat injury-plagued career, despite its short length. Ospreay has always been someone to wrestle through whatever injures he may be facing if at all possible; however, with the severity of his neck injury, this made his performance this weekend really stand out.

On top of all of this, Ospreay hung around before and after each event to sign autographs and take pictures with fans.

Many don’t realize how strenuous professional wrestling is on the body of its performers. Honestly, I was even exhausted by the end of the weekend and all I did was sit there and watch.

I was quite familiar with Ospreay before the weekend, and I even considered him to be one of the best professional wrestlers in the world. But the courage and tenacity he demonstrated during this event have made me an even bigger fan than I already was.