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Ring Of Honor World Champion Jay Lethal promises his title defence against England's Will Ospreay is going to be "nothing short of amazing".

Lethal defends his title against the Aerial Assassin live on pay-per-view this Friday at Death Before Dishonor at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

'The Franchise', from Elizabeth, New Jersey is in his second reign as the promotion's top champion and says his goal is to become one of the greatest in ROH history.

And the former 'Black Machismo' star says his match against the Essex star will be a true test as he looks to stop "possibly the greatest high flyer of my generation".

Lethal discussed his wrestling insight, ROH’s growth, the pressure of following his first encounter with Ospreay and a dream match at Madison Square Garden during a candid conference call with media including Mirror Sport’s Morgan Richards.

He said: "We’re going to deliver 10 times more than what you’ve seen from us before. Our first encounter was on a TV taping, which of course is only an hour, so we're limited with time there but our second encounter, Jay Lethal versus Will Ospreay II is on a grander stage, it’s live on pay-per-view, and it’s possibly the main event.

"Listen to be honest, every match on our card has the ability to be the main event ,that’s how much we deliver. But I hope Will Ospreay and I are the main event so right away we have more time, you’re expected to deliver, you have to follow everything that was before you.

"How do you follow a match like The Young Bucks, with Bullet Club versus Chaos? How do you follow a match like Chris Sabian, who’s one of the greatest wrestlers in the world versus Punishment Martinez for the ROH Television Championship?

(Image: James Musselwhite)

"The women are stepping it up, Tenille (Dashwood) versus Sumie Sakai for the Women of Honor Championship. How do you follow all that? There’s only one way, you’ve got to step your game up.

"For the sheer fact that we have to follow all of those matches, that’s going to make our second encounter better than our first. Me stepping into the ring with possibly the greatest high flyer of my generation is going to be nothing short of amazing in my opinion. We’re going to hands down top our first encounter."

He added: "It’s hard to prepare for someone who at the drop of a hat can decide he’s going to flip six times instead of the traditional one time. He changes the whole dynamic. He’s hard to prepare for but I accept the challenge."

(Image: Ring of Honor)

Being built as 'The Franchise' of Ring of Honor, Lethal is now seen as one of the key figures of the company, but admits selfishly he now wants to cement himself as one of ROH greatest champions and make his current world title reign more impressive than his first.

He said: "I have two goals in mind as the Ring of Honor World Champion. One everyone kinda shares is to make ROH better than it was yesterday, to make it as big as we possibly can. But for me a personal goal - and this is terrifying and scary to do - is I’m trying to make this title run better than my first title run.

"Right on the surface they’re already completely different runs. The first time I was the bad guy, I was a heel, I was in a group. This time I’m by myself, I’m the good guy, so right away you’ve got two different scenarios and I’m going to try my best to make the best of it and to make this run better than before.

"One thing I’ve got to my advantage is having a great roster to have matches with. I just had a 30 minute Iron Man match with Jonathan Gresham, I’m about to have a match live on pay-per-view against the greatest high flyer in wrestling today, the night after I get to step into the ring with Jushin 'Thunder' Liger.

"We’ve got the makings to help make this run better or equal to the one before and that is my biggest goal. I hope I’m doing it right now, fingers crossed."

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With an impressive near-18 year experience in the business, one of Lethal’s biggest traits has been some of his ever-changing character work and personas, but the veteran explained how wrestling today isn’t as simple as the classic battle between good and evil.

He said: "Wrestling has been evolving for years but I think it’s at a state that now more than ever that those lines are extremely blurred. Each individual wrestler, every time they step into the ring what they’re really showing the crowd apart from a good time is their view of a story and how they think wrestling should be.

"It’s really cool because some fans really like that and some fans shine away, so that pulls certain fans in your direction. They agree with the way you think wrestling should be and they agree with your views and your views together make an awesome match and they love it.

"You get some fans that don’t, they shy away and they like other people, but that’s the coolest part about wrestling to me. But in my opinion my influences like 'Macho Man' Randy Savage and Ric Flair, what really drove me to them were the characters. It wasn’t until I saw past that, that I fell in love with the in-ring ability of both guys, more so Ric Flair.

(Image: Getty)

"I definitely think because that’s the era I grew up watching, I believe that in wrestling overall you have a better time when in the ring there's someone to cheer and someone to boo.

"Not to give away too much of the wrestling business, to me I think it’s important to have a good guy and a bad guy, but now more than ever, those lines are blurred more than they’ve ever been before, they’re really hard to see, which is why we can have a good guy versus a good guy or a bad guy versus a bad guy.

"Nowadays the crowd try and dictate in telling you who they think the good guy and who they think the bad guy is. Wrestling is becoming much harder, but that’s the fun of it."

(Image: Ring of Honor)

With ROH's revival and independent wrestling as popular as ever, Lethal shared his thoughts as to why the business is once again in a boom period and how events like All In are changing the industry.

He said: "I think there’s one clear reason and that’s because more wrestling fans who only knew one product, with the help of social media, YouTube and the internet those fans who only knew that one product now know about five or six and that’ll peak their interest to to learn about seven or eight and then they’ll see that they’re some amazing wrestlers out there.

"Fortunately for me most of them reside at Ring of Honor on our roster, but all over the world in New Japan, CMLL, IMPACT Wrestling, there's great wrestlers. With the help of the internet, people who only focused on that one product now get to focus on four, five, six and that’s what’s really helped our boom period.

"Another thing that’s helped is with the help of the internet their eyes get opened to a new product and that product is delivering. Ring of Honor is having some of the greatest matches in wrestling when new eyes come to see. It opens their mind, it opens their eyes and they return. They go hand in hand but that product must deliver and so many are."

(Image: NJPW)

Despite Lethal already stepping into the squared circle with so many of wrestling's biggest stars, one dream match he’s itching for is to go toe-to-toe with Kazuchika Okada and thinks he has the perfect opportunity to do it at the G1 Supercard on April 6 next year.

He said: “I have thought about it for a very long time. I would love to step into the ring with Okada, he’s one of the best. I’ve been a fan of New Japan for many years, well before the joint venture and Ring of Honor teamed up with New Japan. I’ve been a fan and a friend of Okada.

"If I had to pick when I got to wrestle Okada, considering wrestling is in it’s boom period, considering we sold out the show already for next year, if I had my way I’d pick to wrestle Okada at Madison Square Garden.

"Now the coolest thing about that is and this may sound funny but I’m being as truthful as I can. Most of the wrestlers from my generation thought the only way to work in Madison Square Garden as a wrestler was to either A, fill out an application to be a worker there, ha ha, or B, you must work for WWE.

"It’s amazing and the proof is in the pudding that ROH is on the rise and doing big things because we just sold out MSG for next year. It’s unreal, I’ve got goosebumps right now even just talking about it. If I had my way, if I had my dream match, I’d wrestle Okada at MSG."

Ring of Honor's Death Before Dishonor takes place on Friday, September 28. UK fans can watch the pay-per-view live via Fite.TV at 2am on Saturday, September 29.