AKIRA wants to win gold in MLW.
Since arriving to the company in 2023, AKIRA has been extremely successful in MLW, even winning the World Middleweight Championship and the Tag Team Championships during his first year with the promotion.
2024 was a bit of a down year for 'The Death Fighter', as he lost to names like Rickey Shane Page, Sami Callihan, Minoru Suzuki, and Krule.
While speaking with Jeremy Lambert and Joel Pearl of Fightful Overbooked's In The Weeds podcast for a new interview, AKIRA was asked about the possibility of winning the MLW World Heavyweight Championship, a belt that is currently held by Matt Riddle.
"It would be the first world title that I’ve ever had. What it would look like is Terry Funk in Japan with gold. I’ll probably be pissing blood out of my head, but you’d have me in regular matches, deathmatches, every single style because I’m not afraid to fight anyone in any way. If I had that world title around my waist, it would be me against Japanese legends. Me against lucha legends. It would also be matches no one has ever seen before. If I’m that champion, I don’t want to be a champion that plays it safe. I want to push the boundaries. I want people to get their eyes on MLW. I want to be a good champion, good for relations, good for business. I firmly believe, I’m eloquent enough and talented enough to do that. Many people, no offense, in MLW, can’t touch me. They haven’t been able to touch me. Even when I was on a losing streak last year, everyone was talking about me. I firmly believe it is my time to show. I get that championship and you know what, I would love to get the championship and do the craziest thing and challenge the craziest people. Jun Kasai, come to America, fight me in Major League Wrestling. I want my rematch with KENTA. I want my rematch with Minoru Suzuki. I want to fight these people and win, and change the perception around Major League Wrestling. I want to be that homegrown talent that wins the championship and becomes that superstar."
Elsewhere in the interview, AKIRA explained his decision to take a break from the US independent scene. Check out his full comments on the matter by clicking here.
Fans can check out Fightful Overbooked's full interview with AKIRA in the video linked at the top of this article.
MLW Battle Riot VII will take place in Los Angeles, California on Saturday, April 5. The show will stream for free on the promotion's YouTube channel.
