Michael Oku reflects on wrestling on The Jericho Cruise.
The Jericho Cruise has been an annual extension of All Elite Wrestling, with many of their stars and the biggest names in independent wrestling competing in matches during the cruise. This year, RevPro British Heavyweight Champion Michael Oku featured on the cruise, competing three times before becoming the Jericho Cruise Oceanic Champion by defeating Matt Cardona.
While speaking to Fightful's Corey Brennan in a recent interview, Oku reflected on the cruise as what he would call "a wrestler's dream".
"So the cruise was amazing. I can't lie. It was so much fun because it felt like a holiday sprinkled in with getting to wrestle. So I guess that's a wrestler's dream. But it was a really good time. Something that I want to highlight that was really enjoyable, maybe a little bit surprising, was how everybody's together. Everybody's sharing the same thing in terms of the fans as well as the wrestlers and the talent. We're all going to the same restaurants to have food. We're all using the same swimming pools. We're all on the same area for sunbeds and the hot tubs. It was all being used by fans as well as wrestlers. And what was so cool was that you weren't even bothered. We all just treated each other equally. They treated us like human beings. I treated them like human beings. We just got to talk on a human level, which was really cool to do. with wrestling fans. We've all got that one thing in common of pro wrestling, but we're all so much different people. So that was a really enjoyable part about the cruise. In terms of wrestling, it's such an interesting thing because, I'm having three matches. I'm on a cruise that is filled with AEW wrestlers and is named after one of the biggest names in wrestling."
Oku continued, noting that people may not have known him when the cruise began, but they certainly did when they finished up their trip.
"I'm gonna say about 10 people probably have seen a match of mine that were on that cruise, out of the thousands that were on that cruise. That's me being generous. So it really was a thing from like, all right, let's see what this guy's about. 'Who is this guy?' To then getting right behind me but i've been in that situation lots of times. This feels very similar to if I debut in a new promotion, that's kind of the same thing, especially if it's a new country and then they're not familiar with what i've done. That's happened a few times in America when I've gone these last few years, it's winning over the fans. It's getting over in front of new people. I've been comfortable doing that and there was no better opponent to do that with, especially for the match one with Speedball Mike Bailey. We've wrestled a few times and we both know each other so well."
Oku continued, noting that he had nerves following some of the biggest stars of AEW.
"We were main event. That was where there was nerves. Like they had seen all these AEW wrestlers, all the famous people, Prince Nana do his dance, Swerve do his thing, all that. Then we come out and close the show. That was the only bit that was daunting, having to follow the big names. But I knew we were going to give them something really good. Because we have that pedigree behind us, me and Speedball and that helped me big time going into the next matches and the crowd getting behind me and knowing me and then just losing their mind when I eventually won the belt."
Oku will look to defend his RevPro British Heavyweight Championship later this week when he takes on Will Ospreay at High Stakes in what will be Ospreay's final match before he make his way to All Elite Wrestling full time.
Elsewhere in the same interview, Michael discussed his AEW All In appearance and how it came about. You can read more here.
