Michael Oku is looking to capitalize off his strong start to 2023.
To start off 2023, Micheal Oku was a part of the prestigious PWG Battle Of Los Angeles tournament. Although Oku was eliminated in the first round of the tournament by Konosuke Takeshita, he would go on to be a part of a huge ten match tag the next night involving Chris Jericho and the Jericho Appreciation Society.
While appearing on the latest edition of Talk Is Jericho, Oku talked about how he wants to use his current momentum and carry it to the end of the year.
“I’m a big believer in momentum, especially in wrestling. I want to, unapologetically, use this momentum from the start of the year to continue that to the end of 2023 and see which new places I can get to. Having that taste of PWG, makes me wanna go back there and do another show later on in the year."
Oku also revealed that he wants to work more in America, especially in some of the big independent promotions.
"I also wanna see if there’s more places I can step foot in America. There’s so many cool indie promotions, DEFY in Seattle is a good one. There's a new one called Deadlock Pro, which has a great following. I’m just trying to see where I can get to. West Coast Pro, Black Label Pro. I’ve heard of all of these good places but I wanna try and see if I can be seen more in America and get over more in America. I feel like I’m a very popular person in the UK. Doing PWG, it felt like a new chance to get over again, which is exciting to me. So I wanna try and achieve that."
Lastly, Oku went on to say that he wants to do a match for AEW when they come to London later this year.
"In terms of other places to wrestle, I’ll just go ahead and say it. AEW is coming to London, I’m a London wrestler and I’m trying everything in my power to see if I can get some type of opportunity there. If the stars align, that would be a cool place to say that I wrestled at. At this point, I think anything is possible. Hopefully this year or next year, I’d like to wrestle for New Japan in Japan.”
After Oku commented about potentially working in AEW, Chris Jericho guaranteed the 'Master Of The Half-Crab' that he would get a spot on the company's show in London, even if it was just a match on AEW Dark or AEW Dark: Elevation.
"So are you talking about AEW in London, doing like a Dark match or a Elevation match or something like that? Because you got that, that’s easy. You’ll be on the show for sure, no problem, I’ll guarantee you that. I’ll guarantee it, no problem at all. That’s easy to do. Done. Done deal.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, Jericho talked about how his PWG appearance came together. To learn more, click here.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the original source with a h/t and link back to Fightful for the transcription.
