AEW is headed to the United Kingdom and one of the country’s best independent professional wrestlers declared his wish to perform on the show.
In November of last year during an episode of Dynamite, AEW commentator, Tony Schiavone announced the promotion would be heading to the United Kingdom in 2023. London is confirmed as the location for the show. However, no date, venue or further details have been provided since.
The announcement caused a tonne of buzz on both sides of the Atlantic and now a top indie talent seems to have guaranteed his spot on the highly-anticipated event.
The former RevPro Undisputed British Cruiserweight Champion Michael Oku appeared on the latest edition of Talk Is Jericho. During the interview, Oku talked about his popularity in the UK, and his plans to make it big in America.
“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.”
“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.
Oku then spoke about his desire to perform for AEW in his hometown of London.
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.”
Chris Jericho Guaranteed Michael Oku A Place On The AEW UK Card
Upon hearing Oku’s wish to wrestle for AEW, Chris Jericho seemingly granted him a spot on the historic show.
“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.”
H/T Fightful