Michael Oku Talks The Pressure He Felt Before Will Ospreay Trilogy Bout

Michael Oku talks his trilogy bout with Will Ospreay last year.

Prior to Will Ospreay beginning his time as a full time AEW talent, he would finish out his time in New Japan Pro Wrestling and the UK independent scene. In the UK, this would include facing off with Michael Oku in a trilogy bout at RevPro High Stakes in early 2024.

While speaking to John Pollock of POST Wrestling, Oku spoke about the trilogy bout with Ospreay and how the match had high expectations due to the previous pair of matches they’d had.

“100%. I think that was the thing I was most nervous about. Going into the match we had in 2022, there was excitement about it, but it was primarily excitement on a Will Ospreay match. So I had the nerves on that match of having to live up to a Will Ospreay match standard match. The standards of a Will Ospreay match. Whereas this one, now people- I had now grown my reputation and that match had earned its own reputation so yeah but now we’re trying to to match that and that was my thing and I was like, if we can at least match it in terms of quality, then that’s a victory, and for so many people leaving that to say that we topped it, and I feel that we did, it was just a a super duper bonus. But yeah, that’s probably the most nervous I’ve been recently for a wrestling match just because of that, like you said, the weight of expectation had never been heavier. Then hearing news about, oh yeah, by the way, Tony Khan’s coming to see this match. He wants to see it, and it’s Will Ospreay’s final independent wrestling match before he goes on to AEW. So there’s all these added elements. And here he is with me. I’m the one chosen to have this match with him. And it’s one that makes sense to a lot of fans. The pressure was there, but I feel like I lived up to it.”

Elsewhere in the same interview, Oku confirmed that both he and Amira were not under any contract. You can read more about that here. 

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