Talent In Inner Circle PWG Match Had No Idea Chris Jericho Was Booked

You never now where Chris Jericho will show up next, and fans at PWG saw The Wizard’s surprise debut in the company. It turns out this was a huge surprise for people in the match as well.

Michael Oku is a rising star in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, who could go on to become a big star in top promotions like AEW. Speaking of AEW, many of their talents competed at their recent event with the fans in attendance, and Oku himself was surprised to see Wrestling Legend, Chris Jericho as well.

From being the Le Champion, forming the Jericho Appreciation to calling himself The Ucho, Chris Jericho has been going strong for over thirty years and is not looking to stop anytime soon. However, Michael Oku, the young prospect who looked up to Jericho, found himself sharing the ring with his idol at the PWG Battle of Los Angeles event.

Michael Oku was a part of a huge 10-man Tag Team match at the event, that featured Chris Jericho on the opposite team as well as being a major surprise for everyone in the arena. Oku recalled his experience of battling Jericho inside the squared circle during an interview with Stephanie Chase.

“I found out, doors were already open, I don’t think the first match had happened. I was told night one, ‘you’re going to be in a tag night two.’ The big tag that usually happens that night two for the participants that had been knocked out. ‘You’re gonna like who is in it, there are a few surprises.’ ‘I like surprises. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.’

The furthest my mind did go was the fact that AEW was filming Dynamite in LA, so there may be a few people in town or a few people local that were already in town. Danny Garcia is the PWG champion, so AEW wrestlers can appear. Who knows, they’ll be someone from Dark or Elevation that’ll pop up, and it’ll be cool. Everyone was asking me, and there were a few people that knew. SBKENTo came up to me and asked me who are opponents were. ‘I don’t know.’ He didn’t know. Backstage, there is usually a run sheet. I was like, ‘let’s find out.’ It was my team versus team five skulls. ‘Oh, it’s being kept secret even backstage’ Then, I was invited onto a bus, and there we go.” 

Michael Oku endorsed finding out facing Jericho as a surprise rather than knowing it for weeks which would have him think much about it.

“I’m there and I’m thinking what could happen in the match and what we could do in the match and in my head, I’ve already dreamed of what I would do in a match with Chris Jericho. It was only dreams because it could never happen in real life, and here we are, we’re going to do all the things I’ve dreamed of doing.”

The match featured Player Uno (Evil Uno), Kevin Blackwood, SB KENTo, Jonathan Gresham, and Michael Oku facing the Jericho Appreciation Society (Chris Jericho, Daniel Garcia, Sammy Guevara, Matt Menard & Angelo Parker). Post-match Michael Oku went on to praise Jericho and acknowledge him for putting over younger talent throughout his entire career.

Do you want to see Michael Oku vs Chris Jericho in a one-on-one match in the future? Sound off in the comments!