Michael Oku credits “Speedball” Mike Bailey for giving him the blueprint of how to have a great matchup.
The current reigning RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Champion spoke about the IMPACT star during a recent interview with Andrew Thompson from Post Wrestling. Oku says that Bailey, a regular competitor in the United Kingdom, is known for always putting on the best match on any card and was instrumental in him getting better inside the ring.
I 100 percent credit ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey for me starting to have great matches. He was the guy that gave me the blueprint of how to look at wrestling matches because the going thing, as you know, he was pretty much a regular here in the U.K., for a while, and the running joke was, ‘You can try as hard as you want, but if you’re on the card with Speedball Mike Bailey, he’s having the best match of the show.’ So it made sense for me in the infancy of my career to go to him and say, let me ask that guy for advice on how to have better matches and he gave me the blueprint of how he approaches matches and how to approach putting my own moves together because as well, if I look at my move-set, it really hasn’t changed in the last five years really but what’s changed is learning how to perfect where to put them and at the right time of a match and I guess it’s match psychology and that’s what he taught me is his philosophy on match psychology so, when you say that it seemed like we just clicked, it’s mostly because when he’s giving me feedback and it’s detailed feedback, it’s from him seeing a lot of my matches as well as wrestling the way he’s advised me to wrestle.
Oku reiterates his earlier point by sharing a story of a time he faced Bailey in West Coast Pro, later adding that he is eternally grateful for Bailey.
So when we come together and that (West Coast Pro) was our second singles match, it’s just like, okay we both know each other’s stuff and we both are on the same wavelength of how we like to pace our wrestling matches. So, let’s go for it. We know exactly where to be for each other’s stuff, we trust each other and he’s incredible. He has a claim to say he’s the best wrestler in the world right now for sure. So, that match, again, it was the week after Mania week in San Francisco. I hold that really in a high regard, again, in terms of showing me to a new audience, to people who had never seen me before and connecting with them because of that match. I’ll always be grateful to Speedball.
You can check out the full interview below.
