Entertainment
AEW’s Wheeler Yuta would have considered WWE move if William Regal’s offer had been made-Alistair McGeorge-Entertainment – Metro
The Blackpool Combat Club star nearly went on a very different path.
Wheeler Yuta would have considered William Regal’s WWE offer (Picture: AEW)
Wheeler Yuta has admitted he was open to a WWE move before making the jump to All Elite Wrestling.
The current AEW star and reigning Ring of Honor Pure Champion could have taken his career on a very different path when William Regal – now the leader of Blackpool Combat Club – wanted to sign him for the NXT brand before it went in another direction.
‘It’s definitely something that I would’ve considered, but it certainly wasn’t the be-all and end-all for me. It was certainly an option that I was checking out,’ he exclusively told Metro.co.uk, noting he also had goals with Ring of Honor and New Japan Strong in his mind.
‘[WWE] was definitely something I would certainly have considered – I went to the tryout for a reason,’ he laughed. ‘But it wasn’t like, if I don’t get this, then my wrestling career is over. It was like, alright, here’s something to try and we’ll see where it goes.’
Yuta grew up a fan of huge fan, being initially drawn in by WWE legend Rey Mysterio – ‘I just loved watching all the characters and the acrobatics’ – before discovering the physicality of big names like Dynamite Kid, Regal and Bryan Danielson.
He now forms Blackpool Combat Club alongside Danielson, Regal, Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli, while he trained with Drew Gulak earlier in his career.
William Regal was interested in Wheeler Yuta during his time in NXT (Picture: WWE)
On the subject of Regal, he pondered: ‘Being able to work with Regal is great because he has so much experience in that World of Sport style, which has a lot of very similar rules [to the Pure Division].
‘For example, that’s where the forearm uppercut comes from, because in the World of Sport style it was illegal to punch in the face.
‘So, just being able to have those little things. Him teaching me how to turn away from the referee so I can cheat has been very fun as well!’
Of course, he’s still kept a flare for the entertainment side of pro wrestling too, and he showed his passion for fun during his experience on The Masked Wrestler.
‘That was so much fun. I’ve never been able to do something like that where you get to wrestle, but you’re identity’s completely concealed,’ he smiled. ‘It was really cool to just have – the reigns are off, do what you wanna do.
‘No one knows it’s you – I guess they’ll find out at the end, but no one knows it’s you so just try to create this whole new persona, do what you wanna do. I enjoyed that a lot!’
Yuta is learning from the best in Blackpool Combat Club (Picture: AEW)
For now, Yuta is focusing on BCC, the ROH Pure Championship and learning from the highly physical talent around him as he honed that side of his game.
‘I’m not sure how much the rest of the members of the BCC will be in Ring of Honor, I may be the one carrying the flag there. I think my goal with the Ring of Honor Pure Championship is just to, one, live up the legacy of the guys who’ve held it before,’ he pondered.
‘Because if you ever look at the list of former champions, it’s just insane. One would be to live up to that, but two would be to bring that legacy forward for a new generation of fans that have maybe never seen Pure Wrestling.
‘I was always very intrigued by how different the matches could be because of these very specific, stringent rules. I always thought they were a wonderful tool to use in the matches.
‘It’s a very different style, it forces you to think outside the box. So, hopefully I can bring that forward to a new generation who will hopefully appreciate it in a way that I did when I first saw it.’
AEW Dynamite airs Wednesday nights at 1am on Fite TV.
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