There was an idea. Gather a group of wrestlers and mold them into the fighting machines they were always meant to be. It was an idea born of Bryan Danielson, presented to Jon Moxley, reaped and sown by the legendary and majestic William Regal. Stars that were already made long ago, with the addition of another former megastar in Claudio Castagnoli.
But there was a youth, a seed meant to grow into a force that could stand with the best of them. He was the young prodigy that needed a direction in All Elite Wrestling, to show the world the side of him that existed outside of the company. That Wheeler Yuta was hard to overcome. He wasn’t just some goofball friend of Chuck Tayler and Orange Cassidy, nor was he a punching bag for Kris Statlander and target for bullying and apathy from Trent Beretta. Wheeler Yuta is a fighter.
Fight after fight with the duo of Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson, Yuta felt the urge to prove himself, while also letting out his bottled up rage from The Best Friends, and the more he fought, the more he started to awaken. Little by little, Taylor and Cassidy were feeling their friend slip away.
In April of 2022, Yuta would win the respect of the Blackpool Combat Club, as he stood toe to toe with Moxley, and not for the first time. This time, however, was different – despite the song’s final chords remaining the same. In the main event of AEW Rampage, Yuta shed buckets of blood, shared with Moxley as he fired everything off that he could muster in his soul.
In the end, with red everywhere, Yuta won Moxley’s respect, and by extension, Danielson and Regal’s as well. He had fully drunk the fruit punch Kool-Aid, and was accepted into the hallowed and battered halls of the Blackpool Combat Club.
Many matches saw him and his cohorts batter the brains and stretch the limbs of anyone stepping to the BCC. Be it in bouts against MJF, Tony Nese, or Josh Woods, or his Club teaming up with Eddie Kingston, Santana, Ortiz, and Shota Umino, Yuta was ready for combat, and not just for AEW.
In New Japan Pro Wrestling, Yuta fought in the Best of the Super Juniors and participated in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s Battle of Los Angeles, doing his teammates proud. However, it was in his time in Ring of Honor, where he would find success as his already strong reign with the ROH Pure Championship saw him through months of defenses.
It was the Pure title that saw him praised by the previous holder in his American Dragon comrade, Bryan Danielson, as his rivalry with fellow upstart Daniel Garcia brought out the best and worst in the two. Garcia knew he could beat Yuta, but there was much determination behind this burgeoning ace. At Ring of Honor’s Death Before Dishonor, Yuta would dispatch Garcia in July, only for Garcia to win it a couple of months later, September 7.
This was a small part of a bigger feud, as Yuta’s mentors in the Blackpool Combat Club had a war against the Jericho Appreciation Society, spanning many months. This struggle even brought about the need for the Blood and Guts match, where blood was spread and shared.
The battles have been agonizing and tiresome, but this is what sharpens tools.
At Ring of Honor’s Final Battle, 2022’s storyline ends and just who Wheeler Yuta comes out as, following December 10, will determine just how impactful everything he had been through has been.
In his music, a mixture of Street Fighter and Mitsuharu Misawa, the aura of fighting spirit and a different type of strong style and I know as a viewer, that’s just what I’m going to get every time Wheeler Yuta is placed on a card.
Wheeler Yuta has grown under the tutelage of William Regal and the Blackpool Combat Club. It’s like watching a child grow into an adult – a sparking ember that burns into a flaming star.
What kind of supernova awaits him, with a wide future ahead? The galaxy awaits.
