Over the course of 2022, we got to see several young performers in AEW truly reach the next level as professional wrestlers – but few showed more progress than Wheeler Yuta. His inclusion in the Blackpool Combat Club faction helped him prove himself as one of the best rising stars in professional wrestling, with his matches with Jon Moxley & Bryan Danielson really showing his skills in a huge way. This all succeeded in elevating him into big singles matches with rival Daniel Garcia, MJF and even the final match of the year with Swerve Strickland. However, Blackpool Combat Club wasn’t when he gained his confidence in AEW.
Wheeler Yuta Found His Groove In AEW Alongside Best Friends
While speaking on the latest episode of the DEFYANT ONES podcast, Wheeler Yuta would reveal that his confidence in AEW was found prior to joining the Blackpool Combat Club. Yuta would have the following to say.
“I’m trying to think of some of the earlier matches but kind of more fresh in my mind, I think about AEW stuff. Like I had this match with Penta when I was still with the Best Friends before all of the Blackpool Combat Club stuff and that was really the first time that I’d say I felt comfortable like in AEW. Like, okay, this is what I was doing on the independents, these are the kind of matches that I can have. Then that sort of snowballed, that was I think a month or two before the Blackpool Combat Club stuff started to roll, so that was a really good confidence booster for me. From then on, it just kind of snowballed and I got to have some really good matches with some really good people.”
The match Yuta mentions here came on the January 25th, 2022 episode of AEW Dark. That episode can be viewed for free on YouTube here.
It’s clear that Yuta is in for another big year, being one of the top stars for Ring of Honor ahead of the launch for their new weekly show, with him as the ROH Pure Rules Champion in his second reign.
What was your favorite Wheeler Yuta match of 2022? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
