When the Green Bay Packers drafted Jordan Love in 2020, the organization had a long-term vision for how their eventual star quarterback would blossom. Love sat behind Aaron Rodgers during an MVP season, and for two years, he was able to learn on the job. He observed his footwork, how he practiced, and how he approached simply being a professional.
That last bit is key, and it’s relatively interchangeable across sports.
In AEW, Wheeler Yuta joined the Blackpool Combat Club more than two years ago. He’s had the luxury of learning from all three original members of the group, who’ve all been former or current world champions. The lessons have been invaluable, Yuta says, to work with guys the caliber of Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, and Claudio Castagnoli.
“They’ve all taught me, in different ways,” Yuta tells Uproxx Sports. “Jon has obviously taught me just unbridled violence and passion in the ring. Bryan has shown me that as well, but also with a technical nastiness. Claudio has shown me so much — team wrestling and how to present myself and how to act outside the ring, just diet and nutrition, things like that, as well.”
At some point, young stars reach a point where they have to carve their own path and apply everything that they’ve learned. For Love, that came when the Packers finally handed things over to him. For Yuta, that came when it was time for him to take the next step in his career.
“I think they’ve really shown me how to be a professional,” Yuta says. “Now, I can carry myself. I don’t necessarily need those guys to baby me and hold my hand anymore. I’ve learned how to be a professional and I think it’s because of their guidance. But now I can take it and run with it by myself.”
Whether he was necessarily ready to carve his own path or not, Yuta’s hand was forced in recent weeks as the onscreen dynamic of the BCC shifted and the foundation of the group started to collapse. With PAC’s addition and Moxley’s new demeanor, the current Trios Champion was moved to action to protect Danielson. And the latest move has set up a showdown between Yuta, Danielson, and his Trios Championship partners, Castagnoli and PAC, on Tuesday night.
“It’s very, very foreign to me. I’ve wrestled PAC before, like long before I was even in the Blackpool Combat Club. But I’ve never wrestled Claudio, so it’s a new challenge. It’s definitely interesting to be on the other side of the ring from them, considering how much I know about what they do from being on their team as the Trios Champions,” Yuta says. “So it’s very familiar in some senses, but in others, it’s very foreign. So I’m excited for the challenge.”
Yuta holds his relationship with Danielson near and dear to his heart. He looked up to The American Dragon before he broke into wrestling, and believes that his fellow BCC member is “probably the greatest wrestler of all time.”
“He’s done it as such a high level in so many different places for so long in so many different styles and against so many different opponents. I think he has an incredibly compelling argument to be the best of all time,” Yuta continues. “The fact that he would take an interest in me and he would provide mentorship, not only in the ring, but out of the ring with different things regarding my health and just who I am as a human being. The fact that he’s done all that and taken such an interest in me has really meant the world to me.”
Moxley and Danielson are alike in some regards — both have the same goal in bringing wrestling forward, where the sport grows and thrives, especially in AEW. At the same time, Yuta says, they have very different visions for how to make that happen.
“I’ve experienced a lot of tough love from both of them. But I think, deep down, there’s a lot more empathy and tact, I will say, in Bryan’s approach versus Jon’s, sort of, by any means necessary, pick it up or get left behind mentality. I think that you can clearly see that. In this rivalry right now, the way that the two of them are interacting on TV, that’s very similar to how they approach things,” Yuta says.
“So it’s been a lot of tough love, but there’s certainly a softer side sometimes to Bryan. You can see it when he’s in the ring at all, in with his kids and stuff like that. But I think Jon is very focused on just by any means necessary, getting the job done.”
We’ll see what plays out on television over the next few weeks to understand where Yuta goes in his career. He’s not sure what the future holds, but wants to take strides and agency over how he evolves.
But regardless of what happens next, Yuta says his experiences as part of the BCC are part of him.
“All I can do is continue to focus on learning, and growing, and taking every opportunity by the horns that I’m given. And just continuing to move forward in that sense because, even going back to everything I did on the independents, all the traveling I did around to different countries, the different cities and states, that’s all part of me. All of the time I spent with the Best Friends, that’s all a part of me. All the time I spent with the BCC, that’s all a part of me,” Yuta says.
“So now it’s just continuing to move forward and drawing upon the correct lessons at the correct time and making sure that I never stopped learning.”
