Wheeler Yuta wanted to shake things up for his ROH Final Battle match against Daniel Garcia.
Throughout the latter half of 2022, the Blackpool Combat Club caught themselves in feuds with members of another notable faction in AEW — Jericho Appreciation Society. On the September 7 edition of Dynamite, JAS’s Daniel Garcia dethroned BCC’s Wheeler Yuta as the ROH Pure Champion. The two met again three months later, as Yuta looked to reclaim the title at ROH Final Battle, and ultimately, he did. After several elbow strikes to Garcia, the referee called for the bell, awarding Yuta with the title yet again.
Speaking on The Sessions with Renee Paquette, Yuta reflected on his most recent bout with Garcia.
“I really enjoyed that match,” he said. “Any time I get to get in there with Garcia — I think that we’re very similar wrestlers. There’s two ways you can have a really good match. It’s either you’re very similar or you’re so far different that it’s unique in that way. But I think that we are just so very similar.”
Yuta continued, noting the two adjusted the tone of the Final Battle match to make it different than their prior clashes.
“The first time we wrestled was like on the independents, I got there an hour before the show and then we wrestled for an hour,” Yuta said. “We’re just such good foils against each other that it’s really fun. At the same time, like, it’s fun to have to come up with creative stuff. This is the fourth time that we’ve wrestled, so it’s like, ‘how can we make it different? How can we have a slightly different match than we’ve had before, but still give the fans all the things that they wanted?'” he recalled.
“So, being able to have that match was really fun. It was awesome to do it, on such a big stage. Being able to have these matches on pay-per-view, on Dynamite, has been awesome. I think that he and I both thought we would be able to do one day, but I don’t think we thought it would be so soon.”
Regarding the ROH Pure Championship itself, Wheeler Yuta remains the only person in history to hold the title twice, and he’s proud to take the style into the future.
“It means a lot to kind of be able to take that forward, that division and that style forward,” he said. “It’s something that I always really enjoy, getting back to basics and having this very unique rule set that — it can be a hindrance if you don’t know how to use it and how to play with it, or it can really help you for matches and it can make the matches more interesting.”
Yuta continues to embrace the distinct rules surrounding the ROH Pure Championship, as he highlighted the unique finishes they can set up.
“If you use all the breaks and then someone gets submitted in the ropes, that’s a kind of finish that you can’t have in any other match,” he explained. “It’s really cool to me to be able to kind of play with that and take it forward.”
Yuta will compete on the February 10 episode of AEW Rampage. Check out the card here.
