NEWNow you can listen to Pak Gazette articles!
Rohan Raja was a major player in the WWE NXT UK tag team scene before the brand folded and was incorporated into the current state of NXT programming. He came a long way from his roots in the United Kingdom and Australia to being a challenger for the tag team titles.
Raja was born in the United Kingdom and came to pro wrestling fandom thanks to his grandfather, father, and brother, all of whom were huge fans. He got his first taste of the sport when he was just four years old and knew immediately that it was the career he wanted to pursue.
“It just became something that my brother and I did all the time and watched it all the time and when I was little I had this crazy dream that I wanted to be a professional wrestler,” he told Pak Gazette Digital in a recent interview. “A lot of people have these crazy dreams when they’re younger, except a lot of people don’t follow them and they never stopped and I dedicated my entire education, like I dedicated my entire life just to be able to do this. That’s how I got into this.”
ZERO BS. ONLY DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!
Rohan Raja performs in Maple Leaf Pro Resurrection. (Provided to Pak Gazette Digital)
Raja shared that he was a little nervous when he first revealed that he wanted to become a professional wrestler.
He explained that as a person of Indian descent, he would probably be discouraged from doing anything “extraordinary.” However, he was stunned to learn how supportive his family was: there were no lectures or arguments. From there, it was a matter of going to the right school to get the right training and set yourself up for success.
“I was scared for a long time,” she told Pak Gazette Digital. “I remember I was saving a lot of money because I wanted to move to Calgary (Canada) to be trained by Lance Storm. I thought, man, how am I going to do this? I remember talking to my brother and sister and they told me that if you have a complete plan and you present it to mom and dad, they should be fine with it.
“I’m of Indian descent. So even though I was born in the UK and grew up in Australia, we still have those core values, you don’t go for that particular extraordinary career path. You usually go for the safe bet. It was very surprising because when I sat my dad down, I said, and he said, ‘So what’s next? What school do you want to go to?’ I was thinking, ‘What? Aren’t you going to give me a lecture? From the beginning, he and my brother have been my biggest fans, as have my mother and sister. “It was a great relief to see how they took it.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON PakGazette.Com
Rohan Raja previously competed in WWE NXT UK. (Provided to Pak Gazette Digital)
WWE NXT UK wasn’t Raja’s first stop. He went to a wrestling school and worked with some freelancers in Western Canada. He performed for Prairie Wrestling Alliance (PWA) in Canada, Real Canadian Wrestling (RCW) and even made it to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) before getting the chance to try out a WWE contract.
He detailed to Pak Gazette Digital how he was able to take the test despite not being a Canadian citizen.
“When I was in Calgary, I worked with the Western independents in Canada for almost two years and then I moved to Toronto. I was training with Yuki Ishikawa there and then I had a brief run in TNA. I tried out in 2017 and then from 2018 to 2019 I had a TV run with a group called Desi Hit Squad back then,” he explained. “I ended up asking for my release, I think it was around April 2019. Then, I contacted WWE because they were doing a tryout in Canada in August of that year. I didn’t have any communication with them before because I was signed. I was relying on that and I remember getting comments like, ‘We know who you are. We’ve been following you, but this tryout is only for Canadians.’ I’m not a Canadian citizen or anything like that. So I thought, damn man, this is my perfect opportunity to do it. And I was preparing to moving to the UK. I had it in mind for the next goal.
“Anyway, when I got that, I think it was just a week or so later, I got a contact again saying, ‘No, no, no, you’re in the tryout.’ since I was going to move there anyway. Fast forward, I ended up moving to the UK, signed with NXT UK and had a great time there.”
Raja said working on WWE NXT UK helped him learn from some of the best in the industry, such as William Regal, and helped him amplify his television work.
He said the only disappointment he could think of was waiting for the debut of NXT Europe, which never came.
“I think the good thing is that you learn a lot, which is great,” he said. “The European workers are really good. There are so many different trainers, so you learn something every day. I would learn a lot from William Regal. We were in a group and his son was part of that faction at the time, so I was learning a lot from him. I think if you approach it with a positive mindset, you can retain so much knowledge, you can learn a lot. And being in TNA before, I learned how the television product works: television angles and everything. I feel like with NXT. it gave me more of that and I really put it into it. this rhythm going.
Rohan Raja in the ring during a Maple Leaf Pro event. (Provided to Pak Gazette Digital)
“I think the only con I would say was, mainly because NXT UK closed at that time, and we thought I was going to go back to Europe and they had it in their plans, but I think the transition of the whole sale when they ended up selling the company, it was put on hold. So, I think that was the biggest con. But other than that, the whole time I was there, I had a great time.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE Pak Gazette APP
Raja is now working with Maple Leaf Pro, the Canadian promotion revived by Scott D’Amore. The company recently signed a television deal with TSN. MLP’s “Mayhem” will debut on June 12 and 13.
