Wheeler Yuta Had Unfinished Business In ROH, Match With Daniel Garcia Is Personal

Wheeler Yuta is excited to help usher in the new era of Ring of Honor.

Ring Of Honor Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta spoke to WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard ahead of the ROH Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view this Saturday. During the interview, Yuta spoke about how his first run with ROH ended and agreed that it does feel a bit like a full-circle moment in some ways.

“Being the Ring of Honor Pure Champion, it really does, like you said, feel full circle. I really felt like I had unfinished business in Ring of Honor. I’ve never really had any regrets in my wrestling career, but I did feel like I left a lot on the table in Ring of Honor when I wound up coming to AEW maybe a little sooner than I thought. So not being able to get that Pure Championship in my first run with Ring of Honor was something I kind of looked back at with regret. So being able to now be the Pure Champion and usher in this new era of Ring of Honor, it’s really exciting to me.”

Wheeler Yuta believes the Pure rules for his match at Death Before Dishonor will help differentiate it from his first and only match against Daniel Garcia, which ended in a 60-minute draw.

“It’s interesting because Garcia and I had never wrestled until that hour-long draw that we had for the Independent Wrestling Championship. So we had never touched, and then we were so evenly matched that we went to an hour-long draw. So I think that it will be a very unique match to have here with the Pure rules, but I think that those will be what set it apart.” Yuta added, “The rules will really shape the match, but I also think this is so much more personal than the first match. I think that’s really going to help it stand out. The first time we wrestled, it was really all about the Independent Wrestling Championship and for seeing who the better man was. Now, this is personal.”

During their conversation, Yuta also spoke about where his AEW storyline with Best Friends was going before he joined the Blackpool Combat Club. The pair will end up facing off in tag team action on Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite, but original plans for Trent and Yuta would have seen a fight in singles competition over earning respect.

“You can kind of see from some of our interactions where we would all do the thing where we were standing on the stage and everyone would get a fist bump and he would pat me on the head or do something kind of dismissive and walk away. So really I think the whole thing was, obviously I’m friends with Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor, they are my trainers. But it was really just trying to prove myself to him because he never really accepted me in the group. I guess it was sort of proving that I’m not trying to be his replacement or I’m not trying to be less than. I’m trying to be my own thing in this group, I think was the point. But, of course, we never got to have that match. But now it’s going to be myself and [Jon] Moxley against Best Friends, so we will see how that goes. It’s going to be an interesting match-up for sure.”

As he mentioned, AEW Dynamite: Fyter Fest Week 2 on Wednesday will feature Blackpool Combat Club’s Wheeler Yuta and Jon Moxley taking on Best Friends’ Trent Beretta and Chuck Taylor.

Check out our full video interview with Wheeler Yuta at the top of this post; he will defend the ROH Pure Championship against Daniel Garcia on Saturday, July 23 in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Related: Wheeler Yuta Never Pictured The Blackpool Combat Club Happening: I Couldn’t Have Imagined It