NEWYou can now listen to Pakinomist articles!
Rohan Raja was a major player on the tag team scene for WWE NXT UK before the brand shut down and folded into the current state of NXT programming. He came a long way from his roots in the United Kingdom and Australia to be a contender for the tag team titles.
Born in the United Kingdom, Raja was thrust into pro wrestling fandom thanks to his grandfather, father and brother, who were all big fans. He got his first glimpse of the sport when he was just four years old and knew immediately that it was a career he wanted to pursue.
“It just became something me and my brother wanted to do all the time and we watched it all the time and when I was a little kid I had this crazy dream that I wanted to be a professional wrestler,” he told Pakinomist 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 through, and it just never stopped, and I just dedicated my whole upbringing, like I dedicated my whole life just to be able to do this. That’s pretty much how I got into it.”
ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!
Rohan Raja performs at Maple Leaf Pro Resurrection. (Provided to Pakinomist Digital)
Raja said he was a bit 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 steered away from doing anything “extraordinary”. However, he was amazed to learn how supportive his family was – there was no lecture, no discussion. From there it was a matter of going to the right school to be properly trained and set up for success.
“I was scared for the longest time,” he told Pakinomist Digital. “I remember saving up a lot of money because I wanted to move to Calgary (Canada) to be coached by Lance Storm. I was like, man, how am I going to do this? I remember talking to my brother and my sister and they were like, if you have a full plan and you present it to mom and dad, they should be good at it.
“My background is of Indian descent. So even though I was born in the UK and I grew up in Australia, we still have the core values that 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 told him and he was just like, ‘So, what are you going to school for?’ What are you going to school for? I just thought, ‘What? He’s not giving me a lecture?’ Right from the start, he and my brother have been like my biggest fans, as have my mom and my sister. It was very relieving to see how they took it.”
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON Pakinomist
Rohan Raja previously competed at WWE NXT UK. (Provided to Pakinomist Digital)
WWE NXT UK was hardly the first stop for Raja. He went to wrestling school and worked with some of the independents in Western Canada. He appeared for the Prairie Wrestling Alliance (PWA) in Canada, Real Canadian Wrestling (RCW) and even joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) before getting the chance to possibly try out for a WWE contract.
He told Pakinomist Digital how he was able to get the test despite not being a Canadian citizen.
“When I was based in Calgary, I worked with the western independents in Canada for almost two years and then I moved to Toronto. I trained with Yuki Ishikawa down there and then I had a short TNA run. I had a tryout in 2017 and then from 2018-2019 I had a TV run with a group called the Desi Hit Squad,” he explained at the time. “I ended up asking for my release, I think it was around April 2019. Then I contacted WWE because they were doing a Canadian tryout in August of that year. I didn’t have any communication with them before because I was signed. I went for it and I remember getting feedback like, “We know who you are. We’ve been keeping track of you, but this trial period is just for you.” I’m not a Canadian citizen or anything. So I thought, damn, this is my perfect chance to do it. And I was kind of preparing to move to the UK. I had that in mind for the next goal.
“Anyway, when I got it, I think it was only a week later or something, I got a contact again who said, ‘No, no, no, you’re on trial’. I had to be prepared for that. It was a 50-person trial across Canada and at the time I was the only one chosen. They came to me with a proposition whether I wanted to go to the US or the UK, but I really wanted to learn British wrestling. So I kind of pushed for the UK when I was going to move there anyway. Fast forward I ended up moving to the UK, I signed with NXT UK and had a great time there.”
Raja said that working at WWE NXT UK helped him learn from some of the best in the business, like William Regal, and it 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 benefits are that you just learn so much, which is great,” he said. “The European workers are really good. There’s so many different trainers, so you just wanted to learn something every day. I wanted to learn a lot from William Regal. We were in a group and his son was part of that faction at the time, so I learned a lot from him. I think if you go into it with a positive mindset, you can retain so much knowledge, you can learn so much. And being on the TNA angle, it has like TV and it works like I have before. with NXT gave me more of that and I really got into this groove.
Rohan Raja in the ring during a Maple Leaf Pro event. (Provided to Pakinomist Digital)
“I think the only downside I would say was mainly because NXT UK was shutting down at the time and we thought it was going to come back in Europe and they had that in their plans, but I think the transition to the whole sale when they ended up selling the company was kind of put on hold. So I think that was the biggest downside. But other than that, I had a great time being there.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE Pakinomist APP
Raja now works with Maple Leaf Pro – the Canadian promotion revived by Scott D’Amore. The company recently entered into a television deal with TSN. MLP’s “Mayhem” premieres June 12 and 13.
