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Wheeler Yuta Thinks Daniel Garcia Has Been a Motivating Factor For Him In & Out of AEW
Image Credit: ROH
Wheeler Yuta believes that he and Daniel Garcia have made each other better wrestlers as they came up in the indies and now in AEW. Yuta and Garcia are in the Death Riders in AEW, but they’ve been rivals longer particularly in AEW. The two came up in the independent scene at the same time and first competed in 2021, when they fought to an hour-long draw for the IWTV Independent Wrestling World Championship.
The two have battled many times in AEW and ROH, including a feud over the ROH Pure Championship which Garcia won from Yuta. Yuta talked about their dynamic in an interview on Casual Conversations With the Classic. You can see highlights below:
On His History With Garcia:
“Yeah, it’s fun to sort of continue that competition. Even when we were on the independents, I kind of always looked at like what he was doing, and I’m sure he looked at what I was doing. And we always felt like we were sort of modern contemporaries. We didn’t actually wrestle much on the independents. It might have just been that one time that we wrestled for an hour-long draw when I was the IWTV Champion. But we always sort of [felt] like, we’re looking at each other.”
On Their AEW Runs:
“Then it almost felt like, we get to AEW and then he goes to the Jericho Appreciation Society. I go to Blackpool Combat Club. It almost felt like we were guys that played at like rival colleges, and now we just got drafted to the majors but we got drafted to rival team. That’s sort of what it felt like.
“So we’ve always had this thing where we’re competing against each other. But I think it’s just made the both of us better. It’s just made us better wrestlers. And now that we’re on the same side, maybe we’ll even develop more of a friendship I guess, instead of just competing with each other. But it’s always been great to have him to motivate me.”
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Wrestling Classic with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.
