Wheeler Yuta Names Several Talent He Saw As Stars Coming Through The Independent Scene

Wheeler Yuta discusses the talent that caught his eye coming through the wrestling independent scene

For the wrestling independent scene, several stars throughout the pro wrestling industry cross paths on their way to the bigger promotions such as AEW and WWE. For Wheeler Yuta, several now AEW names caught his eye on the independent scene prior to signing with All Elite Wrestling.

While speaking to Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp in a new interview, Wheeler spoke on talent that he saw as stars on the way to All Elite Wrestling, noting talent such as Brian Keith, Nick Wayne, Lee Moriarty and more.

“There’s so many people. For a lot of that time, though, in the independents I was the young guy trying to come up to the level of the veterans. Now seeing a lot of those people—the Orange Cassidy’s, the Chuck Taylors—seeing them in AEW was so motivating for me when I was still trying to get there. I think the ones that like really stick out to me, it was so obvious to everyone, but like Lee Moriarty was the one where like I would watch him wrestle. I remember we tagged at Black Label Pro against Violence Is Forever one time and like, everyone knew how incredible he was, but I was like, ‘Oh, he’s really, really something.’ Then my first match after the COVID shutdown was against him. It was in Atlantic City. The whole time I was like, ‘Oh, this dude is on another level.’ So the fact that he was able to come to AEW a little bit after me and really make his mark, and now he’s obviously in the Ring of Honor Pure Champion, which he took off of me, being able to see him and how much he’s thrived as well has been incredible. But there’s so many guys I could go down the whole list like Brian Keith’s another one. Like seeing him really thrive in AEW has been awesome, but there’s so many. Nick Wayne, I got to wrestle. I think they knew that he was signed, but it hadn’t kicked in yet—his deal—‘cause he was not 18 and wrestling a 17 year old, but him just being absolutely awesome in the ring, I was like, ‘Oh, man, like the future’s really bright here.”

Elsewhere in the same interview, Wheeler spoke about Marina Shafir’s dedication to growing as a pro wrestler. You can read more about that here.