Aaron Wolf Shares Thoughts About His Progression As A Pro Wrestler, Feels Like He’s Clinging To Olympic Gold Medal

Candid comments from Aaron Wolf.

Judo Olympic gold medalist Aaron Wolf made his pro wrestling in-ring debut in January 2026 at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20. He defeated current WWE talent NARAKU a.k.a. EVIL to become the NEVER Openweight Champion.

Wolf is five months into his in-ring career, and he reflected on the progression while speaking to Yahoo! Japan. Wolf admitted to the outlet that he feels he’s clinging to the Olympic gold medalist accolade.

“Right now, I’m still in the ‘sensation’ phase. Once it becomes routine for me to step into the ring, if I don’t build something new on my own, the audience will get bored. To be honest, right now I still feel like I’m clinging a little to that gold medal.

Ultimately, I hope that people will see me as Aaron Wolf, the professional wrestler, without the gold medal. I just want people to continue watching how I live my life.”

On another conversational subject, Wolf shared that he pays attention to fans’ criticisms and suggestions on social media. He added that he takes their comments into consideration.

“I search for mentions of myself online a lot. I was just doing it a moment ago. But I don’t really let critical comments get to me. I even laugh about them with my manager. 

Pro wrestling exists because people watch it, so it’s important to know how the message I want to convey is being received by the audience. Viewers are paying close attention, so if I find something in a negative comment that makes me think, ‘That’s actually true,’ I take them into consideration. If someone writes, ‘Wouldn’t it be interesting if Wolf tried this move?’ I’ll sometimes try it out in practice.”

Elsewhere in the chat, Wolf remembered people asking him where he sees himself in 10 years. While giving his answer, he mentioned that he hopes to still be in pro wrestling.

“People often ask me, ‘What do you think you’ll be like in 10 years?’ But I think, well, I don’t know,” he laughed. “If you live your life thinking about 10 years from now, you’ll never get there. I do want to still be doing pro wrestling 10 years from now, but I want to be someone who’s pursuing what I love. I don’t show any interest in things I’m not really interested in.”

Next up for Wolf is NJPW Dominion on June 14th, where he will be challenging Ren Narita for the NEVER Openweight Championship.