Wheeler Yuta made his AEW debut on the June 28, 2021 episode of AEW Dark: Elevation when he took on Karl Anderson.
Yuta had become one of the top names on the independent scene and had an association with the Best Friends, who helped train him.
Speaking on AEW Unrestricted, Yuta explained how his AEW debut came about.
"I had been doing my thing on the Indies, New Japan STRONG, Ring of Honor at the time. I was at a Sixers game with Chuck (Taylor), Chuck's girlfriend Amy, and Bird (sp?) of all people. It was the three of us and I get a phone call from Orange Cassidy asking me if I wanted to come down and do Dark. I guess they were in the middle of the Arthur Ashe promotional tour. They were together in New York and somehow a match came about of me and MJF and that turned into a showing of me and Rocky (Romero) in New Japan. It was really fast, but it was awesome," he said.
Yuta was quickly aligned with The Best Friends on television, acting as the third member while Trent was out of action.
When asked how the pairing came about, Yuta said, "Those guys have been very instrumental, especially Chuck and Orange, have been instrumental in helping me, training me, and bringing me up in wrestling. Once we did the stuff on Dark, Tony (Khan) saw it'd be a natural fit for me to come in and be there with my real life friends. I had a six-man tag with HFO, I didn't know what was going to happen, they hugged me at the end, and it took off from there."
Yuta has since left The Best Friends and is now aligned with William Regal, Bryan Danielson, and Jon Moxley in the Blackpool Combat Club.
Yuta, Moxley, and Danielson are set to team on AEW Rampage when they take on The Gunn Club in trios action. You can view the current lineup for AEW Rampage by clicking here.
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