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Rohan Raja was a major player in the tag team scene for WWE NXT UK before the brand closed its doors and folded into the current state of NXT programming. He has come a long way from his roots in the United Kingdom and Australia to become a challenger for the tag team titles.
Raja was born in the United Kingdom and was propelled into professional wrestling fandom by his grandfather, father and brother, all of whom were huge fans. He got his first taste of the sport when he was just four years old and immediately knew it was a career he wanted to pursue.
“It became something that my brother and I did all the time and we watched it all the time and when I was little I had this crazy dream of becoming a professional wrestler,” he told PK Press Club Digital in a recent interview. “A lot of people have crazy dreams when they’re younger, but a lot of people don’t follow them and it never stopped and I dedicated my whole education, like I dedicated my whole life just to being able to do that. That’s pretty much how I got started.”
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Rohan Raja performs at Maple Leaf Pro Resurrection. (Provided to PK Press Club Digital)
Raja shared that he was a little 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 deterred from doing something “extraordinary.” However, he was stunned to learn how supportive his family was – there was no lecturing or arguing. From there, it was all about going to the right school to be properly trained and set up for success.
“I was afraid for a very long time,” he told PK Press Club Digital. “I remember I was saving a lot of money because I wanted to move to Calgary (Canada) to be trained by Lance Storm. I was like, man, how am I going to do this? I remember talking to my brother and sister and they said if you have a complete plan and present it to mom and dad, they should be on board with it.
“I’m of Indian descent. So even though I was born in the UK and raised in Australia, we still have these core values, you don’t go into this extraordinary career path. You usually go for the safe bet. It was very surprising because when I sat my dad down, I said to him, and he said, ‘So what’s next?’ Which school do you want to go to?” I was just thinking, ‘What? He’s not tutoring me? From the beginning, he and my brother were like my biggest fans, as were my mom and my sister. It was very relieving to see how they took it.’
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Rohan Raja previously competed in WWE NXT UK. (Provided to PK Press Club Digital)
WWE NXT UK wasn’t the first stop for Raja. He went to wrestling school and worked with some Western Canadian independents. He performed for Canada’s Prairie Wrestling Alliance (PWA), Real Canadian Wrestling (RCW), and even made his way to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) before getting the chance to try for a WWE contract.
He explained to PK Press Club Digital how he was able to take the test even though he was not a Canadian citizen.
“When I was based in Calgary, I worked with independents in Western Canada for almost two years, then I moved to Toronto. I was training with Yuki Ishikawa there, then I briefly competed in TNA. I did a tryout in 2017, and then from 2018 to 2019 I was on a TV broadcast with a group called Desi Hit Squad at the time,” he explained. “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 that because I was under contract. I was counting on that and I remember getting comments like, ‘We know who you are. We followed you, but this tryout is only for Canadians.’ I’m not a Canadian citizen or anything. So I was like, damn, man, 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 this next goal.
“Anyway, when I got that, I think it was only a week later or something, I got contact again saying, ‘No, no, no, you’re on trial.’ I had to stay prepared for this. It was a trial involving 50 people across Canada and at the time, I was the only one chosen. They offered me to go to the US or the UK, but I really wanted to learn the British style of wrestling. So, I insisted on the UK instead since I was going to move there anyway. Fast forward, I ended up moving to the UK, signed with NXT UK and had a great time there. »
Raja said working at WWE NXT UK helped him learn from some of the best in the industry, like William Regal, and it helped amplify his television work.
He said the only disappointment he could think of was waiting for the NXT Europe debut, which never happened.
“I think the benefits are you learn so much, which is great,” he said. “The European workers are really good. There are so many different coaches, so you learn something every day. I would learn a lot from William Regal. We were in a group and his son was in that faction at the time, so I was learning a lot from him. I think if you go in there with a positive mindset, you can retain a lot of knowledge, you can learn a lot. And being in TNA before, I learned how the TV product works – TV angles and everything. I feel like with NXT it gave me more of that and I really got that groove.
Rohan Raja in the ring at a Maple Leaf Pro event. (Provided to PK Press Club Digital)
“I think the only downside I would say is mainly because NXT UK closed down at that time, and we thought it would come back to Europe and they had that in their plans, but I think the transition from the total sale when they ended up selling the company, that was kind of put on hold. So, I think that was the biggest downside. But other than that, the whole time I was there, I had a good time.”
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Raja now works with Maple Leaf Pro – the Canadian promotion relaunched by Scott D’Amore. The company recently signed a television deal with TSN. MLP’s “Mayhem” is set to release on June 12-13.
