SouthernWorldwide.com – Rohan Raja, a prominent figure in the now-defunct WWE NXT UK tag team division, has opened up about his path to professional wrestling and the unexpectedly supportive reaction he received from his family.
Raja was a significant presence on the tag team circuit for WWE NXT UK before the brand was integrated into the current NXT programming. His journey took him from his origins in the United Kingdom and Australia to challenging for tag team championships.
Born in the United Kingdom, Raja was introduced to the world of professional wrestling by his grandfather, father, and brother, all of whom were avid fans. His first exposure to the sport at the tender age of four immediately sparked a desire to pursue it as a career.
Raja confessed to feeling some apprehension when he first declared his ambition to become a professional wrestler.
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He explained that, given his Indian heritage, there was a societal expectation to avoid pursuing an “extraordinary” career path. To his astonishment, his family’s response was overwhelmingly supportive, with no lectures or arguments ensuing. This paved the way for him to seek out the right training facilities to set himself up for success.
“My background is of Indian descent. So, even though, I was born in the UK and I grew up in Australia, we still have those core values, you don’t go for that particular extraordinary career path. You usually go for the safe bet. It was very surprising because when I sat my dad down, I told him, and he was just like, ‘So, what’s next? What school do you want to go to?’ I was just thinking, ‘What? He’s not giving me a lecture?’ From the get go, him and my brother have been like my biggest fans and so has my mom and my sister. It was very relieving to see how they took it.”
Prior to his WWE NXT UK stint, Raja had already built a foundation in wrestling. He attended wrestling school and competed on the independent circuit in Western Canada. His experience included performing for the Prairie Wrestling Alliance (PWA) and Real Canadian Wrestling (RCW) in Canada, and he even made an appearance in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) before the opportunity arose to try out for a WWE contract.
“When I was based in Calgary, I worked the western independents in Canada for almost two years and then I moved to Toronto. I was training with Yuki Ishikawa down there and then I had a TNA run briefly. I had a tryout in 2017 and then from 2018-2019 I had a TV run with a group called the Desi Hit Squad back then,” he explained. “I ended up asking for my release I think it was around April 2019. Then, I contacted the WWE because they were doing a Canadian tryout in August of that year. I didn’t have any communication with them prior because I was contracted. I was banking on that and I remember I got feedback, like, ‘We know who you are. We’ve been keeping track of 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 kinda preparing to move to the UK. I had that in my mind for that next goal.
“Anyway, when I got that, I think it was only a week later or something, I got a contact again saying, ‘No, no, no, you’re on the tryout.’ I had to stay prepared for that. It was a tryout consisting of 50 people across Canada and at the time, I was the only one who got picked. They came to me with a proposal if I wanted to go to the U.S. or the UK but I really wanted to learn British style of wrestling. So, I kinda pushed for the UK since I was going to move there anyway. Fast forward, I ended up moving to the UK, I signed with NXT UK, and had a great time there.”
Raja highlighted that his time working with WWE NXT UK provided invaluable learning experiences from industry veterans like William Regal, significantly enhancing his television performance skills.
The only significant disappointment he recalled was the unfulfilled anticipation surrounding the debut of NXT Europe.
“I think the pros are you’re just learning so much, which is great,” he said. “The European workers are really good. There’s so many different coaches so you would just learning something every day. I would learn a lot from William Regal. We were in a group and his son was a part of that faction at the time, so I was learning a lot from him. I think if you go into it with a positive mindset, you can retain so much knowledge, you can learn so much. And being at TNA prior, 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 this groove going.
“I think the only con I would say was, primarily because the NXT UK shut down at the time, and we thought it was coming back in Europe and they had that in their plans but I think the transition of the whole sale when they ended up selling the company, it kinda got put on hold. So, I think that was the biggest con. But besides that, the whole time I was there, I had a great time.”
Currently, Raja is engaged with Maple Leaf Pro, a Canadian promotion revitalized by Scott D’Amore. The company recently secured a television deal with TSN, and its program “Mayhem” is scheduled for its debut on June 12 and 13.
