Rohan Raja reflects on path from independents to WWE NXT UK

Rohan Raja was a regular on the tag team scene for WWE NXT UK before the brand closed and its talent moved into the current NXT lineup. He traveled from his roots in the United Kingdom and Australia to challenge for the tag team titles.

Raja was born in the United Kingdom. His grandfather, father and brother were all wrestling fans, and he first watched the sport at age four. He said he knew then that he wanted to become a professional wrestler.

"It just became something me and my brother would do all the time and we'd just watch it all the time and when I was a little kid I had that crazy dream that I wanted to be a professional wrestler," he told Fox News Digital. "A lot of people have these crazy dreams when they are younger except a lot of people don't follow it and it just never stopped and I just dedicated my whole upbringing, like I dedicated my whole life just to be able to do this. That's pretty much how I got into it."

Raja said he was nervous when he first told his family he wanted to wrestle. As a person of Indian descent, he expected pressure to choose a safer career. Instead, his parents and siblings supported him without argument.

"I was scared for the longest time," he said. "I remember I was saving a lot of money because I wanted to move to Calgary to get trained by Lance Storm. I was like, man, how am I gonna do this? I remember talking to my brother and my sister and they were like if you have a full plan and you present it to dad and mom, they should be good with it.

"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."

Before NXT UK, Raja trained and worked independent shows in Western Canada. He appeared for Prairie Wrestling Alliance, Real Canadian Wrestling and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling. He later asked for his release from TNA in April 2019 and contacted WWE about a Canadian tryout that August.

"When I was based in Calgary, I worked the western independents in Canada for almost two years and then I moved to Toronto," he said. "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. 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 said working in NXT UK let him learn from coaches including William Regal and sharpened his television skills. He said the only real disappointment was the cancellation of plans for NXT Europe after WWE sold the company.

"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."

Raja now works for Maple Leaf Pro, the Canadian promotion revived by Scott D'Amore. The company recently signed a television deal with TSN. Maple Leaf Pro's Mayhem is scheduled to debut on June 12 and 13.