Wheeler Yuta recently spoke with Jaychele Nicole for SEScoops this past week to talk about his upcoming match with Daniel Garcia and about holding the ROH Pure Championship.
On April 1, Wheeler Yuta became the brand new ROH Pure Champion by defeating then-champion Josh Woods at ROH Supercard Of Honor XV.
His History With Daniel Garcia
Since then, Wheeler has been defending the title on AEW Dark and Dark: Elevation against a vast amount of competitors. Now, at Death Before Dishonor, Yuta will be putting his championship on the line against Daniel Garcia.
For the past few months, Eddie Kingston and Chris Jericho have been in a blood feud. When Eddie needed backup, he called on the Blackpool Combat Club.
Yuta has now been involved in Eddie’s feud against the Jericho Appreciation Society. He recently competed in the Blood & Guts match between the Blackpool Combat Club and the Jericho Appreciation Society where he had his first interaction with Daniel Garcia since the independents.
On August 8, 2021, Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta went to a 60-minute time limit draw for the IWTV Independent Wrestling World Title.
Yuta retained the title due to the draw, but that is the last and only match between the two.
Yuta’s Confidence Heading Into Death Before Dishonor
The youngest member of the Blackpool Combat Club, Wheeler Yuta, spoke with Jaychele Nicole for SEScoops about his feelings going into the match with Garcia.
The ROH Pure Champion said, “Yeah, definitely going into this match. I’m more confident than the first one. We went 60 minutes, but that’s actually the only time Garcia and I have ever had a singles match. The only time we’ve ever interacted in a match would be Blood and Guts. So it’s definitely going to be something that I’m excited for.
“And I think we do know each other a lot better now. But I’m excited to see where the return match goes. I don’t know if it’ll go the full 60 minutes but I think with the pure rules, it’ll be an interesting factor as well that I think fits in very well with both of our styles. So very excited. Yeah.”
Expectations For Yuta vs. Garcia
He also talked about his expectations for the match and how he plans to defeat Garcia:
“Well, I think it’s, it’s interesting that it’s under pure rules. You know, I think pure rules, people think of a very sportsman-like contest, but I think that this one’s gonna get gritty, it’s gonna get dirty, it’s gonna get violent. So I think that the key to winning this match is just who’s willing to go the extra mile.”
Wheeler Yuta on what fans can expect in his match with Daniel Garcia
“Of course, we do have those rules, but who can take those rules and like I said, make them advantages? Use them to hurt your opponent, as opposed to having them be weaknesses or restrictions. So I think that’s what we’re gonna have to do. And we’ll see who the better man is and hopefully, at the end of this will, we’ll have a satisfying conclusion and we’ll know.”
Defending the ROH Pure Championship
Before his time in AEW and the sale to Tony Khan, he spent some time in ROH having Pure Rules matches. Yuta had four Pure Rules matches in Ring of Honor in late 2020 and early 2021.
“It’s really been special to me that I’ve been able to defend the Ring of Honor Pure Championship for, for one thing, it kind of felt like a chapter of my career that I never got to sort of complete, like I had a very brief stint in Ring of Honor, actually it was all through the pandemic.
“So I never got to have a Ring of Honor crowd even, it was all empty arena. So it felt like something that I had, you know, check it off the bucket list.
“It’s always something I wanted to do. But I didn’t feel like I really reached my potential. So when Tony bought Ring of Honor, and I was able to re-enter that world was really exciting.
“So now being able to defend the pure championship, it feels like I’m sort of coming full circle with that sort of completing that chapter. And additionally, just the people that have held it before me, the legacy of the championship is something that’s really special. And I’m really happy to be part of it,” Yuta said.
Strategies for Pure Rules Matches
Yuta even shared some of his strategies for participating in Pure Rules matches.
Matches for the ROH Pure Championship are conducted under “Pure Wrestling Rules”. The Pure Wrestling Rules are:
- Each wrestler has three rope breaks to stop submission holds and pinfalls during the match. After a wrestler exhausts his rope breaks, submission and pin attempts under the ropes by the opponent are considered legal.
- There are no closed-fist punches to the face allowed in a Pure match, only open-handed slaps or chops to the face are allowed. Punches to other parts of the body (except for low blows) are permitted. The first use of a closed fist to the face would get a warning, and the second would cause the wrestler to be penalized a rope break. If he is already out of rope breaks, he would be disqualified.
- A wrestler is subject to a 20 count by the referee if the wrestler goes to the floor.
The Blackpool Combat Club member said:
“Yeah, you really just need to take those rules that could be weaknesses and turn them into advantages. So like, for example, the punch one, you just sort of have to change up the strikes that you’re using.
“If you know that you can’t punch, then maybe use a forearm, maybe use an uppercut, a kick, a knee. So, changing your strategy is very difficult for that. But it’s a lot of fun, as well.
“And then, of course, like the rope breaks, you have to do different things like maybe, maybe it’s a weakness because you can’t get out of submissions. But maybe you turn that into a strength where you exhaust your opponents.
“And then you can use the ropes, you can do rope-assisted submissions, different things that you can’t do in normal wrestling matches. So just taking those rules and making them advantages instead of weaknesses.”
Watch Wheeler Yuta’s interview with Jaychele Nicole for SEScoops:
