Sportskeeda defines wrestling soulmates as “two opposing performers/teams who will forever be tied to one another, no matter the trajectory of their careers.” When you talk about wrestling soulmates in modern wrestling, many people immediately think of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, who have been chasing each other all over the globe for over 20 years. I believe that Wheeler Yuta and Daniel Garcia are other examples of wrestling soulmates. Destiny, time and time again, brings Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta together.
Wheeler Yuta made his professional wrestling debut in 2014; Daniel Garica made his professional wrestling debut in February 2017. The first time they ever stepped foot in the ring together would be on August 8, 2021, hosted by IndependentWrestling.TV. Yuta, the IWTV World Champion at the time, was defending his title against Garcia. It was a grueling match, one that would set a precedent for the violent relationship between the men. It came to a draw after 60 minutes, with neither man being able to pin or submit the other. They would meet again in AEW.
Yuta debuted in AEW in June 2021 and joined the Best Friends faction of Trent Beretta, Kris Statlander, Orange Cassidy, and Chuck Taylor, the last two having helped train Yuta. Garica, trained by Brandon Thurston and AEW's The Blade, first appeared in AEW in September 2020 and returned in May 2021. Daniel would officially become All Elite in October 2021 and make a faction with Matt Menard and Angelo Parker, known as 2point0, having teamed together previously in a losing effort against Jon Moxley, Eddie Kingston, and Darby Allin.
In January 2022, Wheeler and Daniel would both participate in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s Battle of Los Angeles tournament, with Yuta making his PWG debut against and defeating Blake Christian in the first round. However, he would lose to Mike Bailey in the second round. Garica would eventually win the tournament by defeating Bailey in the finals.
The next month, Bryan Danielson was trying to convince Jon Moxley to join forces and make a faction together, with the goal of the two molding the next generation of wrestlers. Danielson mentioned Wheeler Yuta and Daniel Garcia as people that he believed should be in the faction. Bryan Danielson and Jon Moxley had fought each other all over the world since 2010, they know each other inside and out. Both men had success in both independent wrestling and WWE before returning to the independent scene after leaving WWE. They found themselves in AEW, still facing each other, still opposite sides of the same spectrum. Still, Bryan saw an opportunity for them to use their styles – Mox’s hard-hitting and Bryan’s technical – to shape a new generation of wrestlers.
At the same time, Chris Jericho was forming a faction of his own, after his old one was starting to crack and fall apart. He still had Jake Hager by his side, though, and he used that leverage to seek out recruits. In March, Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson, managed by William Regal, formed the Blackpool Combat Club. At the same time, Chris Jericho’s faction was fully forming. The JAS originally consisted of Jericho, Jake Hager, Daniel, and 2point0. They would later be joined by Sammy Guvera — who was in Jericho’s previous faction — and his wife Tay Melo in June. Tay would convince her friend Anna Jay to join in July.
The JAS and BCC have been feuding ever since the two factions were formed. This, naturally, has caused the rivalry between Yuta and Garcia to intensify. Recently Daniel Garcia had teased leaving JAS for BCC because of Bryan Danielson. Bryan Danielson is Daniel Garcia’s favorite wrestler and Bryan Danielson believes that Daniel Garcia is the future of professional wrestling. He sees Daniel as the next Bryan Danielson.
Ultimately Daniel had turned his back on his idol and claimed that the JAS was his family. William Regal would betray Jon Moxley for MJF, costing Mox his record-breaking three-time AEW Championship. Bryan Danielson sided with Regal’s decision. Blackpool Combat Club now appears to be two members down, while the JAS is being booked stronger than ever. But Wheeler Yuta still believes he has this advantage over Daniel Garcia.
Photo credit: Cageside Seats
What I think is very interesting about Daniel Garcia and Wheeler Yuta is how they taunt one another. In the lead-up to their first title match for the Ring of Honor Pure championship, Daniel insisted to Yuta that “I am who you want to be.” On the other hand, Yuta took digs at Daniel’s internal crisis, telling Daniel “I know who I am, but you don’t know who you are.” Since joining the Blackpool Combat Club, Wheeler Yuta has thrived; the longer he spends in the Jericho Appreciation Society, Daniel Garcia has suffered. Yuta has become more and more confident in his identity as a hard-hitting wrestler, but Daniel has been reduced to a sports entertainer.
This ‘sports entertainer’ jargon the JAS are doing is mainly to mock WWE. Nearly all of the JAS members have been in WWE at one point or another, with the only exception being Anna Jay. But it’s also for Jericho to exercise control over the people in his faction. By making them believe that they’re only ‘sports entertainers’ they won’t try to improve and, more importantly, they won’t try to leave. Chris Jericho is a person who always has to be in control and in charge of whatever he’s doing, he can never be Second Best.
For a very long time, Chris Jericho has been considered one of the best in the world at what he does, and like most people who have that title, he doesn’t like it when new people can take it. He sees it as them stealing it from him rather than something that can exist at the same time. Chris Jericho knows, and we know, that Daniel Garica has the potential to be the greatest professional wrestler of his generation. But Chris Jericho can’t have that: he HAS to be the very best, and he can’t let anyone around him think they could be. They can’t have an inkling that they could be close to the level of the great Chris Jericho. So by dumbing down his accomplishments, insisting to Daniel that he’s only a sports entertainer, and shutting down any chants of “You’re a wrestler” to Daniel, Jericho is keeping him under control.
Turn on any Daniel Garcia match and they’ll talk about how he is the future of professional wrestling. It gives credence when someone like Bryan Danielson, who is the greatest professional wrestler of his generation, tries to hammer in this idea to Garcia. Wheeler Yuta, who also idolizes Bryan Danielson, doesn’t get nearly the same treatment from Danielson. He doesn’t treat Yuta with half of the respect that he does Garcia, even though Garcia turned on his hero. Bryan still chases after him and disregards his team, to the point that Yuta has angrily pointed this out.
On a recent episode of Dynamite, Yuta demanded to know why Bryan didn’t respect him the same way. Yuta thought when bled for Blackpool Combat Club it meant something. It did for Mox and Claudio, but Bryan Danielson didn’t care about Yuta’s sacrifices, and he wanted to know why. Despite naming him as someone who they could mold as the future, Bryan Danielson seems focused on only molding Daniel Garcia. Bryan’s distance from his team is becoming a problem, largely due to his avoidance of them in recent weeks.
Bryan Danielson seems focused on not only the future of professional wrestling but his legacy and what it represents. When you have been considered to be the very best for the majority of your career, what happens the after? What happens when that chapter of your life closes? Companies will always find a new The Guy, but it’s hard for anyone to find a new person that is considered the Greatest of All Time. Bryan Danielson wants to find The Guy of the next generation.
Hulk Hogan was The Guy for WWE in the 80s, Steve Austin in the 90s, John Cena in the 00s, and now Roman Reigns. All of them are regarded as some of the best to ever do it. Bryan Danielson is different: everywhere he goes, the American Dragon’s legacy precedes him. He is known as The Guy of his entire generation. That pressure must be weighing heavily on Danielson, especially so after he had already retired from in-ring action before. So now that he finds someone that can be The Guy of his generation, now that he found Daniel Garcia, Bryan is latching onto him. He knows how good Daniel Garcia is and that’s blinding him to how good others can be.
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This is fueling Daniel Garcia’s fire that he is better than Wheeler Yuta. Both men idolized Danielson, both men desperately wanted to prove themselves to their hero, and Danielson chose Daniel Garcia. In the battle of Blackpool Combat Club vs Jericho Appreciation Society, Wheeler Yuta and Daniel Garcia were each faction’s representative young gun. Jericho has only sung the praises of Garcia, crooning promises in his ear to ensure Garcia’s success; Bryan Danielson has snubbed Yuta, brushing him aside and trying to secure Daniel Garcia. Bryan Danielson crossed enemy lines and picked Daniel Garcia to set up the future.
This was especially a stab in the back when Daniel Garcia won the ROH Pure title from Yuta. Bryan Danielson came out to put the title on Garcia, raised his hand, and praised Garcia in the match.
Wheeler Yuta has continuously been pushed to the side by his hero, brushed aside even when they fought side by side in combat; meanwhile, Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli continuously push Yuta as their version of the future. They believe in Wheeler Yuta’s specific ability to shape the future. When Wheeler Yuta joined Blackpool Combat Club, he walked away from the men who trained him, turning his back on Chuck Taylor and Orange Cassidy, to accept the more brutal side of him. Garcia and Wheeler Yuta continue to clash, fighting for the ROH Pure title, and Yuta would win it back on December 10, 2022, at Final Battle. This is Yuta’s record-setting second reign.
Unfortunately for Daniel Garcia, Tony Khan put out his fire. Maybe he knew that the audience expected Garcia to leave the JAS for Blackpool Combat Club, or maybe Tony Khan knew that the audience wanted him to so he chose to subvert expectations. But by keeping Daniel Garcia in the JAS, all fire and intensity in his story have fizzled out. Garcia now feels like a drifter in the faction, no longer having a set reason for being there. He is drifting along, without a title and without much reason to be in JAS other than loyalty to Jericho and 2point0.
Wheeler Yuta and Blackpool Combat Club have washed their hands clean of the JAS, with Yuta recently starting a feud with AEW World Champion MJF. The story continues, even if Tony Khan didn’t mean for it to. Wheeler Yuta, by turning on the people who put his foot in the door, has thrived in AEW; Daniel Garcia hasn’t left Chris Jericho and he suffers for it.
Photo credit: WhatCulture:
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