Former WWE NXT UK star Rohan Raja talks journey to pro wrestling, surprising reaction he got from his family

Rohan Raja was a major player on the tag team scene for WWE NXT UK before the brand shut down and folded into the current state of NXT programming. He came a long way from his roots in the United Kingdom and Australia to being a challenger for the tag team titles.Raja was born in the United Kingdom and was thrust into pro wrestling fandom thanks to his grandfather, father and brother, who were all massive fans. He got his first glimpse at the sport when he was just four years old and knew right away it was a career he wanted to pursue.”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 in a recent interview. “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.”ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON’T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!Raja shared that he was a bit nervous when he first revealed he wanted to become a pro wrestler.He explained that, as being a person of Indian descent, he was likely going to be steered away from doing something “extraordinary.” However, he was stunned to learn how supportive his family was – there was no lecture, no argument. From there, it was about going to the right school to get properly trained and get set up for success.”I was scared for the longest time,” he told Fox News Digital. “I remember I was saving a lot of money because I wanted to move to Calgary (Canada) 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.”CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COMWWE NXT UK was hardly the first stop for Raja. He went to wrestling school and worked some of the independents in Western Canada. He performed for the Prairie Wrestling Alliance (PWA) in Canada, Real Canadian Wrestling (RCW) and even made his way to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) before he got the chance at possibly trying out for a WWE contract.He detailed to Fox News Digital how he was able to get the try