(NOTE: UPDATED October 8, 2018)
Robbie Eagles is quickly becoming a well-known name on the independent wrestling scene. Having wrestled in Australia, Japan, and the United States, he’s earning more and more recognition with each event he performs, and now, he has been announced as Taiji Ishimori’s tag team partner, for New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Junior Tag League. This high-flying junior heavyweight from Australia, with his flashy offense and creative high-spots, has been generating a fair amount of buzz on the international wrestling scene, since his match with Will Ospreay at PWA Call to Arms this year. This past February, there was even a #RobbieEaglesforBOSJ going around on twitter, after he participated in New Japan’s Australia tour in February. He also participated in in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s 2018 Battle of Los Angeles, and as been a regular on PWG for several months now. In addition to his high octane offense, Eagles has also been adding to his style, as recent months have seen his technical game improve, not to mention his fighting spirit spots over the summer. So, who is Robbie Eagles? Well, let’s have a look.
Robbie Eagles: Career Overview (VIDEOS)
Born in Jonestown, New South Wales, Australia, Eagles debuted on March 9th, 2008, in a losing effort against Troy the Boy for PWA (Pro Wrestling Australia). Eagles continued to work for PWA throughout 2008 and 2009, while also working with a couple other Australian promotions: Pro Wrestling Alliance Canberra and Pro Wrestling Alliance Queensland. In 2010, PWA and Melbourne City Wrestling (MCW) co-promoted the event PWA Invades MCW Worlds Collide, marking the first time that Eagles performed on an MCW promoted event. The following month, he won his first championship: the PWA Tag Team Championship with Mat Diamond as his partner. By the end of 2011, he had added Wrestleclash and Newcastle Pro Wrestling (Newy Pro) to his list of promotions.
In what turned out to be an important year, 2012 saw Robbie Eagles win his first ever singles title: the Newcastle Pro Middleweight Championship. He defeated Adam Hoffman and Mick Moretti in a three way match for the belt, and held it for three months, from February to May. He also began working NWA branded shows in Australia. That summer, in July through August, he made his first tour of Japan, working for Pro Wrestling ZERO1, his first time working outside of his home nation of Australia. Upon his return, he spent the next several months working for his regular promotions of PWA, MCW, and Newy Pro, highlighted by an ongoing feud with Adam Hoffman over the Newcastle Pro Middleweight Championship (Eagles lost both title bouts) and a MCW Tag Team Tournament, where he partnered with Adam Brooks (they lost in the semi finals).
While 2012 helped set the stage for Eagles’ career, 2013 was certainly his breakout year. On February 2nd, 2013, in Parramatta, New South Wales, Robbie Eagles defeated Mick Moretti to capture the PWA Heavyweight Championship, and was finally on top of what was essentially his home promotion. A few weeks later, Eagles finally overcame Adam Hoffman to recapture the Newcastle Pro Middleweight Championship, once again in a triangle match (this time with Chris Hermes), to become a double champion. His first defense of the PWA Heavyweight strap, was against his brother, Ryan Eagles, which he did so successfully, and also bested Jonah Rock to retain again later that July. While he failed to acquire the MCW Heavyweight title from Mike Peterson (a championship he’s never won), we went on to hold on to the Newy Pro Middleweight belt until November of that year, and kept the PWA Heavyweight for almost 500 days, not dropping it until June of 2014. During that title reign, he also expanding his portfolio so to speak, branching out into several other Aussie promotions (RRW, UWA, NHPW, PPW, BMPW), but most notably, Explosive Pro Wrestling (EPW), based out of Perth, Western Australia where he unsuccessfully challenged for the EPW Heavyweight Championship against Chris Vice. But, the fact that in his first match in EPW, he challenged for their top belt, shows how much his stock had risen in the Australian wrestling scene as a whole. Come 2014, Eagles made his American debut, on September 9th in Trinity, Florida for ACW (American Combat Wrestling), for his only United State appearance before PWG in April of this year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqkrIJkassE
From then until 2017, Eagles continued working the Australian independent scene (adding RCW, Wrestling GO!, IWA, PCW, and WSW to his resume), becoming a mainstay in several promotions, and the face of PWA, the promotion he started with. He has, by far, the most combined days as PWA Heavyweight champion: 1,185 days as of May 1st, which will only continue to grow as he is currently in his third reign; second place, Jack Bonza, was champion for 595 days. He is also the only person to hold that title on three occasions. His crispness of his in-ring work, the fluidity with which he moved, and obviously, his acrobatic offense caused him to stand out, increasing his popularity with the indy fans Down Under, and establishing himself as one of the elite Australian workers.
On August 4th, 2017, Robbie Eagles had a career shifting match: he lost the PWA Heavyweight championship to the Aerial Assassin, Will Ospreay. Two weeks later, in MCW, those two added Adam Brooks to the mix, and had a triple threat match for both the PWA Heavyweight Championship, and the MCW Intercommonwealth Championship, which Brooks ended up winning. Ospreay, who has vocalized how much he wants to put Aussie wrestling on the map, was glowing on social media after those matches about how talented the workers were in Australia, and really turned a lot of eyes onto the product there. Eagles recaptured both titles from Brooks later that year, in an awesome match from MCW Final Battle in December, and moved on to a feud with Slex over the Intercommonwealth belt, and a feud with Caveman Ugg (don’t judge him by the name, he’s insanely talented) for the PWA Heavyweight title, highlighted by a killer ladder match against Slex at MCW Clash of the Titans this year.
In February of this year, Robbie Eagles had the opportunity of his career, as he got the call from New Japan Pro Wrestling to participate in their tour of Australia. He was on three of their four shows, and was prominently displayed in a three way match with Will Ospreay and Cody in Perth. In April, he made his debut for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, one of the hottest and most popular American independent promotions, participating in both nights of the All-Star Weekend 14 event, working with Sammy Guevara and Flash Morgan Webster on the first night, and Joey Janela in the second night. Immediately afterwards, he hoped on a plane headed back home to Sydney so he could wrestle the PROGRESS Champion, Travis Banks, in the main event the PROGRESS x PWA show, where they performed in front of over 1,000 people, a big deal for an Aussie indy company. Talk about a career defining weekend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhguOOuiT6w
PWG’s next event, Bask in His Glory, takes place on Friday, May 25th, where Robbie Eagles is schedule to go one on one with the luchador Bandido (fellow countrymen Jonah Rock and Adam Brooks are also on the show). It looks like Eagles is set to be a regular for PWG, which would strongly build his notoriety stateside. With New Japan rumored to be looking at another Australian tour later this year, which would undoubtedly include Eagles, it seems obvious that he is on the cusp of international recognition in some of the biggest wrestling markets worldwide. What is not obvious, is just how high his ceiling of popularity is, as he has so much untapped potential as an international wrestling star.
Since then, Eagles rematched Will Ospreay at PWA Call to Arms in August 2018, where this time, he overcame the Aerial Assassin, in what is probably the best match to take place in Australia in 2018. After the match, Will Ospreay ripped off one of his signature nation’s flags that hang around his belt. Which nation’s flag? Well, Japan’s, of course. That was the first hint that Eagles would be working for New Japan some day. In September, he participated in PWG’s famous Battle of Los Angeles, alongside fellow countrymen, Adam Brooks and Jonah Rock. Falling in the second round to Shingo Takagi after defeated DJZ in the first, he performed well, and the Aussies were well received. Eagles now has his sights set on the next step in his career. New Japan’s Junior Tag League takes place on the Road to Power Struggle tour, beginning October 16th, and goes through November 1st. Eagles will no doubt represent the Australian wrestling scene beautifully.
