By: Reece Hooker
Special to POST Wrestling
Before Robbie Eagles had even crossed the curtain at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, he had chills.
This wasn’t even the biggest crowd he’d performed in front of this year — that’d be the Tokyo Dome, where Eagles reclaimed the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships at Wrestle Kingdom in front of 24,000 — or his first time competing under the All Elite Wrestling/Ring of Honor umbrella.
But it was perhaps the most meaningful entrance of his decorated career, walking out to a raucous reception from over 10,000 fellow Australians en route to fight Lee Moriarty for the Ring of Honor Pure Championship. As Eagles explains, the roar of the crowd from the first rumble of his music was validation that the ‘Sniper of the Skies’ has landed a lasting shot.
“Seeing that sort of building filled in Australia is a pipe dream to me because until AEW came along, it was only WWE doing those kinds of arenas. I never thought I’d get that opportunity to walk out there,” Eagles tells POST Wrestling.
“I was worried that most of the crowd wouldn’t know who I was, but I guess my time in Australian wrestling has been worth it.”
Even a few days prior, there was little assurance that Eagles would be featured. He found out about the match when the world did, about 48 hours before it took place.
“It was brewing but not formally confirmed until the online announcement. When it went online, my phone was dead. I put it on charge, took a nap, woke up around 2 or 3 pm on my birthday, and my phone was going crazy,” Eagles says.
And if there was anyone in the nosebleeds unfamiliar with Eagles’ work, they were treated to a thrilling 10-minute crash course: Like Moriarty, Eagles blends quick-twitch athleticism with dexterity on the mat, and the champion’s hulking size accentuates the natural sympathy Eagles excels at drawing out of the audience. During his last flurry of offense, Eagles drilled Moriarty with a kick before dashing to the corner for a 450 splash, landing on the champion’s leg, before trying to close out the match with the painful Ron Miller Special leg submission. All in all, the sequence took just 20 seconds.
Of course, most people who bought a ticket for AEW Grand Slam and Ring of Honor Global Wars knew all about Robbie Eagles — he might be the most decorated Australian men’s wrestler not signed to WWE or AEW. He’s a former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, a two-time tag team title holder, and a 2024 World Junior Tag League winner. In this year’s Best of the Super Juniors, he’s set to equal Prince Devitt’s record seven entries for a foreigner.
If this sort of tenure surprises you, you’re not alone. As Eagles, speaking shortly after an appearance at Qatar Pro Wrestling’s Super Slam III, says: “In Qatar, people were asking how old I am. I’ve just turned 35, and everyone was shocked—they said I look much younger. That’s flattering, but I definitely feel like I’ve been doing this for 17 years.”
Part of that means feeling the bumps and bruises more than he used to — Eagles admits his leg “still doesn’t feel great” after a particularly painful dive to the outside during a championship defence against Roppongi ReVice in Osaka, speaking two weeks removed from the match — but it also manifests in a sense of confidence inside and outside the ring.
Since joining New Japan in 2018, Eagles has cycled through three factions — starting in Bullet Club, defecting for CHAOS before finally finding his home in TMDK, a faction that originated in Australia. Eagles acknowledges that being in the group, alongside countrymen Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste, and Hartley Jackson, has brought him out of his shell.
“It gave me the ability to bring out the swagger I always had, but was a bit hesitant to show,” he says. ”Now I’m like, ‘No, I’ve got the boys backing me, and I feel comfortable in this new skin, so I’m just gonna flaunt it a bit.’”
Eagles’ history with faction leader Zack Sabre Jr predates his NJPW run, first starting with a 2017 match in Sydney for World Series Wrestling.
“I’d never wrestled anyone of that skill level at that point. Going into that match, obviously, I didn’t get the victory, but it made me realize what I still needed to learn on the technical aspect. That’s something that really defined the ‘Sniper of the Skies’ to this day,” he says.
They had a rematch the year after (which Eagles won, he makes sure to mention), but it took until 2021 for the mutual respect to graduate into a meaningful friendship.
“During the pandemic, I was overseas for a long time. It’s when faction lines broke down behind the scenes. There were a bunch of us foreigners doing the long haul in Japan, and I was there for seven months straight. I missed Christmas, I missed New Years. I’d only been in the brand new home I purchased for two weeks before leaving,” Eagles says.
“Zack was one of the guys who would reach out to me and say, ‘Hey, if you want to grab a bite to eat, let’s catch up. I just want to check on how you’re doing.’ That really showed me that he cares about people. So, when the whole TMDK thing happened, I was like, ‘This is the direction I have to go in because Zack cares about me, that’s why he’s offering me the spot.’”
Eagles is just as effusive when talking about his TMDK stablemate and tag team partner Kosei Fujita, with whom he holds tag team gold as the Ichiban Sweet Boys (a reference to their love of sugary treats).
“He’s already achieving great heights. We love seeing those things happen. Seeing it happen for him so early, I know what it was like for me at 21 or 22 winning titles in Australia, so I can imagine what it feels like for him winning IWGP gold. I love being part of that moment. Even if it were singles gold, I’d still be just as proud,” he says.
“I’m just the older brother trying to look out for him and create a strong pathway for him to follow, but he’s created his own path. I’m trying to get cool points from him because he’s the coolest person I know—his dress sense, how he moves, his wrestling style, which is so different from his early time as a Young Lion. He’s a sponge, so he soaks up the knowledge. Even if we try something that doesn’t work the first time, he learns from it right away and nails it the second time.”
In 2023, Eagles accompanied Fujita on a brief excursion to Australia. Over six weeks, Fujita wrestled seven matches in six promotions across four states.
“I wanted him to have a great first international experience. Besides going to the US for a couple of days, this was his first time outside Japan, and I wanted him to see a relaxed environment but also a new style of wrestling. We have such a hybrid style here, so he was never comfortable — every promotion we went to was different,” Eagles says.
“I looked at it as a chance to show New Japan they can send Young Lions here long-term. Maybe it’ll bring more exposure to Aussie wrestling because people want to see what Young Lions do when they’re abroad before returning.”
Eagles advocates tirelessly for Australian wrestling. The night before his match against Lee Moriarty, despite nursing a sore leg from his brush with the barricade in Osaka, Eagles is defending his Soul of PWA Championship in the main event of an independent super-show hosted by Pro Wrestling League and Renegades of Wrestling. After a successful defence, Eagles tells the crowd he’s the gatekeeper of Australian wrestling. As he continues to proudly fly the flag at home and abroad, it’s hard to argue otherwise.