Nyla Rose Reveals Pitch For Tag Team With Yuka Sakazaki

Nyla Rose says she once floated the idea of forming a tag team with Yuka Sakazaki, and she already had a name picked out: The Magical Beasts. The former AEW Women’s World Champion shared the story during a virtual signing appearance with K & S WrestleFest, recalling the pitch with clear amusement as she looked back on it.

While Rose didn’t go into detail about when the idea was floated or how far it got within AEW’s creative process, the concept itself makes a lot of sense on paper. Both women have carved out distinct, larger-than-life personas in AEW’s women’s division — Rose with her imposing size and monster-heel presence, and Sakazaki with her high-flying, cartoonish “Magical Girl” gimmick that’s made her a fan favorite since she made her name in Tokyo Joshi Pro. A pairing built around a name like The Magical Beasts plays right into that contrast, blending Rose’s intimidating aura with Sakazaki’s colorful, almost anime-inspired persona.

Tag team wrestling in AEW’s women’s division has always been a bit of an inconsistent priority. Outside of a handful of programs and the occasional tag-focused segment, the promotion hasn’t leaned heavily into building out a dedicated women’s tag scene compared to its singles or multi-woman matches. That’s part of why a pitch like this stands out — it’s the kind of idea that could have added a fresh dynamic to the division if it had gotten off the ground, giving fans a pairing that leaned into personality and visual contrast rather than just in-ring style.

It’s also a reminder that wrestlers regularly pitch programs, teams, and gimmicks that never see the light of day, whether due to scheduling, creative direction changing, or simply not being the right time. Rose has never been shy about sharing behind-the-scenes stories from her run in AEW, and this is just the latest example of a concept that lived only in the pitch room. Whether The Magical Beasts could ever still happen remains to be seen — Rose and Sakazaki have crossed paths in AEW before, but nothing has materialized into a full-fledged tag team to date.

For now, it’s a fun bit of insight into how talent think about character work and potential pairings behind the scenes, even when the ideas don’t make it to television. Given how much fans have gravitated toward unconventional or personality-driven pairings in recent years, it wouldn’t be shocking if the idea resurfaces down the line in some form, especially if AEW decides to give its women’s tag division more sustained attention. Until then, The Magical Beasts remain exactly what Rose described: a pitch that never came to be, but one that’s at least amusing to imagine.