Every wrestler knows their career will end someday. Rogan is one of the few who has to contemplate that possibility every single year.
Diagnosed with aortic stenosis at an early age, Rogan underwent his first open-heart surgery at just 3 months old. Multiple operations followed through to the age of five in what was a terrifying time for him and his family. Every annual medical could end it all—but that uncertainty has shaped not only the wrestler he has become, but the man behind the character.
While speaking with Features of Wrestling at the EVO Wrestling Academy in Grimsby a couple of hours before he was set to lead the latest training session, the Yorkshire wrestler spoke openly about the importance of family and having that close support network:
“The first five years of my life, I spent more time in hospital than a normal child would. But it taught me how to deal with different things, and what family means and what health means and to appreciate life.”
When Rogan talks about family, one person keeps coming up, his mother. Having a strong family network, Rogan also credited his mother for keeping the family together at a difficult period in his life:
“My mom is incredible. She’s like the glue of the family. She keeps everyone together. But yeah, over the years, even growing up now and being an adult, I am still in shock of what my mum does for us all. She’s incredible.”
With health conditions at such a young age, Rogan was unable to participate in things many would take for granted, such as playing sports in school. However, when his heart condition stabilised, he was able to pursue his passion, pro wrestling. Even though some parents may be cautious to allow their child to take part in something as high-risk as pro wrestling, especially after multiple heart surgeries, Rogan’s parents would not deny him the opportunity:
“So from the start, the second I started wrestling, and to this day, they are aware of my wrestling and what I’m doing. Every year I have to pass a medical. For example, next year they could say, ‘Hey, look, it’s time to have another surgery. We need to go back in.’ My career would just be done. It would stop there, which would crush me.”
With the Yorkshire wrestler missing out on so much in his youth, he has since been able to make up for lost time and received the full support from his parents in the process:
“So because of that, and because my parents know that, and how much of my life I lost those first five years, not being able to do anything, and not being able to do sports or PE or whatever for many years while I recovered, they were very much in the mindset of we ain’t going to say no. Go do it, go live your life, go do as much as you can now. Because you never know what round the corner is going to be, and that’s what I live by now.”
To ensure risks are minimised, Rogan is regularly assessed to ensure he is still safe to compete inside the ring. However, if a doctor says that he can’t wrestle, the career will end on the spot. While some would see this as a sign that things may be coming to an end soon, the Yorkshire Tough wrestler sees this from a different angle. Instead of the condition defining him and being a dark cloud, Rogan uses the limited time as one of his biggest sources of motivation.
With uncertainty surrounding his career, Rogan has frequently been in the more hard-hitting matches, with tables, thumbtacks and barbed wire all being used at one point or another. The next match could be Rogan’s last, so he ensures that every one is the best he can deliver:
“When these crazy stipulations come up or these crazy ideas, or I can’t sit and be like I might get booked. I’m constantly pushing myself and pushing my brand and who I am and who Rogan is because I don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring. I want to live to the fullest every single day, because why not?”
How Rogan Became Yorkshire Tough
Like many wrestling fans who grew up in the 90s and early 2000s, WWF’s Attitude Era was an integral influence on Rogan looking to follow his dreams of competing inside the ring. Inspired by one of the greatest pay-per-views of all time, WrestleMania 17, it was the Hardcore Title triple threat that hooked him the most. Of the three men in the match, Kane left the biggest lasting impression. Unsurprisingly, seeing the demonic Kane on TV led to Rogan also developing a lifelong love of horror movies. However, despite the love of horror, Rogan did not go down the psychotic route when it came to his wrestling persona. Instead, “The Big Hoss” developed a more hard-hitting style, which naturally led to his tag team partnership.
Although Rogan has now positioned himself more in the singles division, he was previously best known for being part of the Yorkshire Tough tag team with Reece. Having a similar build, mindset and appreciation of the more physical style of wrestling, both men clicked instantly despite not being that familiar with one another at first. However, like many tag teams that were initially thrown together, their success was a clear indication that it was the right decision.
Despite being paired up together as opposed to an organic partnership, Rogan never saw tag team wrestling as beneath him. Instead, he found no longer being in the team to be tougher to accept:
“When the idea was approached to me, I didn’t really know Reece, and Reece didn’t really know me. But over time, he became a big brother to me, and I hope he knows that still to this day. Even though he’s not wrestling, I hope he knows how much he means to me. I looked up to him a lot. I really, really did inside the ring and outside the ring. Reece gave me a lot of advice. Reece was there for me. A lot of dark times, when my dad passed, Reece was the first person outside of my close family to know. So it wasn’t more difficult to accept that I’m in the tag team. It was more difficult to accept that I’m no longer in the tag team.”
Prior to the Yorkshire Tough split, Reece and Rogan were the first two entrants in a Royal Rumble-style match. The split was not considered at that time, but that tag partners gave the fans a taste of things to come. The match also had one or two surprises, one of which was the current Undisputed Women’s Champion in RevPro, Alexxis Falcon. Getting suplexed by Falcon in the match, Rogan put over the fellow Yorkshire wrestler, but maintained that Reece is the strongest wrestler from the county.
“Alexxis is full of charisma. Alexxis is a character within herself, and I’m sure she would tell you herself she’s killing it. She’s absolutely killing it. Reese is underrated in terms of strength. He’s the strongest member of Yorkshire Tough.”
Another surprise entrant in the match was Tom Campbell, who is best known to wrestling fans as a ring announcer and one of the hosts on Cultaholic’s YouTube channel. Being put into the match on short notice, Campbell dropped a number of wrestlers with a stunner, including Rogan, before making a swift exit. Rogan was the one who called for the Stunner, while also echoing similar praise to Campbell that he did to Alexxis Falcon:
“I see Tom every time I go to North, and he’s one of them guys who will big up me every single time for no reason. I’ve done nothing to him for him to be constantly supportive of me, but Tom continuously goes out of his way to just say nice things, and he has no idea. But there’ve been times where I’ve been in my own head, I’ve been questioning myself, and he said something nice, and he has no idea. He has just changed my entire day and my entire outlook on a match, and he has no idea because that’s the sort of guy he is. He’s just a really positive human being to be around.”
From Tag Team To Solo Success
On top of winning tag team gold in various promotions, Rogan found success in the Lincoln promotion Fight Factory Wrestling. Not only did Rogan win the Heavyweight Championship, but he held the title for over a year as part of the FFW roster. It was during this reign that a lifetime memory was made.
FFW’s most important show of the year is Bodyslams to Cancer. Along with raising money for cancer charities, this is the show that draws the biggest crowd in Lincoln year on year. In the biggest championship match of the show, Rogan put the title on the line against J.O.C. [Jack O Clubs]. For the show, Fight Factory and Rogan collaborated to give the champion an entrance many parents can only dream of. Making his entrance in front of a sold-out crowd, Rogan walked to the ring with his son holding the title. Defeating J.O.C., Rogan celebrated with his son after the match, a moment both will remember for decades.
Reflecting on the moment, Rogan said it was a career highlight, and one that his son has watched more times than many young kids have watched Toy Story.
“That moment, you can’t write that. You can’t. It’s just a moment that connects. It connects with me. It connected with people in the room. The people that came up to me and said, I was crying, and they can’t really explain why. But it’s a moment where I hope he will be able to remember that for life because I know I will. Every day since then, he’s always gone, ‘Hey, can we watch it?’ It was amazing on the day. It’s still amazing now, but when you’ve watched it probably 1,500 times. It’s like, all right, let’s create another moment.”
Rogan also added that he intends to one day lose a championship to his son, in what will likely be his final match. Even if he has to take a pause on wrestling, a match with his son will be that coveted final time in the ring, and will no doubt be one to remember.
In storyline, things boiled over for Yorkshire Tough as Reece attacked his former tag partner out of jealousy. The rivalry culminated at Fight Factory’s return to the Drill show, which saw Rogan defeat Reece in an “I Quit” match. Shortly after, Reece retired from pro wrestling due to health issues:
“Reece has a medical issue that happened kind of suddenly, and it was out of his control, and it was no longer safe for him to wrestle or lift people, so he had to abruptly say I need surgery, and don’t think I can continue wrestling because it’s affecting his real life. At that point it hit me. Not because I’m no longer in the tag team, but this guy who I’ve been in my life every single weekend, this older brother who I lean on a lot, is no longer in the picture, and accepting that was very difficult for me at first. But I’m lucky to have a lot of people around me say, you can do this on your own. You’ve just got to believe in yourself. And I always had issues with self-belief and believing in yourself. But I’m fortunate that I’m where I am now.”
With both men knowing that this would be one of the final times Reece stepped in the ring, they both had the same idea in mind to tear the house down. With the sold-out crowd firmly behind the champion, it was very much mission accomplished. With the blow-off happening in Fight Factory, Rogan thanked owners Hayden and Rebecca for all they have done for him individually and as a team:
“Becca and Hayden are two amazing people. They have been nothing but good to me. They just approached me one day, completely out the blue, ‘Look, how do you feel if we put the belt on you?’ I was like, Why me? It goes back to that issue with self-belief and believing in myself, it goes back to, oh, this guy’s better. It’s not like I don’t want to be here, it’s more of a I can’t believe I’m here. I’m thankful I have this opportunity, but it’s more that I’m in shock. It takes a while for me to resonate. When I got that opportunity, I obviously said yes, and I took it.”
Rogan also thanked FFW for giving him and Reece time to tell their story in their final encounter:
“I want to say thank you to Becca. I want to say thank you to Hayden, and Reece was the same mindset, Becca was like, ‘Look, take as much as you guys need, go out there, kill it, and do what you guys need to do.'”
Inspiring The Next Generation
While the direction of many aspiring wrestlers is the same- fan becomes student becomes wrestler- Rogan has taken things one step further. A trainer at the EVO Pro Wrestling Academy in Grimsby, the Yorkshire brawler is looking to help the rising stars in the area. Despite having the backing of Cleethorpes-based promotion BWR, Rogan did not feel worthy of the position:
“It’s something similar to being presented at a championship. It’s something I never asked for. It’s something that was presented to me around the time Reece announced his sudden retirement. I seriously questioned who is Rogan? What is my position? My entire branding was Reece and Rogan, and now Reece is gone. I didn’t know what I was. I didn’t know who I was. Thankfully, Scotty Rawk, who was killing it all over the scene, presented me with an idea, and so did Adam, who is the owner of BWR. They said, ‘Hey, we believe in you. We believe you’ve got a really good mindset for this. What do you feel like you’ve been a coach?’ My reply, in classic Corey fashion, was, ‘I’m not sure. Why me?’ I turned it down. I turned it down initially. I was just I don’t think anyone wants to attend a session with me. Just who am I?”
Despite the initial imposter syndrome in believing that no one would want to be trained by him, Rogan saw his support grow with more aspiring wrestlers coming to class. The Yorkshire wrestler has also taken things even further by guest training at other schools in the country:
“Adam and Scotty Rawk constantly kept saying like, “Hey, look, we believe in you. We believe in you. They were really good friends to me at a time when I needed it most. And they they convinced me to take it, and I took it. And the first week there was like four people. I was like, “I get it. No one wants to train with me. I was in my own head. Now four, five months later, we’ve got like 20-plus people. We’ve doubled in size. We’re doing really really well. And becoming a coach, it went from imposter syndrome to, all right, this is really really cool, and seeing my students and getting my students opportunities is more rewarding to me than what I’m doing in the ring.”
There’s no denying that Rogan’s story is an inspirational one. With things against him from an early age, the Yorkshire native was able to fulfil his dream as a pro wrestler, win championships all around the country, and help the next generation realise their own potential. Closing out our conversation, Rogan had a message for anyone who might be struggling:
“I would just say remember who you are. Remember that you’re never ever alone. We’re never alone. There is always somebody out there who could talk, and there’s always somebody out there who you can reach out to. It’s just in those moments, it’s very, very easy to accept that you’re not. Just remember that no matter how bad the days can get, the very next day could be the best day of your life.”
Every year, another medical awaits. One day, that appointment may bring Rogan’s career to an end. Until then, he plans to keep wrestling, keep coaching and keep making memories with his family—just as his parents encouraged him to do all those years ago.
To keep up to date with Rogan’s upcoming dates, follow him on Instagram.
