Wrestling Observer Live with Mike Sempervive returns with a Friday edition featuring CMLL World Welterweight Champion Rocky Romero.
Before that, there is plenty to talk about including the latest reporting on the impasse between CM Punk and AEW, a preview of tonight’s WWE SmackDown, Bryan Danielson working in creative for AEW, and more.
Then, I get to my talk with Romero about Sunday’s NJPW Strong Resurgence show taking place in Long Beach, California, He not only gives potatoes in the ring, but he apparently also calls from one, so we apologize for the shaky phone connection.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez is back with tons to talk about including Dynamite tonight, CM Punk wants to return, RAW ratings back to normal, a quick NXT report with all the big stuff, then Rocky Romero joins us to talk New Japan’s big weekend with shows in both Washington DC and Philadelphia on FITE! A fun show as always so check it out~!
Dave Meltzer and I are back for a new Wrestling Observer Radio going over all the news in the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter as well as the story of Vince McMahon’s asking price for WWE.
Rocky Romero then joins to talk about New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Battle in the Valley show in San Jose.
He also talked about the following:
His match with Volador Jr. and his strategy to sell the match and feud
What skills his job outside of the ring entails
Wrestling in many different companies and countries
A trios match has been added to tonight’s AEW Rampage lineup as Best Friends & Danhausen will take on Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal & Satnam Singh.
The two teams have been at odds for several weeks.
This will be the first time Jarrett, Lethal and Singh have been in a trios match together as different pairings have been in traditional tag team matches. Similarly, this is the first trios action for the unit of Chuck Taylor, Trent Beretta and Danhausen.
It will be a homecoming for Taylor, who is known as the “Kentucky Gentleman.
The new match joins a lineup that already features Hangman Page vs. Wheeler Yuta in addition to both AEW Women’s Champion Jamie Hayter and Powerhouse Hobbs in action.
Here’s the current lineup, taped this past Wednesday in Lexington, Kentucky:
Hangman Page vs. Wheeler Yuta
AEW Women’s Champion Jamie Hayter vs. Emi Sakura in a title eliminator match
Best Friends & Danhausen vs. Jeff Jarrett, Satnam Singh & Jay Lethal
On the latest edition of The Sessions with Renee Paquette, Rocky Romero discussed the “stressful situation” of trying to juggle The Good Brothers’ WWE return with their NJPW appearances.
Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows made their return to WWE this October, appearing on Raw for the first time since being released in April 2020. But despite coming back to WWE, Anderson is still NJPW’s NEVER Openweight Champion. Anderson’s return to WWE meant that he couldn’t make a scheduled title defense against Hikuleo on November 5 due to needing to be in Saudi Arabia for WWE Crown Jewel. The match was instead rescheduled for earlier this month, with Anderson defeating Hikuleo to retain the NEVER title.
Romero told Paquette that there was initially some confusion over the NJPW dates that The Good Brothers were going to be working, but the situation has been figured out and NJPW has turned it into a “big angle.” Anderson will again appear for NJPW when he defends the NEVER Openweight Championship against Tama Tonga at Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4.
Romero said:
It’s been a very stressful situation for me [laughs]. Obviously, when the guys started talking about WWE had reached out to them, I of course started to get nervous because I knew that we had a bunch of dates set and everything and obviously, like you [Renee Paquette] said, Anderson was the NEVER Openweight Champion. I got worried and I said, ‘You know, you guys just don’t screw me over please.’ I was part of the reason that you guys came back and helped to, you know? Obviously, they left on good terms and everything, but just to bring them back was definitely a part of that.
So we started talking about that but then finally [Anderson] was like, ‘Okay, we’re gonna sign and somebody’s gonna have to talk to WWE.’ So of course that means me having to talk to WWE. But I got on the line and obviously, there was some confusion on the dates that they were gonna actually do and there was that November 5 show that Anderson had already been announced for for New Japan but then it was also the same time that the Saudi Arabia show was going on. Obviously there was gonna be conflict right there, so that’s kind of how it started. It started off real rocky and they went and did Saudi, we figured it out, got a new date, and then just decided to turn it into a big angle because I thought that was probably the best way to deal with it. Hoping that everything was gonna work out but not really sure. Finally, [Anderson] went and did this last show a couple days ago and successfully defended the title. So now he’ll be at the Tokyo Dome to face Tama Tonga, which is really exciting. Dude, this Tokyo Dome is gonna be insane. We have a WWE wrestler in Karl Anderson, we have Kenny Omega who’s an AEW wrestler, we’ve got Stardom wrestlers on the show, we’ve got New Japan wrestlers.
Paquette asked Romero what the odds are that AJ Styles could come to Wrestle Kingdom 17 with Anderson. “Anything is possible, Renee,” Romero responded. “Anything is possible.”
When indirectly asked about the rumors of Mercedes Varnado (Sasha Banks) showing up at Wrestle Kingdom 17, Romero didn’t confirm or deny the appearance but promised that there will be surprises at the Tokyo Dome.
I’ve heard a lot of rumors but I don’t really — I cannot confirm nor deny at this moment. But you know, fingers crossed that — you never know what could happen. Definitely will be some surprises at the Tokyo Dome.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including RAW from Monday night, all the latest news from the past few days, Dave Meltzer moving to video, and THE RETURN OF ROCKY ROMERO to talk about two big New Japan USA shows this weekend on FITE.tv. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Impact Wrestling has added three matches to the lineup for its next set of television tapings.
The promotion will be in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday and Saturday for Derby City Rumble.
Deonna Purrazzo & Chelsea Green vs. Jordynne Grace & Mia Yim has been added to the lineup for Friday, July 15. Purrazzo and Green also teamed together recently at Impact Against All Odds on July 1. They defeated the team of Mia Yim and Mickie James.
X-Division Champion Mike Bailey vs. Rocky Romero has been announced for Saturday, July 16 as well. It is not advertised as a title match.
Honor No More’s Mike Bennett & Matt Taven vs. Bullet Club’s Chris Bey & Ace Austin has also been announced for the show on Friday.
Impact Wrestling Derby City Rumble will take place from Old Forester’s Paristown Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. The updated lineup for the television tapings is as follows:
Friday, July 15:
Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelley
KUSHIDA vs. Rich Swann
Deonna Purrazzo & Chelsea Green vs. Jordynne Grace & Mia Yim
Mike Bennett & Matt Taven vs. Chris Bey & Ace Austin
Saturday, July 16:
Impact X-Division Champion Mike Bailey vs. Rocky Romero in a non-title bout.
After Sunday’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door was a wrap, AEW head Tony Khan thanked Rocky Romero for being the liaison between himself and Gedo to ensure that both sides found the collaboration satisfactory.
Romero was on the card itself, teaming with Trent Beretta as Roppongi Vice in the three-way ROH/IWGP Tag Team title match that also included FTR and Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb.
For Romero, this was a unique position to be in. I had the chance to speak to him following the show and he provided lots of insight as to how the event came together, the experience of working in-between AEW and NJPW, and some interesting news about the future.
“I just went back and forth between AEW and New Japan and tried to be sensible and try to be the one to communicate what the ideas were, but also the sentiment and overall what the show needed. Whether it be, ‘We need more of this’ or ‘We need more of this’ and ‘Let’s not forget about American fans or Japanese fans so we need to cater to them this way.’ I was kinda really trying to break that down, so that both sides could understand two completely different ways of doing business. The AEW model is obviously a traditional American TV model whereas New Japan is more of a Japanese tour-based model so it’s very different, the way they booked shows and do things.”
How Kenny Omega helped open the “forbidden door”
While we have seen glimpses of a working relationship between AEW and NJPW the past year or so, it wasn’t always like that. Romero explained how Kenny Omega was the person who helped open the doors between both companies after the relationship became strained following the exit of The Elite from NJPW.
“…the New Japan/AEW relationship was kinda on ice when the Elite guys had exited New Japan and there was kind of a worry of how they were gonna go forward. Our president at the time didn’t really see the potential in maybe working with AEW. We already had partners in ROH and CMLL, so maybe they were thinking, ‘Let’s see how this AEW thing works out before jumping into it, so we don’t offend our partners Obviously those guys had left ROH too, so it was a very messy and complicated situation.
“Now jumping forward to, I would say, a year-and-a-half ago when Kenny (Omega) called me and had pitched the idea of kind of opening the doors a little bit. Obviously, (Jon) Moxley and (Chris) Jericho were still working with New Japan, but Kenny and the (Young) Bucks were a pivotal, important part of New Japan prior to AEW and they are EVPs, so they hold a lot of power. Not wanting to forget about them completely, we had to open the relationship and Kenny kind of opened that and said ‘Hey, I have this idea of KENTA coming into AEW and working with Moxley since they already had a storyline’ and that’s kinda where everything started.”
From that point on, he became the liaison between both promotion. Since KENTA first appeared on AEW television in February 2021, he and Tony Khan have been in communication, exchanging talent to appear on NJPW and vice versa. These back and forth exchanges are part of what helped build a strong and trustworthy relationship for both AEW and NJPW.
“All of the things that you have seen, people showing up on AEW television, and AEW stars coming to New Japan Strong, that’s all been Tony and I going back and forth. It’s definitely built a really solid relationship between New Japan and AEW, where I know Tony has said, ‘I can truly say that both companies have trust in each other and confidence in the relationship.’
“So that’s really been the most important thing in all of this is building that. And both companies I think have the same view of ‘Let’s try to do something really cool for the fans and let’s try do something different’ because no matter what there is always another company that has such a stronghold on the professional wrestling business worldwide that teaming up only makes sense. These totally awesome products, one in Japan and one in America, can totally team up and not hurt each other’s business or revenue share or anything like that.”
Texting Tony Khan about a joint event
Tony Khan made the Forbidden Door announcement on AEW Dynamite. However, it never really became known how exactly the idea came together.
As it turns out, it was Romero.
“Now, nobody get mad at me if my memory doesn’t serve me well. I think that I sent a text to Tony and said, ‘I think it would be cool if somehow we can figure out how to do some kind of joint event’ and then it just kinda started from there. Then he immediately had ideas about what we could do card-wise, honestly starting with Okada, Jay (White), Hangman (Page). I am not sure if Cole was in the picture at that time or if he came later.
“But that was already kind of an idea, so it’s funny that it worked out that way, all the way to Forbidden Door. This conversation was like ten months ago or so, I would say. I think that’s kinda how it started and then it just snowballed. So, I wanna say 10 months ago, it started with that text.”
The challenges of putting Forbidden Door together, beating “the curse”
Heading into Forbidden Door, there were a lot of issues that surrounded the show that led to many fans believing that the show was cursed. This included the removal of Bryan Danielson and CM Punk on the AEW side due to injuries and Tomohiro Ishii’s injury and Hiromu Takahashi’s fever on the NJPW side.
Romero spoke about the challenges they faced in pulling off the show.
“The initial part of the negotiation was fairly easy and just working out details from there. Both sides were pretty giving because they wanted to make it work. Obviously, there is a huge potential for business, so once we got done with that part, we moved onto creative. That’s where it got difficult due to scheduling, other things, injuries, everything else that came down the pipeline, so then it got even more difficult.
“Finally in the last 24 hours or so, Hiromu got the fever, couldn’t come, couldn’t make the plane ride and then it was like This is crazy.’ Everybody was saying ‘This show is cursed’ and then I started to feel like ‘This show is cursed. Something bad is gonna happen!’ And then it goes off without a hitch the day of.
“It felt really good. For an event that I feel had a lot of mixed emotions, everybody seemed to have an opinion on the show, and a lot of people were saying ‘Oh, this will never do well.’ Then the sellout happened, pay-per-view numbers so far have been really really good, and 15,000+ people showed up to the United Center. Not a bad night for a show that was supposedly cursed, and wouldn’t do good business. Thanks to all the haters for hating on it. It also helped promote the show. That’s the funny thing: Everybody having an opinion on the show and saying how it wouldn’t work got people talking about it.”
Forbidden Door 2
Fans are wondering whether or not there will be a second Forbidden Door. Khan has already stated multiple times that he hopes to have more joint events like this one and Romero spoke about how much smoother a second show would hopefully go.
“I definitely think moving forward into Forbidden Door 2, when and if that happens, it will be a much smoother working relationship. Everything should be much smoother because now both companies have a true understanding of how each one works. The things we could do better and fix all of the problems — minus injuries and things that you can’t really (control). They just kinda happen unfortunately. That’s just the name of the game.”
Could the second show happen in Japan? Romero said NJPW is game for it.
“I know that that is something that New Japan is very interested in doing and it doesn’t necessarily have to be Forbidden Door 2. It can be Forbidden Door 3. It can definitely be in Japan. Forbidden Door was successful internationally, so I feel that can be left open. There are definitely tons of places you can go internationally with a card like Forbidden Door. I think Forbidden Door would be successful internationally. It just depends on the timing if we decide to do it in June of next year or if it needs to be accompanied by part of January 4th and 5th or something. I think there are a lot of options.”
Romero said they would like the build to be stronger for a second show, having AEW stars appear on NJPW and vice versa. He also explained how obtaining working visas for the talent played a major role in the storytelling leading up to the show.
“In terms of what we would do differently. I feel like scheduling would be a lot easier because we would know ‘x’ amount of weeks out if people need to come to America, whether it be in the U.S or Japan. The Japan side would have loved to have AEW people come over to help make storylines, but the problem obviously being that there wasn’t enough time to get visas and other things that were just beyond our control. Visas literally opened up three weeks before the build to Forbidden Door started, so it was almost impossible to really get visas at the last second.
“Now, knowing what we need to do, I think we can definitely fix it where I think it will be an even more exciting build. Imagine Bryan Danielson shows up to Dominion or something like that or CM Punk or Kenny show up. That would be really, really cool.”
Orange Cassidy was “tentative” about his match with Will Ospreay
Given what a strong night of wrestling action there was, I asked Romero what his favorite match of the night was. He swiftly answered Orange Cassidy vs. Will Ospreay for the IWGP United States Championship — a match he felt stole the show.
“Here is another example of the fans being like Oh, you could have done anything else with Will Ospreay.’ This was Tony’s idea to do Cassidy and Ospreay. I saw the potential in it because I was like ‘That’s so money because that’s a dream match that maybe you wouldn’t think of right off the bat but it’s a for sure dream.’ Everybody kinda forgets that Cassidy is such a great wrestler because he has such a fantastic gimmick. So, you have two great wrestlers. I thought that was gonna kick butt and it exceeded my expectations because it really stole the show.”
Romero also revealed that Cassidy felt “tentative” about being the guy to wrestle Ospreay on this high-profile event.
“Even going into it, Orange Cassidy was like ‘I am not sure.’ He was a little tentative, like ‘Maybe that’s not a great match for me.’ I was, like, “Dude, this is gonna be awesome.’ We actually talked about it after. He was, like, ‘Dude, that was one of my favorite matches of all-time that I’ve ever done I can’t believe I was tentative.’ I said, ‘If you’re not tentative and you care about what you do, then you really don’t care. So you gotta feel that way as a performer.’ But I think for the most part, Tony and I knew it was gonna be a home run.”
NJPW Strong PPV-sized event coming in October to the U.S.
After discussing Forbidden Door, Romero shared some exciting news regarding New Japan Strong.
He informed me that for the NJPW Strong show taking place in Nashville as part of Starrcast weekend and Ric Flair’s Last Match on July 30th, they have signed some big stars for that show, heavily alluding to current IWGP Tag Team Champions, FTR.
“We do have NJPW Strong stuff coming up. We have a pay-per-view in Nashville that’s gonna be part of Starrcast. So that’s gonna be huge, that’s July 30th. We just signed some really big names for that, some really really big names. Maybe you’ll see some IWGP tag champions there.”
On top of that, he also revealed that NJPW Strong will be holding a “big pay-per-view sized event coming to the East Coast” later this year around October. He couldn’t reveal more info as contracts have yet to signed.
You can watch my entire interview on YouTube at the top of this post.
It’s the AEW DOUBLE OR NOTHING go home show edition of AEW Dynamite! Join on-camera personality Denise Salcedo as she breaks down the events of the night, analyzes the storylines and matches while also engaging with the live viewers!
Topics include the build to AEW DON, Wardlow and MJF’s feud, the beef between Hangman Adam Page and CM Punk, NJPW’s Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan of the United Empire appear, a wacky Hardy Boys promo, the Owen Hart Cup Men’s and Women’s tournament, and more!
This podcast is sponsored by Wrestle Rumble.
Denise will also return on Monday to discuss her live event experience at AEW Double or Nothing.
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Austin Theory spoke to TVInsider on his upcoming match against Pat McAfee at WrestleMania 38. He spoke about working with Vince McMahon. “I’m in a position that anyone who aspired to do anything in WWE would be so honored to have,” he said. I understand just how big a deal the position I am in is. Just how crazy it is for me as a lifelong fan who grew up watching Mr. McMahon and the crazy things he did. It’s cool to be put in a position to perform live television with him. The one thing I’ve learned from him is this respectful aggressiveness. Showing you have that respect, but if you have an idea and are passionate about something, you have to use that aggressiveness to go after it. There are little tips as we perform that I take away from for sure.”
WWE’s YouTube page has a preview of the upcoming episode of Broken Skull Sessions with guest Lita.
Natalya spoke with WMBD in Illinois about WrestleMania 38. She also spoke about the incident during WrestleMania 35 weekend where a fan ran in and attacked Bret Hart during his Hall of Fame speech. “It was really scary, actually. My uncle was starting to speak about my dad. I know that my dad meant so much to my uncle. They were best friends. My dad wasn’t there to speak or accept the award, so when you’re honoring somebody’s life after they’re gone, it’s very emotional,” Natalya said. For us, we were just trying to honor my dad’s life and give him an incredible send off.“I say this with complete conviction, just like our fans in WWE, just like the superstars in WWE, and the company. We were resilient. [Bret] and I got knocked down, we got right back up, and we kept going.”
This week’s Road to focuses on Thunder Rosa winning the AEW Women’s World Championship last week on Dynamite.
In an interview with MMA Fighting, Paige VanZant said she would like to do both pro wrestling and bare knuckle fighting. “I want to fight for AEW. I want to fight for BKFC. Contract is open-ended so I could still do MMA at the same time. I love MMA and I know my door’s definitely not closed on MMA, but at the same time, my passion really is pro wrestling and bare-knuckle boxing right now.”
In an interview with Between the Ropes, Rocky Romero talked about the initial friction between AEW and NJPW. “Obviously like AEW talent coming to NJPW STRONG like we talked about earlier is important but also like vice-versa …NJPW talent going to an AEW is super cool and important, you know that is how the forbidden door started right?” Romero said. “Because of, not going too deep into the backstory, but there was some friction there between AEW and NJPW when The Bucks and Kenny left [NJPW] to form AEW with Tony [Khan]and things were not easy at first. But we are really working on the relationship and people like Kenny and Moxley and Jericho were really important in opening up that conversation again… so yeah of course I want to be a part of AEW they are doing great stuff and getting to work with TRENT again was awesome and I want to do more stuff with TRENT and Chuckie, Wheeler and of course, Orange Cassidy is the man.”
A cartoon series called The Gimmicks featuring Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, nZo and Rocky Romero will begin releasing episodes this Friday.
The show has been described as “South Park meets wrestling.” New episodes will be released every Friday on the show’s website.
The plot follows three washed up wrestlers from a regional promotion titled the Wrestling Wrestling Wrestling League. They bring in a new rookie to their promotion in an attempt to make it back to the big time.
It’s backed by Sixth Wall Productions, the digital branch of Mila Kunis’ Orchard Farm Productions. A non-fungible token (NFT) component of the show will allow owners of The Gimmicks NFTs to have impact on the direction of the story. Each episode will end on a cliffhanger and NFT owners will have input as to where the story goes next.
NFT owners will also be able to view episodes before the general public along with other perks.
The pre-list mint access period for the show’s NFTs will be from March 15-17. The public mint will be on March 18. The NFTs will be free for anyone with a Solana wallet and can be purchased directly from the show’s website.
The Gimmicks is written by Dave Ihlenfeld and David Wright and produced by Web3 animation studio, Toonstar. Gallows, Anderson, Romero and nZo will all voice characters.
The WWW is expanding. I need YOUR help in casting the "Fanatic Fan"! VOTE in poll in THREAD!! LFG 🍆👊
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including Rampage and Smackdown line-ups, AEW Dynamite ratings, tons of news notes and feedback and more, then Rocky Romero joins us to talk New Japan Pro Wrestling and Rampage! A fun show as always so check it out~!
The reunion of Roppongi Vice will have to wait a while longer as Rocky Romero has tested positive for COVID-19 and will not be on Friday’s live edition of AEW Rampage.
Romero (see above) was set to team with former teammate Trent Beretta against The Young Bucks in Washington, DC, rekindling a rivalry that really took flight in the rings of New Japan Pro Wrestling.
In its place will be Beretta vs. Nick Jackson of the Young Bucks, first announced by Tony Khan on Busted Open Radio Friday.
Sorry everyone… Gonna have push back the RPG Vice reunion. COVID got me. Currently I’m feeling very mild symptoms. I’m vaxed and boosted so should kick right out of this!!
— ROCKY ROMERO🇵🇷 🇲🇽 🇺🇸 🇯🇵“Chico El Luchador” (@azucarRoc) January 21, 2022
During the aforementioned interview, Khan said “there’s a good chance there’s going to be a small change to the match” due to medical protocols before announcing the new singles encounter.
Khan also said that Jon Moxley vs. Ethan Page will kick off the show and that TBS Champion Jade Cargill vs. Anna Jay will be the main event. Hook is also scheduled for action against Serpentico in the former’s first-ever live match.
