The Good Brothers’ WWE return was a ‘stressful situation’ for Rocky Romero.
Several months ago, The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows) made their returns to WWE for the first time since being released from the company in April 2020.
Gallows and Anderson wrapped up with IMPACT Wrestling and were still working with New Japan Pro-Wrestling when they arrived to WWE. Present day, Anderson is still in possession of the NEVER Openweight Title and is scheduled to defend the belt at Wrestle Kingdom 17.
Rocky Romero joined Renée Paquette on The Sessions podcast and recounted how stressful of a situation that was for him to navigate as a representative of New Japan. Romero admitted that he was nervous when Anderson and Gallows told him WWE reached out because of the plans that were in place for them in NJPW. Romero recounted telling the duo to not screw him over.
It’s been a very stressful situation for me [The Good Brothers returning to WWE]. Obviously, when the guys started talking about WWE reached out to them, I of course started to get nervous because 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 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 he 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 5th show that Anderson had already been announced for-for New Japan but then 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 he went and did Saudi, we figured it out, we 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, he 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 so, 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.
I’ve heard a lot of rumors [about who could show up at the Tokyo Dome] 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.
On top of Romero working with the powers that be in the Japan-based NJPW office, he’s heading up New Japan STRONG stateside.
Romero said he’s been in this position since the early 2000s and it was former referee Tiger Hattori who prepared and suggested him for the role.
Kind of around this time, we had an L.A. Dojo. It was back in Santa Monica, it was between 2002 and 2005-ish… [Bryan] Danielson was there, Samoa Joe, myself, Karl Anderson and Alex Koslov, Prince Devitt a.k.a. Finn Balor. So yeah, a lot of great talent came from there. I think during then, I just kind of ended up in a leadership-ish role there.
Maybe, maybe [I am just that type of person]. I don’t see it but I guess somehow, I always find myself in these predicaments where like, ‘You! Tell these people what to do’ kind of and I’m just like, ‘Guys, don’t get mad at me but here’s the situation.’ But yeah, I just started to kind of get a leadership role and communicating between the New Japan heads at the L.A. Dojo and then with the wrestlers and being the intermediary between them and somehow, much later, that experience was kind of the stepping stone I think to ten years later, 15 years later, whatever it was, 12 years later, that Tiger Hattori was stepping down in his position who was this guy that scouted talent, who went and agented deals and stuff between wrestlers and New Japan and found — you know, every person who’s gone through the New Japan door has probably, from the 80s and 90s and early 2000s, it was Tiger Hattori so, he kind of mentored me and suggested that he was ready to step down, I should take his place so, that’s how it happened. I basically owe my whole career to him.
After the Road to Tokyo Dome shows wrap up this week, NJPW will be moving towards Wrestle Kingdom 17 and the following day is New Year’s Dash at Korakuen Hall which will be a mystery card event.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Sessions with Renée Paquette with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
