It was the coaching offer that turned Rocky Romero away from the opportunity.
Present day, Rocky Romero operates as a liaison for New Japan Pro-Wrestling and is the middleman between them and their partners in the pro wrestling space. Romero is also heading the NJPW STRONG brand.
STRONG is heading to Japan on July 4th and 5th for their Independence Day shows and ahead of the events, Romero guest appeared on Phil Strum’s Under the Ring podcast.
He revealed that back in 2016, WWE wanted him to be part of their Cruiserweight Classic tournament. At the time, Romero was in between contracts with New Japan. Romero reiterated that WWE offered him a coaching position. He added that if they had just offered the spot in the Cruiserweight Classic, he probably would have done it. The coaching offer made him feel like they did not want him wrestling and Romero feels the last several years of his career has been some of his best work.
So they (WWE) really wanted me for the Cruiserweight Classic and I was in between or about to be in between contracts. I think I was in between contracts and we were renegotiating mine and WWE was very interested. They wanted to offer me the Cruiserweight Classic and then they wanted to offer me a coaching position so I think if they didn’t offer me the coaching position and they just offered me the Cruiserweight Classic then I probably, maybe would have waited a little bit longer to re-sign with New Japan and I would have done that but them offering me the coaching position made me feel like they didn’t want me to wrestle so that it wasn’t maybe gonna go very far in the Cruiserweight so I decided to not take it and re-sign with New Japan.
I feel like the last two years have been some of my best years in the business so, I’m glad that I did not take the coaching deal; now, for sure.
Jon Moxley is tagging with Homicide at STRONG Independence Day on 7/4 and El Desperado asked Jun Kasai to team with him in that match.
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