A number of subjects delved into by Rocky Romero.
It was back in May that Mercedes Moné was last in action. She competed in the one-night tournament at NJPW Resurgence to crown the first-ever STRONG Women’s Champion. In the finals between her and Willow Nightingale, Moné went down with an injury and Nightingale went on to become champion.
NJPW liaison and booker of NJPW STRONG, Rocky Romero, was interviewed by WrestlePurists and was asked if there’s an update on Mercedes’ status. Romero stated that he does not have an update. He hopes to be talking to her and her agent ‘maybe soon-ish’.
The last Romero heard was that she’s recovering well and would hear from her side when she’s close to being ready for a comeback. He said there’s still communication, but he does not know what Moné will want to do when she’s good to go. Romero added that there is no issue between the two sides and New Japan loved working with her.
I honestly don’t have any update right now (on Mercedes Moné). I hope that I’ll be talking to her agent and her maybe soon-ish, but I honestly don’t have any update yet about anything. The last thing I had heard was that she was recovering well and basically they were gonna let me know, reach out when she was getting close to a comeback so, yeah.
There’s definitely still communication and I mean obviously though, I don’t know what she’s gonna wanna do when she comes back for sure. Especially coming back from a serious injury, you know? And that maybe messed up her timeframe of what she wanted to do and how she wanted to do it so, I really couldn’t say or speak for her, you know? I don’t think it would be fair.
No (there’s no issue between the two sides). No, no, no. I think that she thoroughly enjoyed her time in New Japan and New Japan loved working with her and obviously would love to continue to work with her. But yeah, I think everybody’s pretty happy with the work that we’ve done obviously.
Romero plays a key role in navigating NJPW’s ongoing relationships with both AEW and CMLL. He shared that the idea of an AEW show in Japan or Mexico has been talked about.
Yeah, yeah (Romero answered when asked if the idea of an AEW show in Mexico or Japan has been brought up). Definitely, there’s been some talk. They’re not so easy to do when they’re international like that… Say we did a Forbidden Door in Japan, obviously it would be New Japan doing a lot of the heavy lifting because obviously, they have the resources here in Japan or in Mexico, maybe CMLL could be an option. We’re pretty far away from that right now. I think because the relationship just got started but yeah, that could definitely be a possibility in the future hopefully. But we’ll see.
On the 10/20 episode of AEW Rampage, Romero went one-on-one with CMLL’s Místico. Romero brought up requests that CMLL had before that match came to fruition under AEW’s umbrella. Romero noted that viewers might have noticed AAA’s El Hijo del Vikingo or other wrestlers that are heavily associated with AAA were not on that Rampage card.
Romero understands things such as that considering the history that exists between the two companies. Initially, CMLL was hesitant to collaborate with AEW because they do not work with them. Romero said he was able to set up a phone call between AEW President Tony Khan and CMLL head Salvador Lutteroth.
So everybody’s kind of been linked up, right? AAA’s been linked up with AEW, New Japan’s been linked up with CMLL and it’s just very hard to mix those worlds and it even went so much that if they’re on the same card, it’s like a no-no. I feel like those things are kind of obviously changing. There’s still some rules and things that CMLL asked for just when Místico came to AEW. Obviously, there was no El (Hijo del) Vikingo on the card or certain wrestlers that are obviously super affiliated with AAA so, I mean, and I get it, I get that part. But when I brought the conversation together and we talked about Místico, obviously Tony (Khan) being a big fan of Místico and wanting him to wrestle on AEW and also, he likes CMLL and he used to watch it back in the day so, yeah, I brought it to CMLL. Obviously in the beginning, there was a lot of, ‘Wait, what? AEW? Mhm… We don’t work with them,’ you know? I’m like, ‘No, I know. But you work with New Japan and New Japan works with AEW and that’s going well so, let’s try it out.’ But yeah, thankfully, I was able to get Tony and Salvador Lutteroth who is the owner of CMLL on a phone call and had a great conversation and that really — it’s all about communication, right? Just like every relationship. When you have good communication, you’re able to talk things out. At least you can kind of understand what the other person wants and what the other person is thinking and, ‘Hey, well, can you do this? Can you do that?’ And it all kind of works out, you know?… Obviously, it’s a big deal because CMLL has always been… I don’t know how to put this without talking sh*t but, they haven’t been friendly to outside companies besides New Japan.
Coming up on November 10th, Romero will be present in Garland, Texas for NJPW STRONG’s Lonestar Shootout. The match card can be viewed at this link.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit WrestlePurists with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
