Rocky Romero Recalls His Role In WWE/NJPW Conflict Involving The Good Brothers

One of the more interesting developments in pro wrestling globally in late 2022 was the team of the Good Brothers, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, returning to WWE while Anderson was still NJPW's NEVER Openweight Champion. Since NJPW and AEW have a close business relationship to the point of co-promoting the now-annual Forbidden Door event every June, this was a politically precarious situation that NJPW had to solve after putting a title on someone they didn't have under contract. In a new episode of the "Comedy Store Wrestling" podcast released Monday, NJPW wrestler and office representative Rocky Romero laid out how it all went down, even singling out Paul Levesque for how he handled it on the WWE side.

"Yeah, [there was] definitely a lot of tension," Romero explained. "Knowing where everybody stood, and obviously trying to stay true to our partners [at] AEW. Obviously, their major competitor is WWE, right? So I'm trying to navigate the waters, and stay neutral in some position, also knowing it was important to get the Good Brothers, especially Karl Anderson, back to New Japan so he could defend the title...It was super stressful in the beginning. I had some conversations with some people in WWE I'd never had [talks with] before, some very important people, to get that done. And I gotta say, Triple H was super cool in the whole situation."

The scenario hit a snag when the planned date to switch the title, the November 5 NJPW Battle Autumn show, coincided with WWE Crown Jewel, but it was agreed that Anderson would drop the belt at Wrestle Kingdom on January 4. "He didn't have to do that, and I don't think the Good Brothers had anything in writing that they necessarily had to do that," Romero added. "I think Triple H, just kinda respecting what New Japan is and having respect for the culture, and having respect for the wrestling business in general, was really open to working it out."