Rocky Romero Recalls Funny Story About Luke Gallows While Filming Talk 'N Shop A Mania

Rocky Romero spoke to Wrestling Inc. President Raj Giri about a variety of different subjects heading into his appearance for the Talk N' Shop A Mania pay-per-view.

Romero discussed how Talk N' Shop A Mania came to fruition, noting that Doc Gallows, who recently debuted in Impact Wrestling, was the leader of the idea. The event will take place in his backyard, after all.

"In the beginning of this, it was really all the brainchild of Gallows. He kind of forced us into it, kind of, when the guys got let go from WWE," Romero said. "The next day, or within a couple days after he called us and said, 'I'm gonna run a pay-per-view in my backyard, you guys are either in or you're out,' and we were like, 'Uh, wait what are you talking about?'"

After Gallows further explained the concept, they were all on board with the idea and the legwork began. Rocky likened it to growing a small business from the time Gallows and Anderson were released by WWE to now, being on their way to airing a pay-per-view he called the "craziest thing" he has seen in his life.

With an enormous and eclectic cast of talent like himself, Gallows, Anderson, Heath Miller, Enzo Amore, Bryan Meyers, Chavo Guerrero, Kozlov, Mike Bennett, Maria Kanellis and so many more, Romero discussed how the travel was handled. Initially things got off to a bad start when the second spike of COVID-19 caught them off guard the week of them arriving to Georgia. Luckily, they were prepared.

"We were sweating it, because when we started to plan this, it looked [like] cases were going to be low. We didn't realize that the second spike was gonna happen so soon, right?" Rocky explained. "So when we were planning, we were like, 'oh this will be a good time because things will really have settled, everything will be alright.' Then you know fast forward, it's like the week of, and the day we arrived to Georgia is the same day that Georgia went back into phase one."

Despite this auspicious start, their preparation came in handy. That and Gallows' wife being a nurse and offering her assistance combined to have them all safe and secure. Rocky admitted that he was nervous about people backing out, but that quickly changed.

"To be honest, everybody had been cooped up for so long they were like, 'Yes! Get me out of my house now,'" he said. "It all ended up working out great. We had no issues with anybody getting sick, everybody traveled safely."

Romero told his favorite story from filming the event. He noted that the night that the talent got in, Gallows had a few too many.

"Wednesday was like the big shoot day, so people started to come in from the West Coast and everything... friends, some people came to stay with Gallows' house," Romero started off. "I came in that same day, me, Karl, and Gallows. We had a little meeting for what we're going to do tomorrow with the director because he had gotten there and everything... [After], I guess some of the wrestlers stayed up pretty late drinking and exchanging stories. You know everybody's been quarantined this whole time, so everybody was just excited to see each other."

The night may have been too lively, however, as the next day, Romero and Anderson showed up at 8 AM to no answer at his house for call time. There was no response to Anderson's texts either until, finally, Gallows came to the door to begin filming.

"Finally Gallows wakes up like about two hours later, finally gets his coffee, he looks terrible," he laughingly stated. "We were like, 'what happened to you yesterday?' He was like, 'oh I might have had a couple too many brother drinks with the other brothers.'"

Gallows' wife later told them that he almost slept through his own pay-per-view event.

"We were kind of making fun of Gallows, and she was like 'yeah, he was asleep and I told him Rocky and Karl are waiting for you downstairs'...and he rolled over and said 'why are they here?' and she was like 'the pay-per-view! That you booked in our backyard!' And he was like, 'oh, sh–, that's today!'"

Talk 'N Shop A Mania takes place tonight at 9pm ET. You can purchase it for $14.99 on FITE TV. Wrestlers that are set to appear include Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, Rocky Romero, Enzo Amore, Chico El Luchador, Sex Ferguson, Chadd 2 Badd, Heath Miller, Brian Myers, Chavo Guerrero, Alex Koslov, Mike Bennett, Maria Kannelis-Bennett, Robert Gibson, Ricky Morton, David Penzer, D-lo Brown, Rhino, Willie Mack, Johnny Swinger, Swoggle, Teddy Long, Mike Knox, Lodi, Sick Boy, Big Reese and more!