Originally published at Rocky Romero discusses NJPW creating STRONG Women's Title, The Good Brothers' time in WWE
He reacted to the complaints he’s seen about the announcement of the new title.
Come May 21st, New Japan Pro-Wrestling is going to crown the first-ever STRONG Women’s Champion. There will be a one-night tournament at Resurgence featuring Mercedes Moné, Stephanie Vaquer, Willow Nightingale and Momo Kohgo.
Several weeks out from the show, Rocky Romero was interviewed by Comedy Store Wrestling and he commented on the introduction of the title.
Romero brought up the pushback he saw online that had to do with a new title being introduced when the IWGP Women’s Championship exists. Romero mentioned that just two or so years ago, there were complaints about there not being a women’s division in New Japan and present day, the company is trying to showcase that representation.
Mercedes (Moné) will be there of course (at NJPW Resurgence). Kind of headlining this whole thing with this tournament, the first-ever STRONG Women’s Championship which is like an American championship and I’ve kind of been reading the boards and Twitter and people talking about this and it’s been controversial in the fact of why is New Japan making another Women’s Championship and it just seems like everybody was complaining two years ago that there wasn’t a championship, there wasn’t a division. ‘Where’s the women? Where’s the representation?’ And now we’ve got two championships. One, which is obviously being headlined in Japan which is the IWGP Women’s Championship and now, the New Japan STRONG Women’s Championship so I feel like, we’re trying to give women that representation and give them a great place to show professional wrestling in New Japan Pro-Wrestling so, I don’t really understand where all the controversy is coming from (he laughed). It’s like, why can’t you make fans happy? Come on guys, enjoy yourselves.
In late 2022, Romero opened up about The Good Brothers return to WWE and described it as a ‘stressful situation’. At the time of Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows’ return, Anderson was still NEVER Openweight Champion.
Their Talk’n Shop podcast was mentioned and Rocky said it’s on hold for sure. He went on to state that if something were to happen with The Good Brothers and WWE, he thinks the first thing Anderson and Gallows would do is run Talk ‘N Shop A Mania 3. Romero stated that he hopes Gallows and Anderson remain in WWE for a very long time.
I mean, absolutely put on hold (Romero said about the Talk’n Shop podcast) but you know, who knows what’s gonna happen? I mean obviously, with the merger happening with Endeavor and UFC and Vince (McMahon) coming back and (Paul) Heyman probably being in charge again and stuff. They (The Good Brothers) were big Triple H guys. Who knows what’s gonna happen in that whole realm? And who knows what’s gonna happen if they — I hope, knock on wood, they stay there for a very long time and I just saw that I think A.J.’s back now? And they’re back with A.J. so they’re probably gonna be great. But yeah, if something ever was to happen and they were let go or something like that, I think Talk ‘N Shop A Mania 3 would definitely be the first thing that they do when they come back which would be awesome for fans but, yeah, you never know. Those guys, I mean they just bounce back like nothing. They always find a way. They’d be in AEW, they’d be back in New Japan with open arms so, it’d be good, yeah.
The second installment of AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door is scheduled for June 25th in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The idea of WWE possibly being included in a future event was suggested but Rocky does not see a scenario in which that happens.
He feels AEW needs to focus on themselves growth-wise and WWE would be helping out their competition by participating in Forbidden Door right now. Romero then expressed his thought that the more Vince McMahon is involved, the less crossovers they’ll be.
I don’t think that-that necessarily, right now, seems like it’s a possibility (AEW, WWE & NJPW doing a joint show) and even if Vince (McMahon) wasn’t back, I don’t necessarily see that as a thing that would happen right now. I think AEW still has a lot — they need to work on themselves and keep kind of pushing their product higher and higher every time. I think WWE would really be helping out their competition by working with AEW right now, whereas I think AEW has plenty of room left to grow and get bigger that in the future, then it would probably make sense for WWE to work with AEW. I see less of that happening if Vince is involved personally. I think the more that Vince is involved, the less we’ll see crossovers.
The latest addition to the NJPW Resurgence lineup is multi-time AEW World Champion Jon Moxley.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Comedy Store Wrestling with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.