Rocky Romero Thanks WWE For Letting Karl Anderson Work His Remaining NJPW Dates

In an interview with Fightful, Rocky Romero spoke about the working relationship between WWE and NJPW, thanking WWE for letting Karl Anderson work his remaining dates. Here are highlights:

On WWE allowing Karl Anderson to work his remaining NJPW dates: “The whole thing was shaky, in some kind of way. Not that WWE was going to go against what they had originally promised Karl, but it’s a big company, they’re super busy, and right off the bat, it got a little scary because he was announced for Osaka to defend the title against Hikuleo and it also happened to be the same day as the Saudi show. It was like, ‘Oh, they just invested a bunch of money back into these guys and they just brought them back on TV, are they going to let Karl go to Japan? Of course not.’ I understand, on the New Japan side, if it was flipped, it would have went that way as well. Kudos to WWE for letting him finish out the dates. He defended the title against Hikuleo in Japan in December and now it’s road to the Tokyo Dome, it’s him and Tama Tonga, a year in the making almost, I’m pumped. Thank you, WWE, for letting it happen.”

On how much stress the situation created: “So much stress. The whole ride was very bumpy. I think everybody’s intentions were good. Karl’s intentions were good, Gallows’ intentions were good, and to make good on everything they had already promised to appear on some these shows. Obviously, Karl is a champion. Everyone’s intentions were good, it was just, how do we get there? That’s always the sketchy part with professional wrestling because there are so many moving parts. WWE is a huge company, and with the regime change, you don’t know what was going to happen. Anything could happen. Vince (McMahon) could come back in power, nobody knows. Obviously, Triple H now being in charge, we can see Shinsuke Nakamura going to NOAH to work against Great Muta and Anderson working New Japan, it does seem like there is a complete change in how they feel about working with other companies or letting talent go and do really cool stuff outside of WWE. It all helps the product. In Japan, New Japan is the market. Everywhere else in the world, WWE has very strong business. It doesn’t hurt WWE by letting Karl Anderson or Shinsuke come over to this market where they are not as strong and letting them get…it’s like free advertising for WWE.”