"It was literally everyday something would happen" - Wrestling veteran opens up about the chaotic nature of booking major event with AEW's Tony Khan
Rocky Romero has opened up about the troublesome experience of booking the AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door show with Tony Khan.
Forbidden Door was the first time AEW and NJPW collaborated for a pay-per-view event. The show took place at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, on June 26th and featured stars from both companies' rosters.
However, in the build-up to the event, AEW was left without huge names such as CM Punk and Bryan Danielson. At the same time, NJPW had to remove Tomohiro Ishii and Hiromu Takahashi from announced matches due to injury and illness.
Rocky Romero acted as the NJPW liaison with Tony Khan for the supershow. Speaking on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, the former admitted that it got to the point where they dreaded getting texts and calls from each other in case it was terrible news.
“Of course obviously people started getting injured, people had fever or like-it was crazy. It was literally everyday something would happen, Tony’s either calling me or texting me or I’m calling him and I’m just like ‘you’re not going to believe this.’ He’s like ‘NO! NO!’ it was just like ‘DON’T EVEN CALL ME ANYMORE!’" [11:35-12:02]
Despite the booking process with Tony Khan being a whirlwind, Romero was optimistic heading into the event, which turned out to be a massive success for everyone involved.
“That week was rough to see how much fun the show was and how great the show was and how smooth it was and just seeing like, all of the fans talk about the show and what an awesome event it was. We knew it was going to be okay because you have this collection of amazing talent.” [12:03-12:14]
We need Danhausen to UN-curse the Forbidden Door! twitter.com/njpwglobal/sta…
Tony Khan wants to do a Forbidden Door sequel, but not in Japan
After the event's success, many wondered when and where the next Forbidden Door show would take place.
Speaking in an interview with the New York Post, Tony Khan noted that he is open to a sequel to the supershow. However, the event won't emanate from Japan.
“The idea of doing an event over there with AEW stars and New Japan stars is very potentially interesting, but if it happens it won’t be Forbidden Door. “Forbidden Door” is gonna stay in North America. It wouldn’t make sense with the time zones, the revenue.” (H/T Wrestling Inc.)
This is clearly an AEW show.
I can't wait till Forbidden Door 2, in Japan, to see NJPW's version of this.
What an awesome time to be a pro wrestling fan.
#AEWxNJPW #ForbiddenDoor
Outside of the injuries leading up to the show, huge names like Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi,, and Tetsuya Naito weren't involved in the festivities. Will they participate in a potential Forbidden Door sequel? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Please credit AEW Unrestricted and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling when using quotes from this article.