Rocky Romero Talks Working With PRODUCE, Wanting To Bring Back That ‘Pure Independent Spirit’ From 2017

Rocky Romero talks PRODUCE.

The promotion hosted their third event on August 3 in New York City. Rocky Romero headed up the card, prompting the show’s title, Azúcar. The card featured huge names like Mistico, Hechicero, Persephone, Josh Barnett, Jonathan Gresham, and Lee Moriarty.

Speaking with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp for a new interview, Rocky Romero talked about his decision to work with PRODUCE.

“Okay, so it’s a long story, but I’ll do my best to try to make it entertaining. Originally, I got involved with
Adam, Orange Crush, from from PRODUCE. He was promoting JCW and they booked Tiger Mask and I
helped make that happen. Then Tiger had some issues with his Visa and wasn’t able to make it. But then
Black Tiger, my other alter ego, stepped in and stepped in for Tiger Mask and had the match with
Dynamite Kid. Then, me and Adam talked and he pitched me this crazy idea that he had that he was going to run a wrestling company that was going to be more Japanese based in the fact of like, he’s teaming up with a wrestler and co-producing an event based around that wrestler, the wrestler is curating a wrestling show. Maybe like an artist would curate an art show or maybe even like a museum curator. He pitched this crazy idea and I said, ‘That sounds really, really cool.’ Next thing you know it was like a whirlwind of things and all of sudden he sent me the artwork and I was like, ‘That’s cool.’ Then all of a sudden it was like a thing that was happening in real time.”

Romero went on to say that he’s hoping to bring back the indie spirt that was present in 2017.

“So here we are and Monday is the big event in Brooklyn and I’m really excited about it. I think it’s going
to be a really cool event and there’s some really neat match-ups and some things that we’ve never seen
before. Dream matches, Hechicero versus Minoru Suzuki. Who thought we’d ever see that? Here we are.
I’m just super excited. I think it’s really cool. I think it’s for the fans and it’s a unique way to present
professional wrestling and independent wrestling. I think it’s the spirit of that and I miss the days of 2017 when everybody was selling t-shirts on the corners of the rings and it’s just that pure independent spirit. We saw that so many things came from the rise of the Young Bucks, and selling t-shirts like I said, and AEW even. So, I’m hoping like to bring that spirit back. I feel like since we don’t have PWG anymore, there’s a void of cool wrestling that’s a little different and it’s got a little bit of an edge and it’s not your polished TV wrestling.”

When it came to wrestling Mistico on the show, Romero said that he wanted the match to reflect on his career in many ways.

“100 %, how many opportunities do you get to wrestle and to book Mistico and wrestle against him in the
main event. It’s cool. There’s a lot of history between me and him that goes back many, many, many years.
I wanted this night to reflect my career in many ways and obviously Mexico was a big part of my career
and Mistico is a big part of my career. I have so many years wrestling down in CMLL and brief stint in
AAA back in the day. So here we are and I’m excited.”

Fans can stay up-to-date with results from PRODUCE shows by clicking here.

After that, check out Fightful’s full interview with Rocky Romero in the video linked at the top of this article.