Rocky Romero Reveals Raven Was Booked For Talk N Shop A-Mania “But We Forgot”

On a recent episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily, NJPW star Rocky Romero returned to the podcast to discuss Talk N Shop A-Mania 2 with Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman. The Flock was featured in the first Talk N Shop A-Mania, but the leader of the original Flock, Raven, was not featured. Romero admitted to Hausman that the former ECW World Heavyweight Champion was booked for both Talk N Shop A-Manias, but he, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows forgot.

“This is funny actually. We tried to get Raven,” Romero admitted. “Raven was the first one we tried to get, and he said yes, but then we had to actually go to him to shoot it. And we just got so busy we kind of forgot, so that’s why he’s not in the first one. Then we booked him for the second one, put him on the poster and then we, again, got so busy we forgot to shoot him again.

“So now it’s just kind of an ongoing joke. He’s on the poster, and I tried to reach out to him through our guy who helps us book the talent and be like, ‘can we get Raven just filming himself at least or something?’ One of these days, Raven’s going to show up I promise you. I just don’t know when and where, so now it’s like a thing. Raven was supposed to be a part of both of them, and we forgot.”

Romero notes that the production on Talk N Shop A-Mania can be hectic since it’s mainly the three of them running things. He also noted that they are trying to be mindful of social-distancing guidelines and trying to keep everyone as separated as possible.

“These things are just a crazy production. If you’re not there at the house, it’s really hard to get it all together,” Romero noted. “It’s just so many people. You’re booking 20-30 people all together trying to have everybody come in at different times so that we can keep as many people separated as possible. It’s a whole thing.

“We’re trying to be, obviously, mindful of what the world is going through. We’re trying not to get everybody there all together at the same time. Get people in and out as quickly as possible and so it’s just a lot, and we’re a small crew. I mean this thing is completely funded by the three of us, the Talk N Shop company itself. It’s not like we have a major production behind us really.”

The main event of the first Talk N Shop A-Mania was “The Boneryard Match”, a parody of The Boneyard Match. Hausman asked Romero if AJ Styles has given his reaction to either of the Talk N Shop crew.

“I don’t think he reached out,” Romero laughed. “I don’t think we got anything. I know [Randy] Orton loved it. I know Orton thought it was magical. A lot of people thought it was magical.”

Romero also discussed the other matches and conceptions on Talk N Shop A-Mania 2, including the show’s main event “Ball for A Ball” match, a spoof of the “Eye For An Eye” match where he revealed that former WCW World Heavyweight Champion Scott Steiner will be making a cameo. Hausman also asked about their RETRIBUTION parody, and Romero discussed what their group will be called.

“RETRI-POOP-TION, I never said they were a parody. They’re a real group,” Romero said. “We got the Lucha Libre Deathmatch, Chico-Chavo. We have the main event, ‘Ball For A Ball’, basically a parody and spoof of the ‘Eye For An Eye’ that they did with Seth Rollins and Rey Mysterio, but this is ‘ball for ball’ so expect a lot of ball shots and stuff like that.

“Some really amazing cameos, Scott Steiner’s part of it, I should say that, and some other really awesome cameos that if you’ve been watching or paying attention to Talk N Shop, the actual podcast, then you’ll see Vincent [and] some other really cool people come out. Just imagine The Boneyard but even crazier, just even crazier and a lot funnier, just a lot of madness. So those guys just kind of doing their thing like usual and then obviously kind of an overall arching storyline that kind of presents itself into the whole Talk N Shop world.”

NJPW recently announced the participants for the Best of the Super Juniors and Super J-Cup tournaments that will be held in Japan and the U.S. respectively. Romero discussed the tournaments and expressed his disappointment that he will not be participating in the Best of the Super Juniors this year.

“We got the Super J Cup, which is Dec. 12 and that will include, like you said, Lio Rush, ACH, ELP, TJP, Clark Connors, Chris Bey from IMPACT, which is cool [and] from ROH, you’ve got Rey Horus, who’s a very awesome talent that I feel like doesn’t get as much respect as he deserves,” Romero said. “Just a crazy cool cast of people all put together for the J Cup single-elimination tournament, one night only Dec. 12. Then there’s the Best of the Super Juniors in Japan, who’s got all the crazy cast of characters from the Super Juniors, [Ryusuke] Taguchi and Hiromu [Takahashi] and all those guys.

“I feel bad. I really wanted to be in the Best of the Super Juniors this year, and unfortunately, with everything how it is, I’m not able to travel over there and to be a part of it, but two different Junior centric events kind of happening in two different continents, which I think is amazing but all under the New Japan banner. I feel like New Japan Strong, because its on New Japan World, a lot of people aren’t seeing it as much, but you can also watch it on FITE TV, so I do give fans the opportunity to go check that out please and just expect a real, beautiful eccentric junior heavyweight J Cup coming your way right on American soil. So I’m super stoked for that.”

Hausman pointed out that these tournaments were not the original plans for NJPW during this time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Romero talked about how they would have been coming off Wrestle Dynasty in Madison Square Garden and their August shows. He also talked about the strides they have made through NJPW Strong noting that the Japanese audience have enjoyed the show as well.

“We would have been off the heels of MSG and August, and we would have probably sold out MSG and really just continued to make these big strides in America on a major level,” Romero noted. “But I don’t think it’s a bad thing because I feel like here’s an opportunity for a lot of young talent and new talent to really show themselves. Even just a couple weeks ago, I wrestled Jay White in a singles match in the main event, and that’s something that you wouldn’t normally see in Japan because Jay would probably be in the mix with somebody else and I’d be doing some tag team stuff or whatever.

“So I feel like here’s an opportunity for us to have that kind of match, and it’s just something completely different for the fans and really, the hardcore fans in Japan have really been outspoken on how much they’ve enjoyed the New Japan Strong show, especially the Japanese fans. The viewership is really high in Japan. The commentators for the Japan show are [Hiroshi] Tanahashi and Shibata so that’s pretty cool too.”

Rocky Romero can be seen tonight as part of Talk N Shop A-Mania 2 on FITE.tv. Rocky’s full interview aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it’s released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.