Rocky Romero Details How MLW, NJPW and CMLL's "Landmark Alliance" Came Together (Exclusive)
Romero competes at MLW One Shot this Thursday.
Major League Wrestling has a key to the forbidden door. Earlier this fall, MLW worked its way into New Japan Pro Wrestling and Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre's historic partnership to create what is being called a "landmark strategic alliance." This alliance will lead to streamlined crossovers between all three promotions. As is often the case when wrestling companies come together, the common denominator between MLW, NJPW and CMLL was Rocky Romero.
"MLW reached out," Romero told ComicBook.com. "I had a meeting with Court Bauer from MLW, and he was always a big fan of Lucha."
When he's not competing inside the squared circle, Romero is renowned as one of wrestling's best ambassadors. He was instrumental in getting the inaugural AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door pay-per-view off the ground and helped bring Mercedes Moné to NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 this past January.
In regards to bringing MLW into the NJPW and CMLL fold, Romero noted that the promotion's style made it a natural fit.
"If you watch the MLW shows, it's such a mix of every style," Romero continued. "There's Lucha Libre. There's American wrestling. There's British wrestling. There's Japanese wrestling as well. [Court] really does a great job of bringing all those elements into one show and really giving his audience a plethora of different styles. When he reached out and asked me about that, I said I'll do my best."
Beyond this alliance, New Japan has ties to companies like AEW and Impact Wrestling. That said, CMLL's circle is very tight.
"CMLL has always been known for not doing partnerships besides the New Japan partnership that they've had for many, many years," Romero pointed out. "Both companies are extremely loyal to each other. I reached out to CMLL and they floated the idea around and they liked having another partner, especially if New Japan was going to be linked and involved with it. I was able to get them all to meet over a Zoom call and they had a great conversation and that was the start. I think you're going to see a lot more CMLL talent coming to MLW very, very soon."
Those crossovers will also go the other way. Romero noted that there will be MLW stars competing on NJPW Battle in the Valley come the new year.
"For the US, Battle in the Valley is the next big event, and you can get tickets right now if you're in the area or you want to come hang out with us on [January 13th]," Romero said. "Definitely there'll be some MLW inclusion in that show as well. I'm a big fan of so many wrestlers there. [Jacob] Fatu is an incredible big man and he really needs to be seen by the rest of the world a little more. I'm hoping that the New Japan platform will definitely help with that."
Romero takes on Mascara Dorada for both the MLW World Middleweight Championship and the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship this Thursday, December 7th at MLW One Shot, available on FITE TV.
