NJPW Star Explains ‘Stressful’ WWE Karl Anderson Deal

NJPW

Rocky Romero has explained the ‘stressful situation’ surrounding NJPW’s deal with WWE regarding Karl Anderson.

Anderson won the NEVER Openweight Championship at NJPW Dominion in June 2021, while not under a long-term contract with NJPW.

Anderson and Luke (Doc) Gallows returned to WWE in October, while Anderson was still champion.

Following an online back-and-forth between the wrestler and the promotion, Anderson defended his NJPW gold earlier this month at the World Tag League/Super Jr Tag League final event.

The WWE star will defend his gold at Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4, 2023, against Tama Tonga.

Speaking on Renee Paquette’s The Sessions podcast, Rocky Romero explained how this WWE-NJPW deal came to be.

Romero said:

“It’s been a very stressful situation for me. Obviously, when the guys started talking about WWE had reached out to them. I, of course, started to get nervous because I knew we had a bunch of dates set and everything. Anderson was the NEVER Openweight Champion.

“I got worried and said, ‘Just don’t screw me over.’ I was part of the reason they came back. Obviously, they left on good terms, but to bring them back I was part of that. We started talking about that.

“Finally, he was like, ‘We’re going to sign and somebody is going to have to talk to WWE.’ Of course, that means me. I got on the line and there was some confusion on the dates they were actually going to do.

“There was the November 5th show that Anderson had already been announced for New Japan, but it was the same time the Saudi Arabia show was going on. Obviously, there was going to be a conflict right there.

“It started off real rocky. They went and did Saudi, we figured it out, got a new date and decided to turn it into a big angle because I thought that was the best way to deal with it, hoping that everything was going to work out, but not really sure.

“Finally, he went and did this last show and successfully defended the title, so now he’ll be at the Tokyo Dome to face Tama Tonga.”

Check out the announced card for Wrestle Kingdom 17 right here.

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• never openweight championship
• karl anderson
• NJPW
• wwe

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