Fans are often critical of storytelling in wrestling, particularly with major promotions like WWE and AEW. But Rocky Romero believes there’s at least one example of intricate, layered stories being told inside the square circle — NJPW STRONG.
Romero has been a vital figure behind the scenes for STRONG, the stateside brand of New Japan Pro-Wrestling. In addition to his work in developing the show and bringing it to new heights, the respected veteran also regularly competes in the ring, so he’s quite familiar with the product.
During a recent appearance on the “Wrestling Perspective Podcast“, Romero spoke highly of NJPW STRONG’s storytelling by pointing out how it stretches back to the brand’s early days and ties into numerous wrestlers on the roster. He acknowledged STRONG’s ongoing growth and expressed his hope that new fans will go back and watch the beginning of the stories that continue to unfold.
“Just being able to see how the stories have started from the beginning to where we are now, you know, a year and a half in or whatever it is, is pretty cool,” said Romero. “Because if you really follow the little story points all the way back to the beginning, it’s a beautiful little story that’s connected to all these different wrestlers in all these different ways. And as we grow and the audience grows, I mean I hope that they go back and look back from the start because it is pretty cool.”
Romero also commended STRONG’s overall value in the way it has continued to provide new content for NJPW WORLD, both at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and into 2022, when surging numbers continue to force NJPW to cancel shows in Japan.
“We completely started [STRONG] from scratch and really not knowing what exactly it was gonna be,” said Romero. “You know, in the beginning, it was just gonna be kind of a collection of matches to have for guys who couldn’t travel to Japan to give them something to do, especially during the time where Japan was completely shut down and they canceled all the shows. There was nothing fresh on New Japan World, and so it was like oh, here’s the idea of let’s start taping with no fans and let’s beat Japan back to New Japan World, like that was the idea.
“And that became something super valuable in the fact that we continued to make content. Like even this week, for example, I’m sure our viewing rating was really, really high on New Japan World this week because all the other matches in Japan got canceled this week, and for next week too. But here we have something that’s fresh for New Japan World and the content there, and I’m pretty proud of that.”
NJPW STRONG continues to gain momentum, and it’ll be interesting to see how the brand continues to grow from here on out.
