Rocky Romero
John Raymond Rivera, better known by his ring name Rocky Romero, is a Cuban-American professional wrestler. He is signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling and All Elite Wrestling, where he is a member of the Don Callis Family and one-half of Roppongi Vice with Trent Beretta. Nicknamed "Azúcar", he is best known for his accomplishments as a tag team wrestler, and was one-half of the Havana Pitbulls, Forever Hooligans and Roppongi Vice, as well as a member of the Chaos stable until their disbandment in 2025. His tenure as the fourth incarnation of Black Tiger was also met with praise and recognition.
Rivera made his in-ring debut on September 13, 1997, and, over the years, he portrayed several different characters including luchador enmascarados and has wrestled extensively in Mexico for both Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre and Lucha Libre AAA World Wide. In the United States, he is known for his work with Ring of Honor as a member of No Remorse Corps, and was one of the featured wrestlers for Lucha Libre USA.
As a singles wrestler, Romero won the CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship on three occasions, the NWA World Historic Welterweight Championship, the MLW World Middleweight Championship, the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship. In the tag team division, he is a former three-time ROH World Tag Team Champion and a record eight-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion. Romero's wrestling style incorporates stiff shoot-style kicks and multiple arm-lock variations resembling mixed martial arts, competing in lucha libre style events in Mexico early in his career.
In addition to his work in the ring, behind the scenes Romero is considered one of the most influential figures in professional wrestling, working as a liaison between AEW, CMLL and NJPW, amongst many other behind-the-scenes duties. Through his work, Romero has helped forge strong ties between the three international promotions.
Professional wrestling career
Early career (1997–2009)
Rivera made his wrestling debut in 1997, using the ring name Rocky Romero. He was trained by Antonio Inoki at the NJPW Dojo in Los Angeles. His career has taken him through promotions in the Southern California region to Mexico, where he competed successfully for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre, the world's oldest wrestling promotion, and in Japan where he has worked most notably in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he was chosen to become the fourth incarnation of Black Tiger, the villainous gaijin opponent of Tiger Mask. On October 8, 2005, Romero, as Black Tiger, defeated Tiger Mask for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. After a four-month reign, Tiger Mask regained the title from his nemesis. Romero made his debut in Pro Wrestling Noah on March 4, 2007, against Mushiking Terry, casting into doubt the future of the Black Tiger persona. Romero would then tour with Noah and teamed with Atsushi Aoki in the Nippon TV Cup Jr. Heavyweight Tag League. He also made his debut for Inoki's new promotion, the Inoki Genome Federation, defeating El Blazer.Romero, however, did compete as Black Tiger in August 2007 in Chikara to compete for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship against champion Mike Quackenbush. At NJPW's Resolution '09 on April 5, Romero lost in a mask vs. title match against Tiger Mask, thus ending his role as Black Tiger.
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (2003–2004, 2008)
In late-2003, Romero began working for Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre in Mexico, using the name "Havana Brother I", where he would team up with Havana Brother II and Havana Brother III to form a three-man team known as Los Havana Brothers. A few months later, Los Havana Brothers began working as Rocky Romero, Pinoy Boy and Bobby Quance respectively. On September 12, Romero became CMLL's first-ever World Super Lightweight Champion after defeating Volador Jr. in a tournament final. On November 14, Virus defeated Romero to win the championship, signaling the exit of Los Havana Brothers for the time being. In late 2004, Romero made a surprise return to CMLL and defeated Virus to regain the championship. After the title win, he left CMLL again, occasionally defending the championship in Southern California. In 2005, local wrestler Tommy Williams won the Super Lightweight Championship, but Romero regained it in January 2006. At that point the championship became inactive, with no mention of it.In early 2008, Romero returned to CMLL and began working under the name "Grey Shadow", a masked gimmick, without CMLL openly acknowledging that it was Romero under the mask. No official references were given to his past with CMLL, nor any mention of the fact that Romero was a CMLL World Super Lightweight Champion.
Ring of Honor (2004–2005, 2007–2010)
Romero's main exposure in the United States came while he was one-half of the Havana Pitbulls tag team, with partner Ricky Reyes, in Ring of Honor where he and Reyes set a record for the longest reign as ROH Tag Team Champions at 196 days, a record they held until 2005 when it was eclipsed by the team of Austin Aries and Roderick Strong. While in ROH, he and Reyes were also members of Homicide's stable, The Rottweilers. He left the company at the end of 2005 to focus on working in Japan.He returned on January 26, 2007 by defeating Davey Richards. The following evening, Romero walked out on his longtime partner Reyes in the midst of a match against the Briscoe Brothers. On March 31, Romero was introduced as the newest member of the No Remorse Corps. Romero and new stablemate Richards lost to Jack Evans and Naruki Doi.
On January 26, 2008, Romero teamed with Richards and defeated the teams of The Age of the Fall, Austin Aries and Bryan Danielson, and Brent Albright and B. J. Whitmer in an Ultimate Endurance match to capture the World Tag Team Championship. Romero and Richards later lost the titles to the Briscoe Brothers, and Romero later left ROH in mid-2008 to once again compete in Mexico. He returned at Final Battle 2009, where he won a match against rival Alex Koslov. They had a rematch on March 26, 2010, in Arizona during WrestleMania weekend, which Koslov won.
Lucha Libre AAA World Wide (2008–2010)
On October 5, 2008, Romero jumped from CMLL to rival promotion Lucha Libre AAA World Wide. He made his surprise debut at the promotion's television taping in Puebla, Puebla and was announced as a member of Sean Waltman's D-Generation MEX stable at the show. On July 4, 2010, Romero turned rudo and joined La Legión Extranjera instead. However, just four days later, it was reported that Romero had left AAA, after the company had asked him to take a pay cut.New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2010–present)
No Remorse Corps (2010–2012)
On October 12, 2010, New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced that Romero would return to the promotion in November, teaming with Davey Richards in the Super J Tag League, as a member of the promotion's top heel stable, Shinsuke Nakamura's Chaos. The five-day-long tournament ended on November 13, with Romero and Richards winning their block and advancing to the finals, where they were defeated by their Chaos team mates Jado and Gedo. On May 3, 2011, Romero and Richards unsuccessfully challenged Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.On October 10, at Destruction '11, Romero and Richards defeated Devitt and Taguchi in a rematch to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the first time. Romero and Richards made their first successful title defense on November 12 at Power Struggle, defeating the team of Kushida and Tiger Mask. On December 23, Romero unsuccessfully challenged Devitt for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. On January 4, 2012, at Wrestle Kingdom VI, Romero and Richards lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship back to Devitt and Taguchi. No Remorse Corps regained the title from Apollo 55 on February 12 at The New Beginning. On May 2, Romero and Richards were stripped of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, after travel issues forced Richards to miss the following day's Wrestling Dontaku 2012 event, where the two were scheduled to defend the title against Jyushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask.
Forever Hooligans (2012–2015)
Romero soon reunited with his former AAA partner Alex Koslov. On July 22, the team, dubbed "Forever Hooligans", defeated Jyushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. Romero and Koslov made their first successful title defense on August 26 at a Sacramento Wrestling Federation event in Gridley, California, defeating the team of A.J. Kirsch and Alex Shelley. Forever Hooligans made their second successful title defense on October 8 at King of Pro-Wrestling, defeating the Time Splitters. On October 21, Forever Hooligans entered the 2012 Super Jr. Tag Tournament, defeating Liger and Tiger Mask in their first round match. On November 2, Romero and Koslov were eliminated from the tournament in the semifinals by Apollo 55. On November 11 at Power Struggle, Forever Hooligans lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to the winners of the Super Jr. Tag Tournament, the Time Splitters, ending their reign at 112 days. On May 3, 2013, at Wrestling Dontaku 2013, Romero and Koslov regained the title from the Time Splitters. They lost the title to Suzuki-gun on October 14 at King of Pro-Wrestling.On July 27, Romero and Koslov, returned to ROH, through NJPW's close working relationship, and defeated reDRagon to become the new ROH World Tag Team Champions. They lost the title to The American Wolves in their first defense on August 3. On September 20 at Death Before Dishonor XI, the Forever Hooligans defeated the American Wolves in a rematch to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.
For the first half of 2014, Forever Hooligans received several new shots at the NJPW Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, held by The Young Bucks, but were defeated each time, including in a three-way match, also involving the Time Splitters, on May 10 at Global Wars, a special event co-produced by NJPW and ROH in Toronto.