AEW star and pro wrestling veteran Rocky Romero spoke with Fightful on a number of topics, including his time in UPW working with 16-time World Champion John Cena and Samoa Joe.
Romero said, “I pretty vividly remember like when Cena started and at that time they called them the Prototype. That’s was his wrestling name and I was just like, at that time, UPW had a deal with WWE as like a developmental or something and nobody really, I think, truly understood what that any of that meant at that time. But he was obviously one of the guys that WWE was very interested, obviously his look and he was massive at that time. He was huge, huge. It was just cool experience, not knowing obviously like any of these guys and there was quite a few guys that came from UPW that got onto TV with WWE. You got to give it up to Rick Bassman. He did have a very good eye for talent. Tom Howard was also a guy that was important to UPW at that time. It was a great experience because that was an introduction to what working a TV style [was like]. What was cool is that much different from how I started. How I started was like, you just go and figure it out, right? At UPW, there was like a structured training, you know? It was open 24-7 and a lot of people didn’t really take advantage of that training. But guys like John Cena were there every day and really took it seriously. So obviously, you can see that his work ethic is much different than most.”
You can check out Romero’s comments in the video below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
