At ROH Testing The Limit in 2004, The Havana Pitbulls (Rocky Romero & Ricky Reyes) captured the ROH Tag Team Championships by defeating the Second City Saints (CM Punk & Colt Cabana).
The bout was memorable for a number of reasons, perhaps most notably for Cabana wearing goggles to protect his eyes following surgery.
Unfortunately for him, Romero & Reyes thought it was a bit.
"Cabana got eye surgery, Lasik surgery, and this motherfucker had these Kurt Rambis goggles on, he just showed up to the show," Romero recalled on TalkNShop. "We were sitting by the ring before the show and were like, 'where's Cabana?' Cabana shows up a minute or two later and he's wearing these goggles. I just start laughing and popping because I thought he was fucking around and was like, 'Why the fuck are you wearing these goggles?' He's like, 'Alright guys, don't hit me in the face. I'm wearing these goggles, my eyes are fucked up because I got this surgery.' I thought he was joking. We put the match together and do this whole thing, we get in the match and the first punch we throw is right between the eyes. He just starts freaking out. He starts yelling at us, 'You motherfuckers, you hit me right in the face.' I'm like, 'what are you talking about? You're wearing these stupid ass goggles, I thought that's what you wanted.' 'No! I shoot can't get hit in the face, these are to protect my eyes.' I was like, 'You're always fucking around. I thought you were kidding and ribbing us.' It was really to protect his eyes. Me and Reyes were punching him right between the eyes. We thought he was joking the whole time because he would do stupid and funny shit like that. We thought he was being a jokester and pulling our chain."
Reyes added, "I don't remember him saying about the surgery. I literally thought it was being funny and Colt being Colt. You kicked him right in the eyes with your toe and he starts swinging from the ground, like legit. In my mind, I'm like, 'Is he throwing real punches? What the fuck is wrong with him?' I grabbed onto him and he's like, 'What the fuck?' I didn't get it until afterward. He put his arms around us and was like, 'It's alright.' I was so confused the whole night."
Romero said that he didn't remember hearing about Cabana's Lasik surgery until after and thought he was "fucking around."
Reyes concluded by saying, "I think he told Punk and Punk just didn't tell us to be funny. The match wasn't good. Punk wanted the stupid Midnight Express finish with the clothesline, holding the guy. One of us was trying to do a small package and the partner was holding him. I clotheslined Punk right in the face as hard as I could and then roll up, one, two, three. We came to the back and he's like, 'My bad, bad call on the finish.' I was like, 'Yeah, that was stupid, what did you do that for?' The match was not good."
The reign of the Havana Pitbulls lasted 196 days before they were dethroned by BJ Whitmer & Dan Maff.
Romero & Reyes were scheduled to get back together at ROH Past vs. Present in March 2020, but the event was canceled due to the pandemic.
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