Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Hey, everybody, this is Tony Richards coming to you from the Richards ranch in Western Kentucky on the special edition of the Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel podcast.
[00:00:14] Sad news to report today. And that's why I'm doing this special edition in between the times where we normally release an episode on Wednesdays.
[00:00:26] I'm going to put out this, this special one about the passing of Ricky Romero Jr.
[00:00:33] Ricky Romero Jr. And I had become friends over the last couple of years, primarily through the research that I have been doing on the Funk family and for the book about Dorie Funk Senior.
[00:00:48] I reached out to him, of course, trying to learn as much as I possibly could about the Romero family as well, which was a huge wrestling dynasty in the city of Amarillo and all throughout West Texas.
[00:01:04] And Ricky was shy about it at first. Matter of fact, he was a person who did not seek the public eye. And that probably was part of the reason he never really pursued the wrestling business with a lot of intention and passion, because Ricky told me that his dad was very protective of the family and very protective of his children, specifically away from the wrestling business, and just wanted to have a quiet, private family life. And his dad, Ricky Romero, is one of the most popular wrestlers in West Texas. A matter of fact, Dorie Funk Jr. Told me that Ricky Romero was the biggest ticket selling attraction in the town of Lubbock, Texas.
[00:01:54] And so we, I spent a lot of time talking to Ricky Jr.
[00:01:59] And he provided me a lot of photographs. We had a, we had a gentleman's agreement. We came to a gentleman's agreement right off the bat. That, and this is the case with dealing with a lot of families in the wrestling business, when you're writing a book and you want to have contact with the family and you want their cooperation.
[00:02:20] But I told him, I said, hey, I will not use anything. You just talk freely and tell me whatever you want to tell me, and I will promise you that I won't put anything in the book that you don't want me to.
[00:02:36] And so there wasn't a whole lot there where he was telling me stories that he didn't want published. But he was very protective of his photographs.
[00:02:46] And I told him, I said, any photographs you give me, I promise you that I won't post them online or in social media or anything without you knowing about it and without your permission.
[00:03:00] And. But I said, but after I post them, I can tell you people do it all the time. They pick up photos. I do, too. You pick up photos and you use them in your social media posts. And I can't guarantee you what will happen to them after I post them, but I promise you that I will only use things in my work that you've approved.
[00:03:23] And so that created a bond and a trust between us. He had been ill for quite some time. He was 73 when he passed away this past Thursday.
[00:03:34] And he had been ill. He had had a hip surgery that had gone wrong, and he spent almost a year in the bed trying to fight off infection. We had a relationship over that as well. I had a leg that I had an infection in in 2023, and I almost lost my leg because of it. And he had various problems with infection and sepsis and some other things.
[00:04:05] He kind of had gotten past that pretty much. I mean, he was at least out of bed and going around and been to physical therapy.
[00:04:16] He was also having some trouble with his eyesight and some various things. We talked a lot, and he shared a lot with me. He was especially appreciative of the podcast that I did last week, and it was so timely that last Wednesday we released the Texas episode of the last few months of 1975.
[00:04:41] And the first part of the podcast was about the Dallas and Houston end of Texas, and the second half was about Amarillo. And we talked about Terry and the angle over the Super Destroyer and the North American title. But one of the main things we talked about was the debut of his brother Jay in the wrestling business as the Silver Streak. And I talked a lot about the Romero wrestling dynasty. And he was so.
[00:05:12] He was a private guy, but he was so proud of his family, and he was so proud of their accomplishments. And he wrote me a nice note thanking me for, in wrestling vernacular, putting over the family the way that I did. But I wasn't really putting them over. I was just talking about the history.
[00:05:31] And it's interesting, you know, at the end of 1974, Terry Funk had sold his interest in the Amarillo promotion, and his shares were bought by Ray Stevens and Ricky Romero and a couple others.
[00:05:50] Terry was in a bad place emotionally. Never really gotten over the death of his dad in 73.
[00:05:57] And he was having relationship problems with Vicki, and he wasn't doing that well financially. And Terry was never one to. I mean, he was never really a booker.
[00:06:10] He handled some things in the office for the Amarillo promotion for some time there.
[00:06:17] Mainly his job was to settle disputes among the town promoters.
[00:06:22] Terry could talk to them and get them past whatever problem. And Junior handled a lot of the scheduling and the booking and so on. And then Jerry Kozak came in and did a lot of that too.
[00:06:37] And also their uncle Herman Funk in the office. But anyway, Ricky Romero had bought in and he had bought some points in the wrestling office in the end of 74.
[00:06:49] And then his son Jay had turned 20 that year in 1975, and he debuted as the Silver Streak there in Amarillo. And I talked about it on the podcast and Ricky Jr. Was so proud of his brother and so proud that his history was being shared and documented in the Amarillo territory. And he, besides writing me a nice note just to me, he posted in our Facebook group that he appreciated me doing that. And that was the last time I heard from him as he passed away the next day on the December 11th, that Thursday.
[00:07:32] It's born in San Bernardino.
[00:07:36] His parents, of course, Ricky Romero and his wife Stella. And Ricky was the second of seven children.
[00:07:43] And he stayed a lot at his grandmother's house. The whole family of children did. They moved from California. That was another thing that Ricky did, was he talked to me a lot about Ricky Romero, his dad, breaking into the business in 1950 with Sandor Sabo's wrestling school in Sando Sabo in Los Angeles, California, Southern California area. And he sent me some nice photos of Ricky standing outside Szabo's gym back then and filled in so much that isn't out there about the Romero family. But Ricky Romero Sr. Had come in contact with Dorie Funk Senior when he had come through California. And Dorie Funk Sr. Had recommended Ricky Romero Sr. To Doc Sarpolos.
[00:08:37] And they brought him in in 1960. And they. They brought him in as a Mexican wrestler attraction.
[00:08:44] He, Ricky Romero and Gory Guerrero were the two Hispanic wrestlers that drew a lot of money in the West Texas territory. And in his obituary, that was a wonderful obituary, that. And we were going to post it here in the group for everybody in the Facebook group Pro Wrestling Time Tunnel. But his family said that Terry Funk was quoted as saying that Ricky was the best. Ricky Jr. Was the best of all the brothers in the ring.
[00:09:17] And. But he didn't focus on it. He took a different path, building his. Raising his family in Amarillo and building his life there. And he also spent some time as a referee.
[00:09:32] And evidently we didn't talk a lot about his sons or his grandsons a lot. But evidently they are interested in the business as well.
[00:09:43] I saw some Pictures of Ricky Jr. In his home with some very nice decorative art, and they talked about that. He loved art and he loved nature and he liked going camping and he loved going to the mountains of Southwest Colorado. And he spent a lot of time outdoors, fishing and hiking and spent a lot of time with his sons.
[00:10:05] There was a line in his obituary that he loved his boys with everything he had and his grandsons were the light of his eye. I mean, that's wonderful. It tells you everything you need to know about a person.
[00:10:16] And just going through the comments of the people who knew him and had spent time with him all the way back to high school, talked about the cars that he drove and, and the times that they had. And that's so wonderful about the Internet in today's age that people have a vehicle in which it's like, you know, the old days where you go to a service for someone and they, you'd sign the guest book and then, you know, the family was the only one that got to see the, the stuff in the guest book that people sign. But this technology on the Internet where people can leave their comments online and you can just see what a wonderful and deep relationship base that Ricky Romero Jr. Had.
[00:11:09] But he was a great guy. I enjoyed getting to know him. He was invaluable resource for me and the research for the West Texas Territory and for the Dorie Funk Senior book. And I, I just appreciated him so much. I only wish I had a chance to tell him one more time how much I appreciated his friendship and how much I appreciated him as a man and as a friend.
[00:11:35] And so sad news. Ricky Romero Jr. Passed away 73 of Amarillo, Texas. I, I'd gotten that note from him about the podcast that Wednesday on December 10th.
[00:11:49] And he, he, he was so nice. I mean he, he would listen to every show that I would do and that I would release. And I remember when I was on Briscoe and Brad show and we did Dori Funk Sr's legacy on that show, it was a couple hour long show talking about the history of Amarillo wrestling and talking about Dory Funk Senior and talking about Ricky Romero.
[00:12:15] And he wrote me this so nice note saying, oh my gosh, you, you know so much about it and you know so much about us and I just want to contribute to what you're doing because you're recording this history that's going to be lost. And he really, while he wasn't a public kind of person and he didn't really want a lot of attention, he did have a deep, abiding love for what his family had accomplished in the business and for what they had done and that it would always be remembered. And he saw me and other guys like Rock Rims as guys who were interested in making sure that it was recorded for future generations to study, read and learn about. And so for that I could do always be eternally appreciative and thankful, and also deeply grateful for the friendship that he provided. Ricky Romero Jr. Amarillo, Texas passed away Thursday, December 11, 2025. Rest in peace, Ricky.
