I 100% believe the story about how he was goaded into doing this, rather than beating the sorry of jerk that think that's hilarious.

Romero was impulsive and a bit naive (go read his IRC logs from the day!), and this is the shirt of stuff I can see someone who acts like an overstimulated 14yo doing.

Hahahahah I’m interested in what he said on IRC. Got some examples?

I can't find it right now, but there was a collection of crazy stuff he said on IRC while Quake was in development. Basically promising the world (e.g. the dragon). Very energetic, but clearly not well thought out.