Wayne Bennett has declared war on the NRL and its clubs over a return to Denver next year after his England team stormed back from 12-0 down to beat New Zealand in rugby league's biggest modern American incursion.
A crowd of 19,320 saw debutant Jake Connor inspire a 36-18 victory at Mile High Stadium in a fixture which Australian authorities tried to block and for which they say they will not release players next year.
"Yep. It starts now. It starts today," Bennett said of the fight to ensure the fixture continues.
"It just defies logic ... that we have Samoa play Tonga, we can have Samoa play Fiji, we can have a State of Origin game.
"We're the ones who have to put ourselves out to come over here and we want to do it and we can't play - on the same weekend.
"When they can justify that to me, I'll drop off ... but they can't.
"We need to get our head out of the sand. Origin would never start now. The clubs in the eighties didn't want it but (Ron) McAuliffe and Kevin Humphreys were strong enough men to say 'this is what we need'.
"We need a lot of people to stand up for the international game now because it's the next horizon.
"If we don't have a global product, we're not going to have a product in 20 years. Sport's changing that quickly. Kids are growing up with all the sports around the world and I want to be in that place."
The game was announced as a three-year venture, part of the build-up to the 2025 World Cup in North America, but the NRL refused to enforce releases for the 2018 match and say clubs will not allow players to take part in 2019 - even though they are planning an NRL match in Los Angeles next March.
Promoter Jason Moore declared the event a qualified success.
Asked if would be on again in 2019, he said: "I think it's more likely than unlikely but we've got a lot of work to do in structure and getting the comfort zone around NRL clubs."
In a game played in dry heat and surrounded by American match day glitz, Michael Maguire looked set for a winning debut as international coach when New Zealand led 12-0 after 28 minutes, with debutant centre Esan Marsters dazzling the English defence with outrageous footwork and speed.
A telling incident, however, had occurred in the eight minute.
Kiwi Martin Taupau took out England five-eighth Jonny Lomax with a late challenge and when Lomax missed a tackle on Marsters, he was replaced by Hull's Connor.
The 23-year-old set up England's two first half tries, to winger Ryan Hall and second rower Elliott Whitehead, to leave the Kiwis up just 12-10 at the break.
The second half belonged to the English.
When Kiwis hooker Issac Luke stomped on the hand of England centre John Bateman, they played "Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap)" over the PA and Gareth Widdop levelled the scores and then edged his side ahead with a 'mile high special' 50-metre penalty goal.
Connor turned the tiring Kiwis inside out with a 60th minute touchdown and another debutant in Tommy Makinson also crossed.
Maguire said his new-look and under-strength New Zealand team showed enough for him to be reasonably confident about the series against England at the end of the year.
"Moments in Test matches change games and we kicked it dead three times off kick-offs," he lamented.
