NJPW President Harold Meij recently sat down with Fox Sports Australia. During the conversation, Meij spoke about a possible future relationship between his New Japan Pro Wrestling and the upstart All Elite Wrestling league.
Meij did not rule out the possibility of the two wrestling promotions working together someday. “We’re very open to working with anyone, we don’t exclude anyone. But it does take time to create that trust between companies,” Meij said.
“And right now AEW is still in the exploratory phase; they’re trying to establish themselves as a brand, what is that brand?” he asked. “They’re about one year in, and we’re starting to see what their brand is all about. Then we’ll have to see if that brand fits our brand of course.”
Meij would continue to say that as of right now, the AEW style is different than NJPW’s.
“At this stage, they still have different styles than we do, and that’s the only thing. We’re looking at what their brand positioning is and whether it complements ours.”
NJPW’s Relationship With Ring of Honor
According to comments Meij made during this interview, the relationship between ROH and NJPW is still strong. He was asked if the newly formed New Japan of America promotion will hurt their alliance with ROH.
“I actually think it complements a lot of the relationships that we have, especially with ROH for example,” Meij responded. “As we do these shows and more fans fall in love with our product, as we do more joint matches with ROH – whether ROH comes to us or we go to them – the value of the total package increases. They would see that our wrestlers are very good and so are the ROH ones.”
When asked if ROH and NJPW will continue to share talent, Meij stated that they would.
“Oh yes. We’re here for the long run with partners that we tie up with.”
The full interview can be read here.
