During a press conference this week, NJPW (New Japan Pro Wrestling) owner Takaaki Kidani took an unintentional shot at AEW’s talent development capabilities when explaining why his company is not inferior to All Elite Wrestling.
During its five years in existence, AEW has garnered goodwill with diehard wrestling fans for several reasons, but none more so than kicking open the “forbidden door.” AEW boss Tony Khan’s forming working relationships with competitors TNA Wrestling, AAA, CMLL, and NJPW has benefited both the industry and wrestling fans savoring crossover matches.
AEW will again open the “forbidden door” in a major way later this month with their yearly pay-per-view event of the same name that will see crossover matches between AEW, NJPW, and CMLL. However, heading into this year’s event, there are some around the industry that feel the Japanese company has started to come across as inferior after the American company signed away several of their top names in recent years.
It was a topic Kidani spoke about specifically at a press conference this week and took an accidental swipe at AEW when explaining why the two promotions are on equal footing.
“Some of that perception of NJPW being behind comes from the economics at the moment. But the truth of the matter is AEW’s strengths and NJPW’s strengths are different. From the development of talent from scratch to a historical and traditional perspective, there’s a lot NJPW can offer that AEW cannot. So there’s a lot that we can do together and while much of it isn’t something we can discuss right now, there’s a lot we will do.
“But the idea that NJPW is the inferior partner is not correct. We are absolutely on an even footing, and that’s something we’ll prove in the near future.”
– NJPW owner Takaaki Kidani (h/t Wrestle Talk)
Kidani is certainly not wrong that talent development is not a strength of AEW. It has been a consistent complaint of wrestling fans for some time as the company continues to rely on older veteran wrestlers who built their names in NJPW and WWE, instead of in AEW.
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