If you were hoping for an All Elite Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling partnership, maybe you shouldn't hold your breath.
The formation of AEW caused several major New Japan stars to defect from the company, with the latter seemingly refusing to pass on their working relationship with ROH to start a new one. In a new interview with Chris Van Vliet, The Young Bucks went as far as to say New Japan Pro Wrestling "hates" them.
On WWE's view of AEW as competition:
Nick: They hate us, I think.
Matt: Why wouldn't they? We're disrupting everything.
Nick: New Japan hates us too.
Matt: I think everybody looks at AEW as competition because we're this new thing. People are afraid of the unknown. They're like 'who are these guys' and every day you see a new headline about something we're doing. It's intimidating. People are fearful of change, I get it.
Nick: We're gonna stay that way. We're gonna be the alternative and we really do mean it. We want to be different from every other company that you see. I feel like the first 2 shows that we've done, we've given a different type of shoe every time we've done it.
It should be noted that several AEW wrestlers have been able to work for NJPW ahead of AEW's TV debut -- namely Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho. Many in AEW have discussed their desire and willingness to make a relationship happen.
You can see Chris Van Vliet's full conversation with The Young Bucks above.
