NJPW Will Not Work With AEW For Now, Chooses ROH + Kenny Omega Update

New Japan has decided that they are going to work with Ring of Honor and at least for now, will not be working with All Elite Wrestling, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio. It was previously reported that there was a meeting to discuss the situation on Saturday.

Meltzer had this to say:

“New Japan has made the decision that they are going to work with Ring of Honor, and at least for now, they’re not working with All Elite, which is a really interesting dynamic because I know that even as late as a couple of days ago, All Elite was kind of thinking that maybe Kenny Omega would work for New Japan and All Elite both. All Elite wanted to keep their talent working in New Japan and wanted to partner with New Japan on events and that’s not gonna happen at least for right now. Who knows what happens in the future but that’s the thing right now. And it may have cost them Kenny Omega.

[…]

“On the flip side, All Elite won’t have access to the New Japan guys, which to me was very important for them. I think that hurts both sides right now. In a perfect world, ROH, AEW and NJPW all find a way to work together, but the reality is that ROH and AEW are competitors and both are going to have exclusivity on their guys.”

Meltzer added that NJPW can’t go against Ring of Honor for now anyway because they have a contract in place for the Madison Square Garden show in April. After that, things may change, or they may not.

Kenny Omega

NJPW’s decision to not work with AEW likely cost them Kenny Omega, who said yesterday that he is taking “time away” from New Japan.

The Young Bucks have also hinted that they may be done with NJPW for now and NJPW may also lose Cody and Hangman Page by choosing to not work with AEW for now. Those guys are all obviously a huge reason for NJPW’s international popularity.

Omega’s main choices for his next destination are AEW or WWE and he’ll likely announce his decision after his NJPW contract expires on January 31.

As of right now, the feeling among the AEW guys is that they are pretty confident that he’ll end up with them, according to Meltzer, but it’s not a sure thing, since WWE has a ton of money to throw around and reportedly offered Omega a huge contract.

Omega did also appear with the AEW guys on the latest episode of Being the Elite.