Foxsports.com.au was invited to meet with New Japan Pro Wrestling president Harold Meij on November 14 in Tokyo.

In a rare interview with western media, Meij discusses some of the big talking points surrounding NJPW and its relationships with western companies and wrestlers.

See more from the interview here.

NJPW Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada poses after a match in London this year. Source: Supplied

On the decision to turn Wrestle Kingdom into a two-night show, and why it won't be a yearly occurrence:

“Our shows, generally speaking, all sell out. Our product is very popular here in Japan.

"Because 2020 is an Olympic year, so there’ll be more global eyes on the sports and culture of Japan, we thought well, we’re part of the culture of Japan as well. Particularly for the night-life.

“It’s been said that Japan is very good for daytime tourism but not so much for night-life - there are restaurants and bars and that kind of thing, but not so much other types of entertainment. So even the government is saying let’s look at pro wrestling as a night-life alternative to just restaurants.

“Because 2020 is an Olympic year, and because the demand for our product has been so great, that’s why we decided next year not to have just one Tokyo Dome day but two.

"The planning for that was more than a year before that - trying to get the venue obviously, but also deciding whether we want to do it, because it’s a risk for us as well. Can we suddenly double the number of people coming?

“We have to see how it goes, of course. Anything if you overdo it becomes stale.

"We want to keep the specialness of it, so I don’t foresee doing it every year - hopefully every so often, that would be wonderful, but we’ll have to see how the fans react the first time.”

On conducting a poll to see whether fans wanted the main event of January 5th's Wrestle Kingdom show to be a championship versus championship match featuring the winners from January 4th's matches:

“We believe our whole product is based off of what the fan would want, and we try to deliver - and at the same time surprise, of course. But we would never do something big like that without the support and the understanding from the fans. The fans are very much in support of this and that’s critical.

On whether NJPW would have scrapped the double title main event if the poll had gone the other way:

“Yes, definitely. We would never do something without the support of the fans.”

On dealing with rumours and reports about NJPW coming out in the media:

“There’s a lot of information out there, but also a lot of misinformation out there, a lot of rumours, misunderstandings, and that’s all part of wrestling as well. That’s what makes it so attractive at the same time.

"But it’s also important to make sure people do understand the history for example. Especially outside of Japan, I’ve seen that the fans thrive even more on speculation than the Japanese do.

"The Japanese are very fact-oriented; this is probably because of the education system. They’re much less prone to rumours - of course, everybody is, but I’m talking about the degree of speculation and the degree of rumours, and Japan is much less than it is overseas.

"One of the reasons is that we don’t give out enough English content yet. We do therefore get a lot of conflicting reactions from fans overseas than we do in Japan. We take both on board, but a lot of that is based on the unfortunate lack of information that we’re giving out yet.”

On the report (that came out two days before this interview) claiming NJPW tried to make it difficult for Kenny Omega to enter into Japan:

“If you read the column that I write, I say in detail, this is the one time I believe I have to say something. There’s many others out there that I wouldn’t even react to, normally I wouldn’t react to something like this.

"But this was getting more traction and because as a company, you can’t react to every misunderstanding and or rumour. When some of them get to a certain stage, you know, I have to say something.

"We couldn’t even do it if we wanted to. We would never - why?

"He was a great contributor to our company for many years. He was our top foreign wrestler, the heavyweight champion for crying out loud. He’s still growing in his own way in his new role, and we wish him all the best.

"We would never do something like that.”

NJPW Junior Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay (left) wrestles Sydney's Robbie Eagles at the Southern Showdown event in Melbourne this past year. Source: Supplied

On why NJPW of America will be holding a large number of smaller shows rather than a smaller number of large shows:

“One of the biggest handicaps we have is the time difference. We can’t do a lot of live events on US prime time - if we do one at 6 or 7 o’clock at night, it’s 3 o’clock in the morning in the US, depending on where you are. You’re not going to wake up unless it’s a Wrestle Kingdom or something.

"Of course you can still do near-live or streaming, but one of the biggest things is we need to create the understanding of what New Japan stands for. The best way to do that is really like sampling.

"It’s a sampling marketing strategy. By doing smaller-scale shows in a lot of places, people can physically see what our product is like, come to love it and then join into the streaming service or watch the TV broadcast."

On NJPW's relationships with foreign promotions, and whether the company would pick an Australian partner:

“We’re always open to looking for partners, we already have several strong ones in the world. We definitely need to expand that.

"But the one thing that sets us apart is we carefully look at our partners. Once we partner with someone, it’s basically for life. It’s like a marriage.

"Japanese companies and Japanese culture in that sense is very loyal; it takes a while to get that loyalty, but once you get it, it doesn’t go away. It takes time but once we do it, we’re there for life.”

On whether NJPW of America will impact on the relationship with US promotions like Ring of Honor:

“I actually think it complements a lot of the relationships that we have, especially with ROH for example.

"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.”

On whether NJPW intends to continue sharing wrestlers with ROH:

“Oh yes. We’re here for the long run with partners that we tie up with.”

On whether NJPW would work with All Elite Wrestling:

“We’re very open to working with anyone, we don’t exclude anyone. But it does take time to create that trust between companies.

"And right now AEW is still in the exploratory phase; they’re trying to establish themselves as a brand, what is that brand? 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.

"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.”

On whether the exits of AEW stars and executives such as The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and Cody have impacted the relationship between the company and NJPW:

“No. It’s a business, at the end of the day.

"The wrestlers we hire, we work with on a contractual basis for a certain period of time. Obviously we would’ve loved to have kept having them here but I can understand that if there’s in their minds a bigger and better opportunity, well then that’s just a natural way for competition to move forward. It’s a natural thing.

"I do also believe the likes of AEW is good for the industry, because it puts a lot of new money into the industry, and a lot of people might be getting more interested in pro wrestling - people who might not have been interested if AEW hadn’t been established. So it can only be good for the industry.”