In a recent interview with Inside The Ropes, Sanshiro Takagi, the President of Pro Wrestling NOAH and DDT Pro Wrestling discussed DDT’s working relationship with All Elite Wrestling.

“I think the relationship is great, at least from our end, it’s actually not that hard to travel to the U.S. from our end, but then again, there is the issue of losing two weeks in quarantine when talent return to Japan, but since they put our talent on their shows, we would like to return the favor too when the situation allows, we’d like to get Kenny Omega back in DDT after COVID subsides too.

There are a lot of DDT family/alums in AEW such as Ethan Page, Ricky Starks, Sammy Guevara, Colt Cabana, Thunder Rosa, Royce Isaacs and I want to see all of them succeed. Other than the talent we’ve already had in DDT, I’d love to book Orange Cassidy, I’d also like to bring Joey Janela to Japan too, not just to return the favor of him being a great host for Yoshihiko’s US tour, I’ve always had an interest in booking him. We also have a relationship with Hikaru Shida, I was actually one of the judges in the audition for the movie that ended up kicking off her pro wrestling career, she’s doing great right now and I’d love to see her make a triumphant return to Japan in DDT one day.

Our general policy is to let talent go on excursion to AEW, so long as AEW and the talent themselves want it. With Takeshita, unlike with Maki Itoh, he took the initiative and made the move to go, we just provided support. Personally, I think Mizuki and Hikari Noa would be interesting picks for AEW, Mizuki will send shockwaves across the globe if she delivers the Whirling Candy on AEW TV, Hikari would leave a huge impact if she teams with, or fights against Jon Moxley.”

The interview is available in full at this link.