In this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer provided some updates on last week’s report that WWE and New Japan Pro Wrestling have had talks regarding a partnership.

In talking with people close to the negotiations, Meltzer said the partnership wasn’t the idea of WWE president Nick Khan, but that Khan has been the point person and is believed to have recommended to Vince McMahon to further pursue it.

Meltzer said that while Daniel Bryan was involved in the early discussions, the free agent hasn’t been part of any recent talks. 

He said the initial intent of such a partnership wasn’t to freeze out AEW, but an exclusive deal would end relationships with both AEW and Impact Wrestling where New Japan talent has appeared as of late. He believes any deal would be more NXT-focused and beneficial for both sides.

“New Japan also would not agree to any deal unless they felt it was extremely beneficial to them. Keep in mind that WWE has regularly tried to talk with (New Japan) in the past and it’s gotten nowhere. The real difference here is Nick Khan has never been involved in these talks in the past,” he wrote.

“This very well could get about as far as WWE’s talks to buy NOAH, Stardom, Big Japan, Dragon Gate and AAA got, which all ended with no deal in place. Logic would indicate Tony Khan would not have cut that video thinking this deal is going to happen any time soon, so it’s more likely than not this deal isn’t happening,” he wrote.

The video Meltzer mentioned was the AEW president cutting a promo going over all the New Japan talent that has been in AEW and that he has more plans for the New Japan U.S. title, joking that there is only room for one Khan in pro wrestling.