Former NJPW GM Accuses Trent Beretta Of Backing out of Verbal Agreement in 2019

During an interview with Conrad Thompson for AdFreeShows (via Fightful), former NJPW GM Michael Craven accused Trent Beretta of backing out of a deal he verbally agreed to in 2019 in order to join AEW. Beretta was one of the talents to join AEW at the company’s start.

Craven said: “If the two Presidents [AEW President Tony Khan and NJPW President Harold Meij] would have met, I think they would have actually liked each other. The Presidents didn’t meet. Even if they did, what would have happened was, ‘Let’s wait and see what they do first.’ They are the new guys. They are a new company. We don’t know what their wrestling is going to be like. We don’t know what their storylines are going to be like. We don’t know how their business is going to go. We had established partners already that were very fearful of this new company. We had partners, such as ROH, that were saying ‘they’re going to hurt our business so much.’ We had to take our partners as a priority first. We don’t just ditch partners overnight. You support through the good and the bad. We were more of a wait and see. The big first shot fired was when one of our talent had verbally agreed to a contract and he went to AEW. At that point, it shut down all talks with our company. At that point, New Japan was like, ‘they’re taking our talent, why do we want to work with them if they’re going to poach our talent?’”

When asked what talent was poached, Craven replied: “Beretta. Yes. I wasn’t part of that deal. I just know of it. It’s a shame. He would have been high up on the card. New Japan was high on him at the time and wanted to use him a lot more.“

Former NJPW GM Accuses Trent Beretta Of Backing out of Verbal Agreement in 2019

Former NJPW GM Accuses Trent Beretta Of Backing out of Verbal Agreement in 2019

Former NJPW GM Accuses Trent Beretta Of Backing out of Verbal Agreement in 2019

Former NJPW GM Accuses Trent Beretta Of Backing out of Verbal Agreement in 2019

Former NJPW GM Accuses Trent Beretta Of Backing out of Verbal Agreement in 2019