Jay White

Jamie White (born 9 October 1992), better known by the ring name Jay White (ジェイ・ホワイト Jei Howaito), is a New Zealand-Dutch professional wrestler, signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). After starting his career in 2013, White joined NJPW the following year as a "young lion". In June 2016, White left for an overseas expedition, during which he worked for the American Ring of Honor (ROH) and the British Revolution Pro Wrestling (RPW) promotions through NJPW's international partnerships.

Jay White
White in November 2017
Birth nameJamie White
Born (1992-10-09) 9 October 1992[1]
Auckland, New Zealand
ResidenceFlorida, United States[2]
Alma materOrewa College[3]
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)Jay White[1]
Billed height186 cm (6 ft 1 in)[1]
Billed weight100 kg (220 lb)[1]
Billed fromAuckland, New Zealand[4]
Trained byThe UK Kid[5]
NJPW Dojo[5]
Debut19 February 2013[1]

White eventually returned to NJPW in November 2017 and won the IWGP United States Championship the following January. Later in 2018, he betrayed his fellow Chaos stablemates to join Bullet Club, eventually becoming the group's fifth leader. White is also a former IWGP Heavyweight Champion and IWGP Intercontinental Champion.

Professional wrestling career

Early career (2013–2014)

White initially trained under The UK Kid at Varsity Pro Wrestling in early 2013, and made his professional debut on 19 February, working for VPW as well as All Star Wrestling, among other promotions. In early 2014, White met New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW)'s Prince Devitt and competed alongside him in a tag team match for VPW. After the match, Devitt gave White his card and told him to keep in touch.[6]

Shortly thereafter, White was contacted by Bad Luck Fale, who said that Devitt had spoken to NJPW officials about White and that he could get him a place as a young lion in the dojo if he wanted it.[7]

Several months later, White met with Fale, Devitt, and Shinsuke Nakamura in London, where White accepted their offer and began finalizing his visa to leave for the NJPW Dojo.[6]

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2015–2016)

White left for Japan on New Year's Eve 2014, began further training as a young lion upon his arrival, and made his debut for NJPW on 30 January 2015, losing to Alex Shelley.[8] White lost all but eight of his matches in 2015, as is common for young lions in NJPW. In 2016, White began gaining more victories, and on 27 March competed in his biggest match to date when he was defeated by then-reigning IWGP Intercontinental Champion Kenny Omega in a non-title match.[9] White's final match in NJPW took place on 19 June 2016 at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall, when he, David Finlay, and Juice Robinson were defeated by Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and Manabu Nakanishi.[10] White left for his excursion to the United States the following week.

Ring of Honor (2016–2017)

White in January 2017

Upon moving to the United States, White was first based in New Jersey, before moving to Detroit, where he lived with Alex Shelley.[11] White debuted in Ring of Honor (ROH) at the 25 June TV tapings, defeating Kamaitachi by disqualification.[12] He teamed with The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) to defeat Kamaitachi and The Addiction (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian). White and The Motor City Machine Guns eventually formed a stable named "Search and Destroy" with Jonathan Gresham and Lio Rush.[13][14] On 8 July, White defeated Lio Rush.[15] At the next set of TV tapings, White defeated Will Ferrara and wrestled Jay Briscoe to a time limit draw.[16]

On 19 August, White competed in a fatal four way match against Kamaitachi, Lio Rush, and Donovan Dijak, which was won by Dijak. The following day, White and Rush were defeated by The Briscoe Brothers.[17] On 30 September, White teamed with Kushida and ACH to defeat The Briscoes and Toru Yano in a quarter final match in the ROH Trios Tag Team Championship Tournament.[18] White, ACH, and Kushida then defeated The Cabinet (Rhett Titus, Kenny King, and Caprice Coleman) in the semi-finals, but were defeated by The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia, and TK O'Ryan) in the final at Final Battle.[19]

On 6 June, White received his biggest title opportunity in his career at the time when after winning a Battle Royal he unsuccessfully challenged Christopher Daniels for The ROH World Championship in a triple threat match. At Best in the World 2017 White, teaming with Search and Destroy defeated The Rebellion in a losers must disband match thus keeping the group together.

Revolution Pro Wrestling (2016–2017)

White debuted for England's Revolution Pro Wrestling on 12 August 2016, defeating Josh Bodom.[20] He returned on 26 August, defeating Mark Haskins.[21]

White competed once again for RPW on 21 January 2017, defeating Martin Stone.

Chaos (2017–2018)

On 5 November 2017, at Power Struggle, White returned to NJPW as the mysterious "Switchblade." He had been teased for the past several months, challenging Hiroshi Tanahashi to a match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome, before attacking him.[22] The following day, NJPW officially announced the match between Tanahashi and White for Wrestle Kingdom 12.[23] On 4 January, White was defeated by Tanahashi in the title match.

On 5 January, Jay teased joining Bullet Club; however, White then betrayed Kenny Omega by attacking him with a Blade Runner. A day later he joined the Chaos faction in order to face off against Bullet Club and Kenny Omega, claiming he needed backup in his fight against Bullet Club.[24]

On 28 January at the New Beginning in Sapporo, White defeated Omega to become the second IWGP United States Champion in the title's history. On 25 March, he went on to defend the title for the first time against Hangman Page at NJPW Strong Style Evolved Event in Long Beach, California. White would make his second successful title defence against David Finlay at Road to Dontaku. White would make his third defense of the title beating Punishment Martinez on night 2 of the ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds Tour in May.[25]

At Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall, White was pinned in a tag team match by Juice Robinson.[26] Because of this, White defended and lost the title to Juice at the G1 Special in San Francisco, ending his reign at 160 days and three successful title defenses.[27] White then competed in 2018 G1 Climax, where he competed in the A Block, where he ended with 12 points (six wins and three losses).[28] In the tournament, he scored major wins over the leader of Chaos, Kazuchika Okada,[29] as well as eventual winner Hiroshi Tanahashi, notably being the only person to defeat Tanahashi in the tournament.[30]

Bullet Club leader (2018–present)

White in September 2019

At Destruction, White attacked Tanahashi after his defense of his G1 briefcase. He then attacked Okada, and Okada's former manager Gedo ran out to apparently save Okada. However, he turned on him by hitting him with a chair, and aligning himself with White. On 8 October, at King Of Pro Wrestling, White was defeated by Hiroshi Tanahashi. After the match, he and Gedo attacked Tanahashi, only for Okada to stop it. They were soon joined by Jado and Bullet Club OG in what turned out to be a setup to attack Okada, with White, Gedo and Jado all completing their defection from Chaos to join Bullet Club, becoming the new leader of the faction.[31] At Wrestle Kingdom 13 on 4 January 2019, White defeated Okada.[32]

At New Year Dash!!, White would defeat Tanahashi in a 6-Man Tag match and would challenge Tanahashi for his newly won IWGP Heavyweight Championship at The New Beginning in Osaka.[33] At the event, he defeated Tanahashi to win his first world title.[34] At the NJPW Anniversary Event in March, White defeated NEVER Openweight Champion Will Ospreay in a non-title champion vs. champion match.[35] At the G1 Supercard on 6 April, Okada defeated White for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, ending his reign at 54 days and no successful title defenses.[36] White then entered the 2019 G1 Climax, competing in the B Block. Despite losing his first three matches against Hirooki Goto,[37] Tomohiro Ishii[38] and Toru Yano,[39] White would make a comeback and win his next five matches against Jeff Cobb,[40] Shingo Takagi,[41] Taichi,[42] Jon Moxley[43] and Juice Robinson.[44] He would then defeat Tetsuya Naito to win the B Block and advance to the tournament finals.[45] However, he would be unsuccessful in winning the tournament after losing to A Block winner Kota Ibushi, finishing with an overall record of 12 points (six wins and three losses).[46][47] In the main event of Destruction in Kobe on 22 September, White defeated Naito to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship for the first time in his career in the main event.[48] At Power Struggle on 3 November, White successfully defended the Intercontinental Championship against Hirooki Goto.[49] However, he lost the championship back to Naito at Wrestle Kingdom 14 on 4 January 2020, ending his reign at 104 days.[50] He followed this with a victory over Sanada at The New Beginning in Osaka on 9 February.[51]

After an absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, White returned on the 21 August episode of Strong, teaming with Bullet Club partner Chase Owens in a loss to Villain Enterprises (Brody King and Flip Gordon).[52] He then participated in the 2020 G1 Climax in the A Block, which he ended with 12 points (six wins and three losses).[53] At Power Struggle, White defeated Kota Ibushi to become the first wrestler to win the Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships challenge rights certificate from the G1 Climax winner. [54]

At Wrestle Kingdom 15, White lost to Ibushi, who had won the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships from previous champion Tetsuya Naito. [55] During a press conference with the company on 5th January, White expressed his desire to quit NJPW after New Year Dash!!, stating that he was “as close to death as he had ever been, and he would hopefully ever be.” [56]

At New Year's Dash the following day, White took the pin fall in an ten-man tag team match with Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, EVIL, and Yujiro Takahashi, against CHAOS members Yoshi-Hashi, Tomohiro Ishii, Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto and Toru Yano (Ishii pinned White after a Vertical Drop Brainbuster). His fellow teammates assisted him to the back.[57] After a month long hiatus, White returned on February 1 on the Road to the New Beginning show attacking Ishii continuing their feud.[58]

Championships and accomplishments

References

  1. "Jay White". New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  2. NJPW. "Switch On: Jay White's plans for a restart (1/2) | NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING". NJPW. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  3. Lemalu, Ite (8 November 2020). "Fale Dojo interview with "Switchblade" Jay White". Ite Lemalu Writings. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  4. ROH Throwback: Jay White vs Will Ospreay. YouTube. Ring of Honor. 28 February 2019. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  5. "Jay White « Wrestlers Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". Cagematch.net. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  6. "Jay White Reveals Which WWE Stars Helped Recruit Him into NJPW". William Windsor. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  7. "When You Invest Yourself and Others". Ite Lemalu. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
  8. "NJPW Road To The New Beginning - Tag 1 « Events Database « CAGEMATCH - The Internet Wrestling Database". Cagematch.net. 30 January 2015. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  9. "The World's Largest Wrestling Database". Wrestlingdata.com. 27 March 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  10. "The World's Largest Wrestling Database". Wrestlingdata.com. 19 June 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
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  12. "The World's Largest Wrestling Database". Wrestlingdata.com. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
  13. "Jonathan Gresham". Ring of Honor. Archived from the original on 29 April 2017. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
  14. "Jay White and Lio Rush vs The Young Bucks for the ROH Tag Team Titles at Manhattan Mayhem!". Ring of Honor. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
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Preceded by
Hiroshi Tanahashi
68th IWGP Heavyweight Champion
February 11, 2019 – April 6, 2019
Succeeded by
Kazuchika Okada
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