After more than 15 months on the sidelines to recover from a seriously broken hand and shoulder surgery, Jay White made his surprise return to All Elite Wrestling at the Forbidden Door pay-per-view last weekend, confront fellow New Japan alumni, David Finlay and Clark Connors during their AEW tag title match against Adam Copeland and Christian.
In many ways, Jay White was a pro wrestling prodigy, starting in the New Japan dojo system when he was just 19, and stayed ahead of the curve the majority of his career. The two-time IWGP Heavyweight champion, reigns where he was much more suited to the role the second time around in 2022 as compared to the initial run in 2019, checks all the boxes for a top-tier performer, while still with the best years of his career theoretically ahead of him.
The sum of White’s career, at least to this point, should serve as an example as to why a variety of experience is key to the development of a well-rounded performer. As we know, not long after his time training in Japan, he was sent on an excursion to learn how to work in front of different audiences for different promotions with different styles, including Ring Of Honor when it was still under the Sinclair Broadcasting banner in 2016. Keep in mind, when he debuted in the sport in 2013, he originally learned the British style within the UK, but within just three years he had trained in Japan and began wrestling in the United States.
This isn’t a knock on the multi-million dollar WWE Performance Center, they have some of the best coaches in the entire world there to teach the next generation, but there’s still a valid argument to be made for the valuable experience of wrestling different opponents in front of crowds to truly hone the craft, as opposed to the bubble of the WWE system.
By the time he returned to New Japan in late-2017, he adopted the “Switchblade” persona that suited his fast-paced, crisp style and gave him something to work with from a character perspective, especially as a heel. Eventually, he was used as a leader of the Bullet Club, which became a position that was used to move competitors up the ladder based on the cache that the faction had. Again, it worked well with the Switchblade character. New Japan developed and pushed a main event talent with Jay White.
Since Jay White was booked to work the main event of the Tokyo Dome tells you that he was a valued member of the NJPW roster, but the harsh reality is, as we saw with several other guys around the same time period, New Japan simply can’t compete with Tony Khan’s money. The same can be said about the Japanese league being unable to compete with the corporate money of the WWE. It’s not a knock on New Japan, their historical cache and influence on the industry is well known, but it’s simply a matter of revenue. The fact that New Japan was sold for $22.6 million a few months ago, and that’s only roughly half the amount that the WWE gets paid to bring one show to Saudi Arabia, it puts the differences of the scale into focus from purely a business perspective.
So, when Jay White was offered a full-time contract from All Elite Wrestling in 2023, it probably would’ve been irresponsible for him not to take it. Keep in mind, as ludicrous as it is, pro wrestlers are still deemed independent contractors, there are no pension or retirement plans when they hung up their boots. In the vast majority of cases, making the most money possible for as long as possible must be a propriety for the financial security it provides, especially because of the high risk of injury in the profession.
I have to be honest, when Jay White landed as a full-time talent in All Elite, I thought he’d be given a much more important spot than where he was within his first year under the AEW banner. I understand that Will Ospreay is a flashier performer, but when it comes to bell-to-bell skills, I’d say that Jay White is on a similar level, and I thought he would’ve been booked for a role within the same fashion as Ospreay in terms of being a spotlighted performer. That’s why I think it would be fair to categorize Jay White as being somewhat underutilized during his tenure so far in the Khan-owned organization, despite the hurdles of injury.
However, those injuries did him no favors as far as building momentum since a foot injury in mid-2024 put him on the shelf for a few months before the major absence after the shoulder injury last year.
The silver lining here can be that the extended time away allows for a fresh start, but if there’s a ceiling to how much progress he will make remains to be seen. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that White’s return should disrupt any of the current plans for Will Ospreay to presumably win the world title at Wembley Stadium at the end of August, but he should be a factor in the big picture going forward. This is one of the many problems of such a bloated roster, when there are so many guys under contract without the television time to justify it, there will undoubtedly be those that aren’t given the chance to reach their full potential. Given the possible upside of Jay White and that he already proved to be a main event talent in New Japan, he should be someone that Tony has plans for, both in the short-term and the long-term of AEW.
At 33, Jay White is really only now entering the prime of his career, which is why it’s important for him not to flounder upon his return to the company. The downside for the case to be made for a push for him, if there is one, would be that if he gets hurt again, he might get labeled as injury prone. With the time added for the injury, there’s online speculation that his contract could run through 2027, which would be enough time to see what Khan has planned for him. That could be the biggest question mark of this entire situation, even more so than what or if Tony Khan has plans for him, is Jay White truly 100% healthy that he will get back to top form? As much as New Japan was the place where he made his name, the modern Japanese style is risky, if not reckless so it’s at least possible that he has more of a toll on his body from his run in Japan.
As far as what’s next, I hope the Bang Bang Gang stable is only there to enhance the presentation for him to seem like a bigger star for a bigger role in the promotion as opposed to a retread of where he was more than a year ago. On one hand, if the money is right, White might be content to take the cash to work a lighter schedule and hang out in catering if he’s underutilized. On the other hand, specifically given the Khan track record of missing the boat on guys like Penta and Danhausen, I could see Jay White being a major addition to NXT in a few years, or even going directly to the main roster if there’s not something worthwhile for him to do in All Elite.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
