10 Things WWE Fans Need To Know About Jay White
The time has come to breathe with the Switchblade, whatever that actually means...
What is going on with Jay White? The former IWGP Heavyweight, Intercontinental and United States Champion gave an emotional press conference after his epic loss to Kota Ibushi in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 15, hinting that his time in NJPW may be coming to an end. White cut an inconsolable figure at New Year's Dash, taking the fall against a CHAOS team and looking no more enthusiastic about his future.
Rumours abound that Switchblade is on his way out of New Japan. Will he turn up in AEW? How about a shock debut at the 2021 Royal Rumble? Nobody knows where White is going to be seen next, but everyone has an opinion.
No matter which promotion gets your vote, there has never been a better time to get to know the best heel in professional wrestling today. Jay White is a bona fide superstar with time on his side, one of the best in the world right now and a man who is only going to get better and better. The new era that he so frequently threatens is here, uncertain future be damned.
Who is the man behind the Switchblade, and why can't he straighten the middle finger on his right hand? All that and more, at your fingertips. Chortle, chortle...
10. Cricket, Tennis, Rugby League And More
Jay White grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, a pretty magnificent part of the world in which to do so. By White's own admission his childhood was spent in a nice area of the city (unlike Bad Luck Fale), and his upbringing ticked many of the boxes that an archetypical Kiwi childhood would tick. It didn't quite include overachieving in team sports and inevitably making it to the final four of most cricket World Cups but it wasn't far off.
It could have been the latter, as White played plenty of cricket in his younger years, along with rugby league and tennis. While New Zealand hasn't really produced any tennis players of note (sorry, Chris Lewis), the small nation has well and truly excelled in the other two sports, producing some of history's great cricket and rugby players.
Like many other similarly-sized countries, this leads to most children playing the sports at a young age in the hope of becoming the next Benji Marshall or Kane Williamson. Jay White was no different, gaining enough of a physical discipline to stand him in good stead in his chosen profession. An athlete from a young age, White was eventually going to channel his physical gifts into an altogether more violent direction.