10 Things That Must Happen At NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12

3. An Unsuccessful Return For Switchblade

Jay White Switchblade NJPW
njpwworld.com

What a way to make a return. At Power Struggle, Jay White revealed himself to be Switchblade and subsequently challenged Hiroshi Tanahashi to an IWGP Intercontinental Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 12. Logic says the new star defeats the old ace, leading to a passing of the torch in the process.

Losing to Tanahashi at the Dome is no shame though. The former ace has only ever lost to Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada and Tetsya Naito at Wrestle Kingdom. Jay White is going to be a big star, but is he there yet? Obviously not. This will be a highly competitive match, but one that sees Tanahashi prevail.

White will learn plenty in defeat and an IWP Intercontinental Championship win in 2018 isn’t out of the question. New Japan is a place where winning isn’t everything when it comes to credibility. You can gain much in defeat, and that is the right move for Jay White on January 4.

Many fans will subsequently claim that this means Switchblade has been ‘buried’, but those fans will be missing the point entirely. White needs to show that he can hang with Tanahashi before he shows that he can beat him.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.