New Japan Pro Wrestling‘s Switchblade Jay White returned from excursion in late 2017 with something to prove. He wrestled a high profile match with Hiroshi Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 12 and won the IWGP U.S. Championship from Kenny Omega soon afterwards. At the G1 Special in San Francisco, he’ll face Juice Robinson to defend his title in its namesake country once again.
At a conference call hosted by AXS TV, White spoke to the press about that title match, his upcoming G1 Climax Tournament debut, and more. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
With Spandex: Jay, this is your first time in the G1. Who are you most excited to face in A Block, and is there somebody in B Block you wish you could face?
Jay White: I think… me vs. Okada. Someone from B Block… there’s actually three people: Zack Sabre, Sanada, and Ibushi.
With Spandex: The nickname “knife pervert” started as a tweet by Beretta and kind of became a meme, and now you sell t-shirts that say that. What was the process behind deciding to embrace that nickname?
Jay White: There wasn’t really a process… It never bothered me… Out of the LA show, some people were going to be tweeting it or whatever, so if it’s something people want to get behind, might as well put it on a t-shirt and see if people want to buy it, and they’ve been going well. There really wasn’t much process at all, just “Oh, this makes sense, so I’ll do it.”
Jay White on his G1 Climax 28 match with Okada: The first night of the G1 is a very, very big night, so it’s cool to be main-eventing that against him. I know a lot of people are looking at this as possibly as a match where almost the leadership of Chaos is going to be up for grabs as well. The last four matches haven’t been great for him, and he’s been in a bit of a slump…
On who he would draft if he could draft one NJPW wrestler to Chaos and another away: I might go with either Ibushi or Zack – let’s go with Zack Sabre. Zack Sabre Jr in… Gedo can go out. He doesn’t really do anything… Zack’s more level-headed while Ibushi seems to be more emotionally motivated.
On the role of factions in New Japan: I’ve said before… I’ve got a championship in Chaos, and I’m not going to be offended if someone wants to challenge me for it. That’s the whole point of being there… If someone like Yano, Ishii, Yoshi-Hashi, whoever, wanted to challenge me for it, by all means. Hell, I’d rather it go to them than the other guys. Those are people that I get on with. I’d rather give them the chance than some other idiot like Juice Robinson or some dickhead from the Bullet Club.
On how he’s changed as a wrestler since becoming IWGP US Champion: I’m more willing to do whatever I need to now to hold onto it, as opposed to, say, like a year ago or whatever… sportsmanship and this and that. When you’ve got these other young guys coming after you, it’s less about the process and more about the results.
On crowd response to his Strong Style Evolved match with Hangman Page: Going into it, I expected [the fans] to be exactly how they were. Me and Adam Page compared to almost everyone else on that card, especially the upper half of the card, we’re considered nobodies compared to some of them… the main event was obviously Golden Lovers vs. Young Bucks… This time around they’ll probably be – they might be similar, but they’ll probably be a little more familiar this time, as well. There’s a lot more animosity involved with me and Juice Robinson this time… The crowd should be behind that a little bit more.
On his feud with Juice Robinson: Juice has done great, especially in my absence while I was in Ring of Honor, he had those big matches against these champions… each time he has a singles match he falls short… even though he has a broken hand I’m sure he’ll try to compensate somehow… I don’t exactly think he’ll be different against me, but it could happen…
The fans love him. He’s very fun to watch and exciting to watch. That’s the beauty of New Japan; we have the freedom to be whatever we want… He can be as funny and exciting as he wants, but he still doesn’t have a championship yet.
On his strategy for the match with Juice: Without giving it away, I think it could be pretty obvious that I’ll be going after [Juice’s broken hand.] I did it at the Korakuen Hall shows as well… I’d be a bit of a proud idiot not to go after that… I’m sure he knows I’m going to come after it, otherwise I wouldn’t have crushed it with a chair the other night.
The G1 Special In San Francisco will air live on AXS TV on July 7. You can find out more about their New Japan programming here.
