NJPW New Beginning: Getting Hyped For Kenny Omega vs. Jay White
NJPW kicked off the first night of its New Beginning shows last night with Day 1 in Sapporo. The shows are headlined by a pair of championship matches featuring some of NJPW’s best talents. I’m going to highlight the main event of Day 2’s show, which pits Kenny Omega against Jay White.
Kenny Omega (c) vs. Jay White – IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship
This match is very interesting as well for completely different reasons.
As I said in the last match prediction, Tanahashi and Jay White had an underwhelming match at Wrestle Kingdom 12. Jay White not only lost that match, but he’s taking the brunt of the criticism for why the match was such a letdown.
Unlike Tanahashi (who has a LONG proven track-record of high-level performances), Jay White was re-debuting with the promotion after coming back under the “Switchblade” moniker and needed to make an immediate impression. Unfortunately, White made the wrong impression.
Now, to be fair it’s not all White’s fault. He was thrown into a main event-level feud with an NJPW legend. It was a true sink or swim scenario. Also, I don’t think many people understood the Switchblade gimmick, including White himself.
Kenny Omega on the other hand is riding the biggest wave of momentum possible.
He had some of the greatest matches in pro wrestling history in 2017 and kicked off 2018 with a 5-star classic against Chris Jericho at Wrestle Kingdom 12. Omega has made the IWGP US Title one of the most prestigious titles in all of wrestling in a very short amount of time.
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This match was made after Jay White tricked the Bullet Club by pretending to join the faction as a way to attack their leader, Kenny Omega. White then announced his allegiance to the CHAOS stable as a way to help even the odds between the two groups.
Kenny Omega can seemingly have a great match with anybody. Hell, he has had great matches with inanimate objects & even small children.
I think that this match is perfect for Switchblade because it puts him in a position to showcase what he can really do. I’ll make this simple: if White can’t have a great match against Omega at this show then he really shouldn’t be in the position he is on the card at this point in his career.
Personally, I want to see White succeed and I think that he will. Not only will the match be great, it will be viewed as Jay White’s breakout career performance.
That said, Kenny Omega is going to retain the title.
He’s been positioned as the main face of New Japan for the company’s North American expansion. Plus, he totally deserved it. Very few people are capable of putting on matches of his level on a consistent basis while also helping to elevate everyone around him.
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I think that we’ll be talking about this match for the rest of the year as a possible Match of the Year contender. When it’s all said and done, I see Omega hitting a One Winged Angel on White for the 1-2-3 in the center of the ring.