Jay White put the wrestling world on notice

Jay White just set the world on notice. He defeated Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at NJPW Dominion, securing the title for the second time in his career. Not only did he do that but doing so weeks before AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, he’s poised to remind the world that he may be the best wrestler in the business today.

After the match was over, White didn’t focus much of his promo on Okada and New Japan. Instead, he turned his focus to two of the top names in All Elite Wrestling, “Hangman” Adam Page and Adam Cole. All these individuals have links throughout their past due to time in NJPW and The Bullet Club. It was with this moment that White not only let them know he couldn’t cut it against him, but without him, AEW may not be a thing.

“I am the catalyst of professional wrestling because without me you don’t even get AEW,” White said. “Everything you’ve all come to love, enjoy, and cherish over the last few years you don’t have without me, because without me beating Kenny Omega, maybe he doesn’t run away. Maybe he doesn’t run away and take his success and fame, and the Young Bucks to create AEW.”

Canonically, White has a strong point. As AEW has raged in the United States, and COVID-19 caused many to take their eyes off Japanese professional wrestling, Jay White continued to excel. During that time, he had the setback of losing to Kota Ibushi at Wrestle Kingdom 15, but he would rise above that, picking up the IWGP Intercontinental and NEVER Openweight titles instead.

White is one of the names that wrestling fans wanted to see step through that Forbidden Door more than others. He’s made sporadic appearances in AEW, but never to the impact that fans know “The Switchblade” can have.

With only two matches scheduled for Forbidden Door, the expectation was that Page would face Okada. The former called out the latter on a recent episode of AEW Dynamite. Cole inserted himself into the conversation and it was seemingly heading toward a three-way. But now there’s a new champion atop NJPW, so what does that mean for the match? Could we see a fatal-four way as the main event of the PPV? The immediate thought of that presents not only options to protect the major players in the match but build multiple storylines that could weave through both promotions. Could Cole turn his attention toward White, setting off a long-term fight between The Elite and The Bullet Club? What about Page, is this his opportunity to get the acclaim in NJPW that escaped him earlier in his career?

As these ideas and predictions continue to swirl, Jay White stands in the middle of them all. His recent years of in-ring action, promos, and carrying much of NJPW may have gone unnoticed by a wide swath of North American wrestling fans, but this victory and what’s to come out of it will put the world on notice that he is not one to forget.