Jay White (wrestler)

Early career (2013–2014)

White initially trained under The UK Kid at Varsity Pro Wrestling in early 2013, and made his professional debut on 19 February, working for VPW as well as All Star Wrestling, among other promotions.^[3] In early 2014, White met New Japan Pro Wrestling's Prince Devitt and competed alongside him in a tag team match for VPW. After the match, Devitt gave White his card and told him to keep in touch.^[3] Shortly thereafter, White was contacted by Bad Luck Fale, who said that Devitt had spoken to NJPW officials about White and that he could get him a place as a young lion in the dojo if he wanted it.^[3] Several months later, White met with Fale, Devitt, and Shinsuke Nakamura in London, where White accepted their offer and began finalizing his visa to leave for the NJPW dojo.^[3]

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2015–2016)

White left for Japan on New Year's Eve 2014, began further training as a young lion upon his arrival, and made his debut for NJPW on 30 January 2015, losing to Alex Shelley.^[4] White lost all but eight of his matches in 2015, as is common for young lions in NJPW. In 2016, White began gaining more victories, and on 27 March competed in his biggest match to date when he was defeated by then-reigning IWGP Intercontinental Champion Kenny Omega in a non-title match.^[5] White's final match in NJPW took place on 19 June 2016 at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall, when he, David Finlay Jr., and Juice Robinson were defeated by Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and Manabu Nakanishi.^[6] White left for his excursion to the United States the following week.

Foreign excursion (2016–2017)

White in January 2017

Upon moving to the United States, White was first based in New Jersey, before moving to Detroit, where he lived with Alex Shelley.^[7] White debuted in Ring of Honor (ROH) at the 25 June TV tapings, defeating Kamaitachi by disqualification.^[8] He teamed with The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) to defeat Kamaitachi and The Addiction (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian). White and The Motor City Machine Guns eventually formed a stable named "Search and Destroy" with Jonathan Gresham and Lio Rush.^[9][10] On 8 July, White defeated Lio Rush.^[11] At the next set of TV tapings, White defeated Will Ferrara and wrestled Jay Briscoe to a time limit draw.^[12]

White debuted for England's Revolution Pro Wrestling on 12 August 2016, defeating Josh Bodom.^[13] On 19 August, White competed in a fatal four way match against Kamaitachi, Lio Rush, and Donovan Dijak, which was won by Dijak. The following day, White and Rush were defeated by The Briscoe Brothers.^[14] White returned to RPW on 26 August, defeating Mark Haskins.^[15] On 30 September, White teamed with Kushida and ACH to defeat The Briscoes and Toru Yano in a quarter final match in the ROH Trios Tag Team Championship Tournament.^[16] White, ACH, and Kushida then defeated The Cabinet (Rhett Titus, Kenny King, and Caprice Coleman) in the semi-finals, but were defeated by The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia, and TK O'Ryan) in the final at Final Battle.^[17]

White competed once again for RPW on January 21, 2017, defeating Martin Stone. On June 6th, White received his biggest title opportunity in his career when after winning a Battle Royal he unsuccessfully challenged Christopher Daniels for The ROH World Championship in a triple threat match. At Best in the World 2017 White, teaming with Search and Destroy defeated The Rebellion in a losers must disband match thus keeping the group together.

Return to NJPW (2017–present)

White as the IWGP United States Champion in 2018

On November 5, 2017, at Power Struggle, White returned to NJPW as the mysterious "Switchblade." He had been teased for the past several months, challenging Hiroshi Tanahashi to a match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome, before attacking him.^[18] The following day, NJPW officially announced the match between Tanahashi and White for Wrestle Kingdom 12.^[19] On January 4, White was defeated by Tanahashi in the title match. On January 5, Jay teased joining Bullet Club; however, White then betrayed Kenny Omega by attacking him with a Blade Runner. A day later he joined the Chaos faction in order to face off against Bullet Club and Kenny Omega, claiming he needed backup in his fight against Bullet Club.^[20]

On January 28th at the New Beginning in Sapporo, White defeated Omega to become the second IWGP United States Champion in the title's history. On March 25, he went on to defend the title for the first time against Hangman Page at NJPW Strong Style Evolved Event in Long Beach, California. White would make his second successful title defence against David Finlay at Road to Dontaku. White would make his third defense of the title beating Punishment Martinez during the ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds Tour in Toronto, Canada.

At Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall, White suffered a pin fall loss in a tag team match to Juice Robinson. Because of this, White defended and lost the title to Juice at the G1 Special in San Francisco. Which ended his reign at 160 days with three title defenses. White then competed in G1 Climax 28, where he ended 3rd in his block with a record of 6-3-0. He scored major wins over the leader of Chaos, Kazuchika Okada and eventual winner Hiroshi Tanahashi, notably being the only man to defeat Tanahashi in the tournament.

At Destruction, White attacked Tanahashi after his defense of his G1 briefcase. He then attacked Okada, and Okada's former manager Gedo ran out to apparently save Okada. However, he turned on him by hitting him with a chair, and aligning himself with White, turning them both heel in the process. On October 8th, at King Of Pro Wrestling, White was defeated by Hiroshi Tanahashi. After the match, he and Gedo attacked Tanahashi, only for Okada to stop it. They were soon joined by Jado and Bullet Club OG in what turned out to be a setup to attack Okada, with White, Gedo and Jado all completing their defection from Chaos to join the Bullet Club.