Opinion: Why Jay White should become a double champion in 2020
On 5th November, 2017, Kiwi upstart Jay White made his return to New Japan Pro Wrestling after his foreign excursion in the US with Ring of Honor and in the UK with Revolution Pro Wrestling. In his first night back in Japan, White revealed himself as the mysterious "Switchblade" and challenge Hiroshi Tanahashi to an IWGP Intercontinental Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome.
Despite failing to capture the IWGP Intercontinental Championship from Tanahashi at WK 12, White made sure that he kept himself in the headlines after teasing joining the Bullet Club the very next day, only to end up betraying Kenny Omega and aligning himself with Kazuchika Okada's CHAOS, as he needed some backup in his war against the Bullet Club.
Shortly afterwards, at New Beginning in Sapporo, White finally won his first title in NJPW as he defeated Kenny Omega to win the IWGP United States Championship and with this win, the Switchblade also marked the beginning of a historic civil war within Bullet Club. White's win over Omega eventually led to the latter's BC stablemate Hangman Page challenging the new champion, however, Omega didn't seem to keen on it and made sure Page didn't take White's moment away from him. This led to Cody turning his back on Omega and making his mark on becoming the Bullet Club leader.
As chaos ensued within the Bullet Club, White entered his first G1 Climax tournament in 2018 where he scored vital wins over Hiroshi Tanahashi and his CHAOS leader Kazuchika Okada. This eventually led to White turning his back on Okada and the CHAOS faction at Destruction and along with him Okada's long-term manager Gedo also aligned himself with White by betraying The Rainmaker.
At King of Pro Wrestling, Jay White continued his trend of making the headlines, as the Switchblade and Gedo once again attacked Okada and Tanahashi and eventually aligned themselves with the Bullet Club on the same night.
This led to a singles match between Okada and White at Wrestle Kingdom 13 and exactly one year after his NJPW re-debut, White managed to pull off the biggest win of his career as he defeated Kazuchika Okada of all people at the Tokyo Dome. After a pinfall win over Tanahashi in a 6-man tag match the next night, White challenged and much to everyone's shock won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at The New Beginning in Osaka, marking his second title win in NJPW history.
Despite losing the title to Okada at the MSG, one way or the other, Jay White made sure that he remained the hottest superstar in all of New Japan Pro Wrestling. Later in 2019, White started his G1 Climax with 3 losses in a row and still made it to the finals of the tournament. At the recently concluded Destruction in Kobe, White ended up winning the IWGP Intercontinental Championship from Tetsuya Naito as the former Bullet Club leader became the second-ever Triple Champion in NJPW history after former BC leader Kenny Omega.
Within these two years, Jay White has certainly managed to mark his territory in the promotion and has been involved in some of the most controversial angles, starting from his CHAOS betrayal to his alignment with the Bullet Club, White has pretty much done it all. Therefore, if New Japan Pro Wrestling plans on a return to the Madison Square Garden in 2020, then the perfect way to end the show would be to have White as both IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Champion.
After all, Jay White has been avenging all his major losses in a pattern and the only fitting way for him to avenge his MSG loss would be to defeat either Okada or Ibushi to win become a double champion in 2020.