Jay White might have lost his Loser Leaves Japan match with Hikuleo, but that doesn’t mean he’s done with New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Maybe.
At the very least, the former IWGP Grand Slam Champion has a match coming up this weekend with Eddie Kingston at NJPW Battle in the Valley in San Jose. White has suggested that if he wins, he’ll simply carry on in NJPW Strong, but the match has added a Loser Leaves Town stipulation, lending extra heft to reports that he might soon be completely finished with NJPW.
If that’s the case, where to next? White didn’t tip his hand in an interview with Sports Illustrated ahead of Battle in the Valley, seeming like he’s open to working wherever makes the most sense.
“So much is possible,” White said. “Impact, AEW, WWE — we’ll see.”
White has experience with Impact Wrestling, first appearing at Slammiversary 2021 and confronting Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson. That led to a larger angle that featured White inviting Chris Bey to join Bullet Club, and White teamed with Bey and others several times through the summer of 2022.
AEW fans have seen White several times as well, beginning on the Feb. 9, 2022 episode of Dynamite. Still holding the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at the time, he had a match a week later on Rampage against Trent Beretta and even got to spoil Tony Khan’s Forbidden Door announcement. White starred in the main event of the AEW/NJPW co-branded show last June, successfully defending his title against Adam Cole, Hangman Adam Page and Kazuchika Okada.
If this weekend marks the end of White’s time in NJPW, he leaves with few regrets, as he told SI.
“I don’t know if there is much more I could have done,” White said. “I don’t feel like I left a bunch of boxes unchecked. I’ve been living it, so it can be hard to appreciate it in the moment, but as I move on, I’ve started to look back at the weight some of it holds. As time goes on, I hope people appreciate it even more.”