NJPW superstar and former grand-slam IWGP champion Jay White was a guest on Busted Open Radio to discuss his recent stint in AEW, where the Switchblade admits to being surprised at the loud reactions he received from the AEW fanbase. White also touches on his relationship with Alex Shelley, whom he will be facing at this weekend’s IMPACT Sacrifice event. Highlights from the interview are below.
Admits to being a little bit surprised about the loud reaction he received in AEW:
It did a little bit, you know? And I get where you’re getting at with the question. It doesn’t surprise me in the sense that I know my worth but it does a little bit in the sense that I just had no idea what the reaction would be to such a bigger, more mainstream audience. You know, whether they were — whether they loved me from the start or not, that doesn’t bother me because I know over time, people are gonna realize my ability and stuff. That’s kind of been noticed from the start. When I came back to New Japan, people thought I was put in a position I shouldn’t have been [in]. You can argue about that all day but what you can’t argue is that where I am now, you know, I was right about that and so in terms of that reaction, yeah, it was a little surprising, you know? But in a good way, because like I said, I just had nothing to go off in terms of gauging what an audience of that size, whether they would even know me or how they would feel about me.
On his upcoming match with Alex Shelley at IMPACT Sacrifice:
So he [Alex Shelley] was actually my debut match in New Japan Pro-Wrestling when I was — when I got there as young boy, 2015, I wanna say it was January 28th was my first match there and it ended up being — it wasn’t meant to be there. It was meant to be with another Young Lion I believe. But it was flight issues and it ended up being me, one-on-one with Alex Shelley and I think since that first match, we kind of bonded since then. He helped me a lot in Japan and when New Japan sent me over to the States to Ring of Honor on excursion, I ended up living with Alex Shelley for the better part of, probably about a year or so-so, yeah, he taught me a lot. Being on the road with him was great. We’d go and train together, things like that. He’s got a wealth of knowledge there as everybody knows and it’s really interesting to see, since getting close to him in the years since, how many people he’s inspired wrestling-wise as well. Kind of how many people’s careers that he’s inadvertently touched. I don’t think he would realize that himself. I’m sure he’d be humbled to know that so it almost makes me a little bit sad this Saturday that I’ve kind of gotta take out another one of everybody’s hero, an old mentor of mine but, hey, it’s always business in that ring for me so, won’t be any difficulties on my part.
(H/T and transcribed by Post Wrestling
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