Jay White Says KENTA Deserved The First Shot At Tetsuya Naito’s Gold
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“Switchblade” Jay White recently spoke with the official website of New Japan Pro-Wrestling and opened up about how he feels regarding KENTA getting the first championship opportunity against Tetsuya Naito and why he feels he will be soon in IWGP Championship contention.
“In that case, yes it was the right decision, just because of how the match came about. Naito had made history by becoming the first double champion on January 5, but who was everybody talking about after that night? “[KENTA] knocked Naito out and held up both belts. Of course, he should be in line for both titles,” White said. Now, let’s say KENTA won a tag match or something and then made a challenge in his backstage comments. That would be a different situation, it shouldn’t be a double title match in that case. But KENTA made a huge physical statement at the Tokyo Dome…
“Look, I hate to say it, but I didn’t win both titles at Wrestle Kingdom. If he had been able to do what I couldn’t then he would absolutely have earned the chance to enjoy that reign. We look after each other and support each other in BULLET CLUB.”
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Also, White discussed why he’d prefer to see Naito defend the titles separately.
“Well, look, if it was someone like myself, I was in the Double Gold Dash. He beat me and took my Intercontinental Championship on night one at Wrestle Kingdom, and on night two, I beat Kota Ibushi, so there’s a very good reason why I should be the first in line. Let’s use Hirooki Goto as an example, because I’ve had to deal with that son-of-a-bitch too many times because he keeps getting chances that he shouldn’t. If he gets given a shot, as unlikely as it may seem, I’m going to be on the same page as Tetsuya Naito. There is no way Goto should be able to challenge for both titles. Naito should choose.”
New Japan Pro-Wrestling has announced that they will be returning on Monday, June 15th, 2020. You can view the full schedule at this link.