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Jay White is one of the biggest potential free agents in wrestling for 2023. Could the former NJPW Heavyweight Champion appear in the Royal Rumble?
With the Royal Rumble just a few days away, fans are wondering if current NJPW star Jay White could appear for WWE during the premium live event. The reason is simple: Switchblade is believed to be heading into free agency in 2023, and there isn’t a better place to make a debut than the Royal Rumble. Triple H and his writing team could undoubtedly develop other ways to get the 30-year-old involved further down the line. Still, audiences have been trained to expect the unexpected regarding this particular event. Despite that, it’d likely take a tremendous amount of hoop jumping to get Jay White into the Royal Rumble match.
Earlier this month, Fightful Select reported that “White’s contract is up relatively soon, and is expected to leave New Japan Pro Wrestling, per those in the company.” The report also noted that WWE was “confident they would land him.” While Jay White may eventually land with the company, his contract with NJPW won’t have expired by the time the Royal Rumble takes place. He has a scheduled Loser Leaves Town fight against Hikuleo on February 11 at New Japan’s The New Beginning pay-per-view, which throws further water on the White debuting at the Royal Rumble hopes. Yet a simple tweet from @btsportwwe has reignited that conversation online. WWE’s live television provider in the United Kingdom shared five “wild” predictions for the Royal Rumble. One was Jay White making his shocking debut during the over-the-top-rope battle royal.
Is Jay White Working The Royal Rumble Feasible?
Anything can happen in professional wrestling, but the odds are stacked against Jay White making his debut on January 28 in Texas. That doesn’t mean it is impossible, however. Over the last several months, the forbidden door between NJPW and WWE has cracked open a bit. Karl Anderson was allowed to defend the NEVER Openweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 17. This was the first time a contracted WWE wrestler had been allowed to work in NJPW’s marquee event in decades, perhaps representing an open line of communication between the two mammoth promotions. WWE also allowed Shinsuke Nakamura to wrestle The Great Muta at Noah’s show on New Year’s Day. Noah and NJPW are two entirely different promotions, but it still showed that the Triple H regime was willing to work things out when circumstances called for it.
The big question is, did WWE create enough goodwill over the last six months to make a Jay White loan feasible? The answer won’t become apparent until entrant No. 30’s music plays at the Royal Rumble, but it seems highly unlikely that NJPW would allow one of its top stars to appear in WWE while still under contract. It’s not impossible, in the same way, a Marvel/DC crossover cinematic universe isn’t impossible, but it’s very, very (very) improbable for a variety of pretty obvious reasons. Batman teaming up with Ant-Man for a buddy-cop crossover movie would be a blast for fans, but wouldn’t make a lot of sense for the companies involved.
Jay White debuting at the Royal Rumble would have a massive impact because it seems nonviable in the first place. If he were a free agent, then WWE fans would almost expect to hear some form of Switchblade’s entrance music hit at some point on Saturday. It’d be an AJ Styles-type debut for the NJPW star and undoubtedly make him one of the most talked about wrestlers in the business. That doesn’t mean that it’s something that those in the Royal Rumble audience should be expecting, however.
Sources: Fightful Select, @btsportwwe
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