With professional wrestling soldiering on after the calamities of 2020 and 2021, things finally appear to be working towards normality once again. WWE is still doing whatever it is that WWE does, AEW continues to have a product that has soaked up those who are tired of WWE, and even Impact Wrestling has bounced back to present some genuinely good wrestling at times. New Japan Pro Wrestling's issues are much more complex, however, due to Japan's stringent Covid policy causing unrest with some of the top foreign talent. Jay White is the biggest name that has been affected, and he has been working NJPW Strong as well as a few Impact shows while he is in America. The question remains — why have neither WWE or AEW signalled any interest in White? He's a good talker with strong in-ring game. So what is the issue that is preventing the big American companies from signing the current leader of the Bullet Club?

White Is Too Edgy For The WWE

The WWE is a television program that is marketed to, and aimed at, children. There is nothing wrong with being a fan of the WWE as an adult; in fact, ratings suggest that the bulk of WWE's audience is actually 49 years and above. But the WWE has certainly transformed itself into a program that is family friendly and kid-appropriate. Even the content which pushes the boundaries in WWE tends to be on the safer side. Look at Roman Reigns for example — his current gimmick would fit in perfectly with a Mafia film and there is a lot of double-entendre and euphemisms with his promos that always hint at something more sinister, but it is only implied. One of the great aspects of Roman's current character is this idea of true evil lurking beneath the very calm exterior without having to show too much.

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In comparison, Jay White doesn't deal in euphemistic behavior. He is a vicious and calculating psychopath both in and out the ring, his promo style is wild and unpredictable, and WWE would need to retrain him to talk the WWE way and perform the WWE style. It simply isn't worth the time or investment for WWE to try and make Jay White a WWE Superstar. Although he has the look of a star, there are other young and hungry talent that can be more easily molded and come without the added baggage of being a roaring success in a vastly different company with a vastly different style.

AEW Could Not Utilize White Effectively

One of the major reasons why AEW may not be interested in White is that the talent at the top of the card is already a crowded place. With the likes of Kenny Omega, Bryan Danielson, CM Punk, Hangman Page and Adam Cole, all plying their trade in America's second biggest promotion, where would Jay White fit in? The obvious answer is that as the leader of the Bullect Club, there's an instant rivalry there with White and Omega, but the amount of exposition and backstory that large parts of the AEW audience are probably not aware of wouldn't make for an entertaining rivalry and could quite easily divulge into soap opera drama quickly.

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Then there is the possibility of NJPW becoming more involved with AEW and hosting an invasion-type angle, sending top talent to compete with AEW's best. This sounds great in theory, as a host of dream matches involving Okada, Tanahashi, Naito and White on American TV would make for fantastic wrestling. But it wouldn't work in NJPW's already very confused and layered faction-based story-telling. Having White waving the flag of New Japan in AEW while representing Bullet Club is confusing at best, and downright stupid at worst. Destroying New Japan's own internal logic to host dream matches doesn't seem very productive.

Jay White Chris Bey

Jay White has to find his way back into the pro wrestling mainstream. While his work in NJPW Strong has been consistently excellent, he is far too mercurial a talent to be competing on New Japan's B-tier program. Yet, for all of his prodigious talent, American professional wrestling in 2021 doesn't really have a place for him. He is too Japanese in style to be a major success in the WWE (simply compare Nakamura's work in NJPW to his WWE catalogue) and he is also not a big enough name in America to really impact the headline acts of AEW like he should. White's time in the spotlight will return, but it won't be in America.