We’re taking a closer look at each competitor before heading into New Japan’s annual double round-robin tournament, the G1 Climax, that begins on July 6 live from Dallas at 6 p.m. Eastern/3 p.m. Pacific on AXS TV.
Jay White
Jay White is a 26-year-old headliner who’s gone from greenhorn Young Lion to a star in what felt like five seconds but was much closer to five years. Since his return from his excursion in Ring of Honor, White has been rocket-launched into a top heel position with NJPW and has gone above and beyond what many expected of him.
It began with the already-forgotten upset of Kenny Omega in February 2018 where he won the US Heavyweight title, which later led to his monstrous G1 run last summer where he scored clean pins over Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tetsuya Naito, thus solidifying himself in the eyes of the fans as a wrestler that the company has loads of confidence in, and as a trustworthy foreign face of the company.
Gedo and company felt so comfortable with White at the helm in a heel role that they essentially gave him Omega’s 2019 NJPW narrative trajectory; Omega was swapped out for White after Omega announced he’d be signing full-time with All Elite Wrestling, according to Omega. This led to White prematurely winning the IWGP title this past February from an aging Hiroshi Tanahashi.
White had a brief but much-talked-about reign as IWGP’s top wrestler for those two months but, as per Gedo’s plan, Okada finally won the IWGP Heavyweight title back in New York City in April — an echo of the original NJPW booking strategy starring Omega. The match was excellent but not above fan expectations; fans went home with the happy ending they wanted.
But what now for White? White’s G1 performance will most definitely indicate the rest of his story over the rest of this year and into the next, and most likely towards the direction of wherever the IWGP Heavyweight title lies after the tournament. Like him or not, White is a big-time player in NJPW now, so keep your eyes on him if you want to keep up with the IWGP Heavyweight title picture.
Bad Luck Fale
Bad Luck Fale gets a bad wrap from most wrestling pundits, especially when he’s entered into longer types of tournaments. He isn’t bad, per se, but his role seems harder to grasp for newer, more casual NJPW fans. He isn’t an action guy — he’s all power and hate. He moves clomps around the ring, slower than everyone in the tournament, pretty much, and his character shows utter disregard for, well, everything.
His gimmick as the Rogue General is essentially the antithesis of what Western fans enjoy about NJPW, which is entirely why his gimmick should work, in theory. Fale is a big, mean heel, a role player who doesn’t move around all that much since he doesn’t need to. Fale’s character is much more like something you’d see Stateside in ‘70s–‘90s.
While he might not produce action-packed thrillers, he does have the capacity to make you dislike him, which is his intent. Set critiques of his ring-work aside until you realize his position as a utility player, one that every tournament like this needs.
What you can expect from Fale will be functional, as mentioned. He’s an actual wild card in this year’s G1. He’s someone who’s big and mean enough for fans to believe that he could cap someone out of nowhere in the A Block. Don’t expect mat classics with Fale, just pain and cheating.