IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Jay White is clamoring for an All Elite Wrestling star to walk through the forbidden door. During a recent episode of NJPW Strong, White tagged with Karl Anderson to defeat Homicide and AEW’s Wheeler Yuta. This tag bout was originally scheduled to be a trios match, with Doc Gallows on White’s team and Eddie Kingston factoring into the opposition. Kingston contracted COVID-19 ahead of this taping and was forced to pull out of the event.
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That didn’t stop White from seeking out the Mad King. The leader of Bullet Club took to the microphone after his tag victory to call out Kingston, challenging him to a match at NJPW Rumble on 44th Street on October 28th.
“Eddie Kingston, seeing that you don’t have the balls to come to me, maybe I’ll come to you in New York City,” White said. “And in your hometown, you can find out first hand what it is like to breathe with the Switchblade, because it is still my era.”
Kingston gave a brief response to White’s challenge on Twitter, writing, “Hahahahahaha yoooooo hahahahahah yooooo this dude yoooo hahahaha.”
Kingston has been wrestling with NJPW since November 2021, largely competing on NJPW Strong. In that time, Kingston has had high-profile bouts against the likes of Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer, and Tomohiro Ishii. His last match on an NJPW show came in July, where he was victorious over Jake Something in singles action. More recently, Kingston defeated Ishii at AEW All Out 2022.
If a collision between Kingston and White does in fact go down and White’s prize is on the line, it will be one of Kingston’s biggest opportunities of his career. The 40-year-old wrestler has only had a handful of world title opportunities in his career, with one of his most recent coming against Jon Moxley at AEW Revolution 2020.ย
The possible battle with Kingston is just one of many massive matches in White’s future. Barring any title changes before January, King Switch is expected to defend his IWGP World Heavyweight Title against Kazuchika Okada in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 17.
White is no stranger to the AEW roster either. He has had a handful of matches in AEW, including a successful title defense against Okada, Adam Cole, and Hangman Page at AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door this past June.
NJPW Rumble on 44th Street goes down on Friday, October 28th.
