Jay White was part of a show-stealing match at Ring Of Honor's last iPPV and, as he said in a recent interview, he's ready to steal the show again.
ESPN interviewed White heading into ROH's Best In The World event tonight in Lowell, MA.
A native of New Zealand and former "young boy" for New Japan, White came to America and ROH on his excursion tour about a year ago after graduating from the NJPW dojo. White continues to come into his own, as evidenced by his widely acclaimed match at the last ROH iPPV, War of the Worlds, against Will Ospreay.
"I was excited for that. People seemed really surprised [at the quality of the match], but it's just a case of having the chance for that time and place," he told ESPN. "I don't know if I can speak for him, as well -- I was kind of surprised at everyone's reaction from it. I knew it was a good match, I just didn't expect everyone to kind of lose their minds like they did, but I mean, I'm happy they did. It was fun, I enjoyed it. It was really cool to have that reaction like that in a building where I've seen so many of my heroes wrestle. To have a match that a lot of people were saying was the match of the night was pretty cool, too. But at the same time, it's just another match, and I'm sure there's gonna be plenty more coming."
Tonight, White teamed with the rest of Search And Destroy -- Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin and Jonathan Gresham against The Rebellion's Caprice Coleman, Kenny King, Rhett Titus and Shane Taylor in a match where the losing faction must disband. Shelley also was White's opponent in his very first match after moving into the NJPW dojo. The ROH TV taping on Saturday, however, arguably is even bigger for White; the lineup will include him challenging for the ROH World TV Title. That title also will be on the line at BITW, with New Japan star KUSHIDA facing Marty Scurll with White awaiting the victor.
"Personally, I'd prefer KUSHIDA, because I haven't worked with him one-on-one before," White said. "Me and Marty go back ... he's probably my oldest friend in wrestling. We met maybe within a month of me starting training, and then he was one of my first couple of matches. I mean, that's always special when I get with him, I've always enjoyed that. But for KUSHIDA, as well, he was one of those guys in the dojo who was always around, as well. He speaks pretty good English, so he'd be the guy who always helps you out. I consider him a friend, as well, so that'd be awesome if I can have a chance to have that match against him. Boston's a great crowd, as well."
White noted that KUSHIDA was involved in one of White's favorite matches -- where he defeated Kyle O'Reilly in the finals of the NJPW Best of the Super Juniors tournament in 2015.
"Since then, I've just been relishing the opportunity to get in there with him. I would love for it to be against him, and especially for that ROH TV title," White said.
Click here to read White's full interview with ESPN, and don't forget to log back onto Fightful.com tonight for live results and discussion from Best In The World.
