"He became their box office superstar" – Kenny Omega breaks character to praise his former rival

Kenny Omega praised former rival and reigning IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Jay White.

During a recent interview with Fightful, he weighed in on Switchblade's rise in recent years. The former AEW World Champion also discussed how New Japan Pro Wrestling was able to rely on the current Bullet Club leader after the former's departure.

Omega and White previously shared the ring in NJPW in a match where the latter won the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship:

"When I left, if I were a betting man, I would have put everything I owned in my name, so couple of retro consoles and five dollars, I would have put that on knowing that Jay White and Will Ospreay were going to be the go-to international talents that they would heavily push. Next to that, I knew that very soon down the line, the lightning the bottle that they didn't know that they had with Shingo Takagi, I knew was going to come into his own and be an incredible force and be a talent that people would want to watch. It's really neat for me now to be on the sidelines and that, in one of our highest marquee matches, we've got the guy that I lost the belt to in the main event, Tanahashi, going against Mox, a guy who has beaten me and I've beaten him."

Kenny Omega further spoke about his history with Hangman Page and Kazuchika Okada, who will be challenging for White's IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at Forbidden Door:

"Jay White is in one of the matches for their most prestigious bout against a guy that I'm very familiar with in Okada, there's Adam Cole, Hangman, the guy I lost the AEW belt to. There's a lot of history there and it's cool to see that when I said my farewell to New Japan, not knowing how things would go, that Jay White did step up and did become the guy New Japan needed and he became their box office superstar and became the guy you could base a pay-per-view off of, a guy you could put on posts, someone that when he speaks you want to hear what he has to say and you're compelled by what he has to say."

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Kenny Omega initially invited Jay White into the Bullet Club

When Jay White first returned to New Japan Pro Wrestling, he couldn't dethrone Hiroshi Tanahashi as the IWGP Intercontinental Champion at Wrestle Kingdom 12.

At the same time, the infighting between Bullet Club had taken an ugly turn, with Cody Rhodes setting his sights on Kenny Omega's former tag team partner, Kota Ibushi. It prompted The Best Bout Machine to save Ibushi and invite White into Bullet Club.

Initially, it did seem Switchblade was keen to join the group but instead, he hit Omega with a Blade Runner. The Kiwi superstar eventually went on to join CHAOS and dethrone Omega as the IWGP US Heavyweight Champion.

Following The Elite's departure from NJPW, White betrayed CHAOS and Kazuchika Okada and allied with Tama Tonga and co. as he finally joined Bullet Club, but this time as the group's leader.