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Fridge Brilliance

  • The "Breathe with the Switchblade" catchphrase. Jay White is alive and breathing, as is everyone watching his success, so technically, we are always breathing with the Switchblade. He's basically saying that's all anyone can do about his exploits, in essence telling us to DEAL WITH IT.
  • Tama Tonga naming Jay White the new leader of Bullet Club following the ousting of The Elite seems like a questionable decision, going against both the Firing Squad's claims of Bullet Club being a leaderless group, and even Jay's own claims that he detests faction members complacently falling in line as well as knows better than to order around the dangerous Tongans. However, this makes sense in several ways.
    1. While the Club's previous frontmen (save Kenny Omega) never pulled rank or treated the others as beneath them, with AJ Styles outright denying being called leader while Prince Devitt and Karl Anderson simply never said they were, it was clear that the group's interests revolved most heavily around the guys who were likely to pursue the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Tama acknowledged this in his response to complaints about the announcement of White's new position, bestowing a leadership title upon White while describing him as a frontman spearheading the charge and going after the main title rather than an absolute commander, similar to his predecessors. Take note, the whole time White has been claiming that pro wrestling is entering his new era, even following Tama's announcement, he still has yet to proclaim himself the leader of Bullet Club (though he did acknowledge the "vote of confidence" on Twitter).
    2. Jay White's treason of CHAOS was something he called from the very beginning, stating openly that his problems with faction-enforced complacency underneath the company's stable leaders also applied to Kazuchika Okada the very same day he joined the Okada-led group. He constantly needled Okada for months before ultimately making his move to act against Okada by first defeating the Rainmaker through cheating in the very first match of the G1 Climax, then by convincing Gedo and Jado to join him in betraying Okada and CHAOS. This, combined with his earlier dethroning of Omega for the United States Championship as well as defeating Tanahashi in his very next G1 bout after Okada, both cemented him as dangerous enough to compete for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship as well as made clear that he would accept taking a backseat to no one. Naming him as the leader ensured that that wouldn't be an issue, and the past several months' reinforcement of the notion that Bullet Club leadership is a trusted responsibility rather than a seat of command is a great way to keep the next leader honest in a way that Jay himself has advocated.
    3. Bad Luck Fale and Prince Devitt were the men who brought Jay White into NJPW as a young boy through a process that had begun just months before Devitt left the company — which, going by an interview on NJPW's English website, Fale acknowledges they all knew would happen. Furthermore, despite being largely tormented by Bullet Club as a young boy and generally claiming that he hated them, Jay continuously maintained a respect for the Tongans as the vast majority of his problems with BC came from the Elite contingent who the Tongans were planning to kick out. In fact one could say that The Elite and CHAOS were ultimately the main targets of The Switchblade's treachery, putting him directly in concert with the Firing Squad even before he joined them. This adds credibility to Fale's claims that Jay's initiation culminated a four-year plan, in effect making him Prince Devitt's chosen successor.

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