White would soon be called home to NJPW and this babyface in the white trunks would soon take on the heel persona of Switchblade. In November 2017, he would return to NJPW and make a statement by attacking the legendary, Hiroshi Tanahashi and challenging him for his IWGP IC Championship. White would come up on the losing end but it was crystal clear this was a completely different Jay White and this man would hold gold sooner rather than later. On a side note, what makes a legend like Hiroshi Tanahashi so well respected and considered one of the greats is because he can make his opponent look so good even in defeat and he did that here with White. Even in defeat he didn’t lose any momentum because he was able to hang in the ring with a legend.
In January 2018, White teased joining Bullet Club but it was just to get close enough to the leader of the Bullet Club, Kenny Omega so that White could take him out. White wanted for revenge for his defeat early in his career and to take Omega’s IWGP U.S. Championship. White would end up joining rival faction Chaos instead of the Bullet Club. As the picture shows, White did end up defeating Omega for the championship, winning his first championship of his career. White would successfully defend his title in matches against Hangman Page, Dave Finlay and Punishment Martinez (known today as WWE’s Damien Priest). After losing the championship to Juice Robinson, White decided to enter the 2018 G1 Climax tournament and although he didn’t win the tournament he picked up major wins over Chaos leader, Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi. Tanahashi would end up winning the tournament and his only defeat was at the hands of Jay White.
The Switchblade would soon show that he only cared about himself and no one is safe from his rise to the top. He would soon reignite his feud with Tanahashi by attacking him again and when Okada came down to stop him, White turned on him and Chaos and became the new leader of Bullet Club. Bringing a rebirth to the heel stable that was once compared to the nWo but like the nWo had so many change overs in members and the purpose of the group lost their way. The purpose of the group was now clear to dominate and for Jay White to take the IWGP Championship.
