Jay White: It’s Disgusting How Many Supposed Wrestlers Want To Win Match Of The Year

Jay White is about victories, not about star ratings. 

Kazuchika Okada won his eighth Tokyo Sports Best Bout Award in 2020 for his work against Tetsuya Naito at Wrestle Kingdom 14. Though Okada lost, he celebrated his Best Bout Award with a smile. 

Jay White would prefer the victory. 

“I despise that award. I hate that term. It’s disgusting how many supposed wrestlers want to get that title, as if it matters. They could lose every match and it wouldn’t matter to them as long as they get match of the year? For any competitor to think that way is a disgrace. For anybody to think that it might be OK to lose as long as they ‘lost well’. They should go and burn their boots. All that match of the year crap is something fans should talk about, not wrestlers,” White told NJPW. 

He continued by saying, “Look, this is a high pressure situation, so competitive bouts arise from that. But would it matter to me if I can come out with a win inside two minutes? No! It would matter to me in a good way, it’d be something to be proud of! I wouldn’t worry about it not being a ‘competitive match’ for the people. You look at a ticket for the matches. Does it come with a statement that the wrestlers will promise to fight for 30-40 minutes at a time? No! The match could end in one minute. That’s what sports are like, that’s how things go. I don’t have any responsibility to put on a competitive match, no.”

Naito cleaned up at the Tokyo Sports awards, winning the 2020 MVP Award to go along with his Best Bout against Okada. 

On the subject of Naito winning 2020 MVP, White said, “Eh, it’s all bias. Tokyo Sports will pick who the golden child is, that award doesn’t mean anything. The people know who the real MVP is, and the answer is that it’s always, always me. The things that I do will always stand out more than what Naito does, but Tokyo Sports will always pick a Japanese guy, and they’ll always pick a guy like Naito. He’s had an easy field. The rest of us weren’t in Japan half the time, and he’s going to call himself MVP? It’s all bullshit.”

White is set to challenge the winner of Kota Ibushi vs. Naito for the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships at night two of Wrestle Kingdom 15.

You can view the full lineup for both nights of Wrestle Kingdom 15 at Fightful’s events section.