Jay White Reveals He Spat At Josh Barnett During NJPW G1 Special In San Francisco Incident

Jay White got lucky during an incident with Josh Barnett.

At the NJPW G1 Special in San Francisco last July, things got real between Jay White and Josh Barnett. Defending his IWGP United States Title against Juice Robinson, White suplexed Robinson into the guardrail at ringside. The railing ended up hitting the announce table of Jim Ross and Barnett. The table crashed into Ross, leaving him with broken ribs. An irate Barnett stormed after White, who smartly got away. Barnett eventually returned to the table and match continued.

Appearing on Talk Is Jericho, White detailed the incident and revealed that it could have gotten worse if Barnett was paying attention.

“This was completely real. I wasn’t trying to hit JR. I hear the reaction to the move and about a second later, everyone was like, ‘What was that for?’ I look over and I see the fans looking down at something,” said White. “And I was like, ‘I must’ve knocked JR out of his seat. I should make the most of this.’ So I stand up and gloat and yell and Josh Barnett stands up and I start talking shit to him. He starts coming around the fence and I’m like, ‘Oh shit, I’m gonna stay out of his reach.’ I get out of the ring and keep talking shit to him. As he starts walking off, I actually spat at him. I don’t think he saw it, which is probably a good thing in hindsight.”

White continued, discussing the scene backstage after the incident.

“I get backstage and someone comes up to me, someone from AXS, and he goes, ‘What the hell was that?’ I go, ‘Who the fuck are you? I just had an awesome match, what are you talking about?’ He said they were pissed about JR. I said it was an accident and I was worried, hoping he wasn’t actually hurt. I didn’t want to screw up things for AXS and New Japan. They came back and let us have it. I apologized. We didn’t get told that we couldn’t throw each other into the fence. We thought it was attached.”

White also revealed that the railing was next to a television box and had the cables come out while they were moving the railing, the broadcast may have gone off the air. 

“Switchblade” started off the year with a big victory over Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 13 and followed that up by winning the IWGP Heavyweight Title over Hiroshi Tanahashi at The New Beginning In Osaka.