Jay White victorious over Ishii at Castle Attack
The semi main event of Castle attack night one saw Jay White seek to end a personal vendetta with Tomohiro Ishii, and exorcise demons that have haunted his confidence since last year’s G1 Climax 30 finals.
Down 0-2 in singles matches against Ishii, and knowing that the Stone Pitbull had been enraged by violent attacks and chokings in recent weeks, White relied on his smarts early, drawing back and refusing to engage. When Ishii got frustrated and pursued White, he quickly paid, with stomps and a cheap shot from Gedo.
Ishii found an opening of his own however, bowling his opponent over and hurling White into the guardrails. Heavy hits followed for Ishii in the ring, but when the Switchblade was able to hang Ishii’s throat over the top rope, the flow of the match changed; White would drop Ishii ribs first over the steel guardrail and shifted his focus to driving the air out of the Stone Pitbull’s lungs.
A relentless assault saw Jay White stay exclusively on the midsection of Ishii, who couldn’t follow up on any desperate offense he could muster. A powerslam from Ishii saw the Stone Pitbull scream in pain at his own maneuver, and when Ishii was a step slower than white in a reversal exchange with less wind, a DDT was the result. Ishii had to dance with what brought him, and that was some chops directly to the throat that restricted his opponent’s breathing. White dug deep, catching a charging Ishii with a Complete Shot and deadlift German, but damage was clear and visible.
Ishii again tried to haul White into the corner, but took a half hatch Suplex into the corner and again into the railing, leaving his opponent in severe danger. A Bladebuster followed at the 15 minute mark, but Ishii refused to stay down for three.
White would gut out a vicious Ishii headbutt to land a uranage and Kiwi Crusher, but still couldn’t finish the Stone Pitbull. Ishii powered through intense pain to put White into the corner and landed a rising headbutt, but a follow up superplex did Ishii almost as much damage as it did White.
When Gedo hopped on the apron, a right hand to Ishii opened the door to a snap sleeper suplex, but Ishii wouldn’t say die to a sleeper hold or Regal Plex. Ishii again dug down deep, and running on adrenaline, caught White with a powerbomb for two. The Vertical Drop Brainbuster didn’t come for Ishii though, and Switchblade scored one of his own for a near fall. Ishii sent White crashing into an interfering Gedo, but White escaped the finishing blow, a sequence of counters leading to the Bladerunner for the win.
Jay White would announce his intentions to win the New Japan Cup backstage after the bout; he will doubtless be a favourite when the tournament kicks off March 5.
