A Cut Above The Elite

While a major focus of the Trios Match at AEW All In has been paid to Konosuke Takeshita’s history with Kenny Omega, their roots in DDT alongside Kota Ibushi, and Don Callis’ influence on their dynamic as of now, Bullet Club Gold’s involvement as the hired guns of Don Callis adds several new layers to the story. From DDT to NJPW to ROH to Impact and, finally, AEW, the Trios Match at AEW All In is perhaps the brightest example of the Forbidden Door concept. In a strange twist, no man better defines the ups-and-downs of this particular history than Juice Robinson and his quest for IWGP gold.

A Flamboyant History

Perhaps the most overlooked piece of this puzzle is none other than Juice Robinson. Arriving in NJPW in 2015 to begin working as a Young Lion through 2016, The Flamboyant One would rise through the ranks and hover around the NEVER Openweight title scene before shifting gears to the newly introduced IWGP United States Championship in 2017. He would fail in his quest to become the inaugural champion, falling to Zack Sabre Jr as Kenny Omega would ascend to claim the historic achievement. It wouldn’t be too long before fate pit them against one another.

G1 Climax 27 began in mid-July of 2017, not long after the Inaugural IWGP United States Championship Tournament, with Kenny Omega now entering as the previous G1 winner and the inaugural United States Champion. In a surprising turn of events, Juice Robinson would score a shocking upset on Kenny Omega during the G1, a win that would solidify Juice Robinson’s progression through New Japan’s ranks and earn him the spot to be Kenny Omega’s first ever IWGP United States Championship defense.

Despite Robinson having a middling G1 run that year, the match with Omega would bolster Robinson’s stock in the eyes of the audience, and their follow-up encounters would earn Robinson the respect of the inaugural IWGP US Champion. It showed that while the first loss may have been, in Robinson’s own words, “lucky”, he could stand toe-to-toe with one of the best wrestlers in the world. If Robinson could match him, however, then what would it say when a Young Lion returns from excursion to supplant him entirely?

Cutting Through The Chaff

In December of 2017, Jay White, one of Robinson’s fellow Dojo Young Lions, returned from his Ring of Honor excursion with a brand-new honorless persona. Calling himself “The Switchblade”, he promised to change the course of NJPW by carving a new era in his name. Despite losing his first match back against Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom, Kenny Omega saw the potential in the Switchblade, offering him a spot in the Bullet Club at New Year’s Dash 2018 in an attempt to make things right within the beleaguered unit at the time during a time of uncertainty. Jay White emphatically rejected the offer, laying out Omega with the Bladerunner and challenging him for his United States Championship at The New Beginning in Sapporo later that month.

In the first true step to establishing what would become the “Switchblade Era” of New Japan, White would pull an upset often compared to Okada’s Rainmaker Shock in 2012, defeating Omega and avenging a loss in their only other singles confrontation back in 2016. In an effort to step up and prove himself while, perhaps unwittingly, being a pawn for Rhodes’ power-play of the Bullet Club at the time, Hangman Adam Page would come to bat, yanking the belt away from White and immediately calling his shot as Jay White’s first defense of the IWGP United States Championship by earning a pin on him in a six-man tag with the Young Bucks.

In the press conference for their upcoming match, Jay White would lay waste to everything that was Hangman Page’s identity at the time. The cutting words of the Switchblade mocked the in-fighting of the Bullet Club, the Elite’s perceived cry and focus on popularity and YouTube views, and even challenged Hangman Adam Page to truly step out of the shadow of the Bucks and Rhodes, citing how Page only earned his shot thanks to the Bucks before telling Adam Page, “As far as I’m concerned, forget Brandi. You’re Cody’s real bitch.” This would be the first true crisis of identity for the anxious millennial cowboy, amplified by infamously going 2-0 against Jay White in singles action from that point forward as he struggled to find his way and would succumb to his insecurities.

When Omega sought to bring Jay White into the Bullet Club, Tama Tonga, currently content to let the Elite fight amongst themselves while working in the shadows, stated that “maybe they just sent the wrong guy”, a phrase that would prove prophetic 10 months later as White would join the Bullet Club after the expulsion of Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, and the Elite from the BC. Now at the top of NJPW’s most prolific stable, White would truly begin to carve NJPW in his image, and the expulsion of the Elite in the Bullet Club would set in motion a trickle-down effect of untold proportions in wrestling.

Light The Fuse

While Jay White refashioned the Bullet Club, Kenny Omega and the Elite would begin their final runs in NJPW, with Omega being sent out of NJPW at Wrestle Kingdom 13 by Hiroshi Tanahashi, capturing the IWGP Heavyweight Title in the process while Jay White defeated perhaps Omega’s greatest hurdle, Kazuchika Okada, in under 15 minutes. As the Elite exited the company, its core five members would go to the United States and officially lay the groundwork for All Elite Wrestling alongside company President Tony Khan. Jay White would take full credit for running the Elite out of NJPW, citing his win over Omega for the US Championship that proved NJPW could fare just fine without him. He would then set his sights squarely on Tanahashi and claim his first IWGP Heavyweight Championship from the Ace merely a month later.

In the time that has passed, Omega has stated that he pulled both Will Ospreay and Jay White aside before his departure to tell them that no matter what, they would be the future of NJPW. In a truly ironic twist of fate, however, White’s path to becoming NJPW’s future and solidifying his place in history would have to come at the expense of Omega’s own Golden Lover, Kota Ibushi.

Their first meeting of what would be a story of spite and vengeance came at the finals of G1 Climax 29, the first G1 since the departure of Kenny Omega. White would attempt to spoil Ibushi’s dream of heading into Wrestle Kingdom, his antics awakening the darker side of Ibushi that White, normally unflappable, would quickly regret and visibly crack under this ominous force. However, the man who had slain Ibushi’s God (Tanahashi) and Golden Lover (Omega) would not be deterred, beating Ibushi in their next three encounters after quickly making his adjustments, carving Ibushi’s name in the history books in the process as the first (and, to this date, only) wrestler to lose their Wrestle Kingdom Contract earned through winning the G1.

Ibushi’s defeat didn’t prevent him from reaching his goal, instead only creating a prolonged path before White and Ibushi would meet at Wrestle Kingdom 15 for the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships at the end of the Double Gold Dash. In a near 50-minute struggle, White’s once again nearly unflappable demeanor would break, desperation seeping in as the minutes drew on until it consumed him with Ibushi emerging victorious. Continuing the downward spiral that slowly plagued his movements in the ring, White’s defeat at the hands of Ibushi (Their last encounter as of now) sent him into an emotional crisis, citing how New Japan “would never truly appreciate him”, that he was “wasting his life” in the company, and that his time would be “better served… someplace else”.

Opening A Forbidden Door

As time passed, White returned to NJPW, continuing to lead the Bullet Club through their recovery from the Pandemic, but as restrictions lifted, doors would open. Kenny Omega’s new occupation as “The Belt Collector” would once again draw the eye of the Switchblade as Jay White would represent the Bullet Club in both NJPW and Impact Wrestling, a sight that Omega was uncomfortable with despite the attempts of Callis and the Good Brothers to cozy up with the Switchblade. Before Omega stood the man who took his US Championship, took his place at the helm of the Bullet Club, gave it the stability he himself never could, and had now long proven to be on the same level as Omega’s worst enemies and strongest friends. A reflection of Omega’s worst fears that had taken the form of the Switchblade, but it simply wasn’t meant to be.

As fate would have it, Omega would avoid the slice of the Switchblade this time, instead eventually going down to the Buckshot of the cowboy, Adam Page, a mere 4 months after White made his presence known, with Omega going on hiatus to recover from his numerous injuries, a fact that White would, once again, hold over Omega. While Adam Page had seemingly grown into a whole new man by this point, White knew he could still prey on his insecurities, a factor that would come into play the following year at the first AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door event.

After having lost the AEW World Heavyweight Championship to CM Punk, Hangman Adam Page called his own shot for Forbidden Door, challenging Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship instead. While many acknowledged the growth of Hangman Adam Page, there was one man who didn’t. In a shocking turn of events, Jay White would topple Okada at Dominion that year, claiming the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship…and refusing Adam Page’s request for a match, citing the 2-0 history in White’s favor as well as Adam Page’s defeat at the hands of CM Punk as to why he was unworthy of a title shot.

Twisting the knife further, Jay White would also cite how Adam Page had to “go off with his friends and create another company” for Adam Page to “leech” off of them once again, echoing his sentiments four years prior before their first encounter. The personal insults incited Adam Page, but it was all part of the Switchblade’s plan, allowing him to pick up the victory in a Fatal 4-Way with Adam Page nowhere in sight for the finish. It was proof that Page hadn’t grown as much as he thought he had, but in a similar path, Juice Robinson’s own growth had just begun.

A Rock Hard Plan

As Jay White began to cross the line into Impact Wrestling, Juice Robinson stood in his path in an effort to defend NJPW’s honor as well as representing his new home at Impact alongside David Finlay. Robinson had the utmost respect for the teachings of the NJPW Dojo and always sought to do his home brand proud, but the years of toiling and fighting for NJPW’s honor had began to wear away at the Flamboyant One, who cited that his contract would be expiring and, with it, he would retire. Taking a page out of the Switchblade’s tattered book, Robinson laid the trap for an unexpected turn.

After faking a retirement, Robinson took out his mentor Tanahashi, joining the Bullet Club and reciting many of the same talking points spoken of by Jay White. A sense of being underappreciated permeated in his words while also claiming Tanahashi was a “broken human being”, remarking on how many High Fly Flows he would have left before his “knees turn to dust”. A man who felt he was unappreciated with NJPW’s Hontai Unit now felt at home with the Bullet Club, standing counter to not only the philosophies of NJPW, but those of Omega and Hangman as well, citing how he “didn’t give a rat’s ass” about AEW while also confirming that he was using the Bullet Club to further his own career.

Kota Ibushi is not unfamiliar with Juice Robinson in his own right. In fact, the two men spent several years on-and-off as a tag-team in NJPW, working as a duo or in multi-man units often against the Bullet Club. When the Elite filtered Ibushi into the Bullet Club, there was hesitance from Juice Robinson in confronting his friend and confusion from both men on how this would proceed. For the first time, Ibushi gets to see what has become of his old friend, going from fighting alongside NJPW to betraying Tanahashi to “further his career”, and there will most likely be no hesitancy from either man.

Attacking The Heart

Takeshita’s long history and admiration-turned-deicide of Omega and Ibushi is perhaps the biggest aspect of the story, with Don Callis molding Takeshita and worming his way into his head to turn against who he considered his superiors, a similar M.O. to the current members of Bullet Club Gold and them turning their back on NJPW and their senpais from their Young Lion days. Callis opening the door for White and Robinson to jump Omega during his interview allowed White and Robinson to strike when Omega least expected it, reviving the old rivalry between White and Omega as well as Robinson’s unresolved hatred for Kenny Omega and even AEW itself.

By turning their hatred toward the Heart of AEW, the Spirit of AEW stepped up in his resolve, taking the initiative and laying down the challenge for All In himself against the men who wanted to tear the heart out of AEW in the most literal sense. Takeshita wishes to destroy Omega, White takes pleasure in having run him out of NJPW and haunting the halls of Impact when Omega was there, and Robinson couldn’t care any less about AEW itself.

There’s even a point to be made in how Robinson and Page are not so different. Both men struggled with feeling inferior in comparison to their peers as Page sought to reach the lofty heights of Kenny Omega while Robinson admired men like Tanahashi and Ibushi. Both men, however, would cope with it in different manners, with Adam Page eventually ascending to the top of AEW’s mountain while Juice Robinson merely changed allegiance to a man who, he felt, understood his anguish on a personal level that Ibushi or Tanahashi never could.

Going All In

Bringing in Kota Ibushi, Robinson’s former partner, Takeshita’s former idol, and White’s long-time enemy, completes Omega and Hangman’s opposition to Callis and Bullet Club Gold. While Ibushi may not have skin in the game that is AEW, his love for Omega and animosity toward the opposing trio strengthen his resolve. Hangman Adam Page, having reconciled with the Elite, has now taken the initiative in stating the challenge himself for the match at All In. Kenny Omega must now confront his own insecurities and strongest fears in Callis’ betrayal and the arrival of Jay White into his own home territory with his family and his lover by his side…and in one swoop, the Switchblade gets to prey on the insecurities of all three men.

The match at AEW’s All In is a battle with an understated amount of history. Between Takeshita’s own emulation of Omega and Ibushi to Robinson’s betrayal of the NJPW system that he once fought for alongside Ibushi against the Bullet Club all the way down to the singular connective strand that is Jay White who connects all three of his opponents by their fear, hatred, or loathing of what he’s done or represents, Bullet Club Gold and their alliance with Don Callis can perhaps be the biggest threat to the overall stability of AEW, shaking it to its very heart and spirit. After all, if history repeats itself, can it be “All Elite” if White runs the Elite out of their own company? In what is perhaps the biggest test of the Elite as individuals in front of a record-setting 81,000+ in attendance, it’s time for the Golden Elite to showcase their growth toward a shining future or fall victim to the manifestation of the ghosts of their past.

~Fin