Jesse White is a wrestler that might have been forgotten by now because his career was so short. The son of the 1996 Wrestling Observer Hall of Famer Vader, White made his debut in 2009 after an injury ended his collegiate football career at the University of Oklahoma.
WWE Developmental Career
After roughly three years in the Oklahoma indies and teaming with his father in Japan, White was picked up by WWE and entered its developmental system as Jake Carter.
First, he went through Florida Championship Wrestling in 2012 where he was a regular partner of Corey Graves. The two would defeat the brotherly tag team of the future Bray Wyatt and Bo Dallas in March of that year, winning the Florida Tag Team titles.
After losing the belts in the future Roman Reigns and Tyler Breeze that June, his career began a downslide as FCW gave way to NXT. By 2013, he found himself more on the losing end of things before being released in September.
He wrestled sporadically after his release, mainly on the Oklahoma indy scene before wrestling his last match in 2015.
Salvaging Jesse White
During his active period, Jesse White was still growing as a wrestler and had the look of a WWE superstar at the time. Being 6’3 is also a big bonus in his favor.
I don’t know where things went wrong for him in NXT because he was basically torpedoed down the roster and began spending more time looking up at the ceiling than plying his craft on the mic and getting some wins to build him.
This has to be one of the most bizarre cases in WWE developmental. What’s odder is that he wasn’t picked up by anyone after he was released!
Perhaps it was a personal thing to step away from the ring rather than being sour on wrestling. He has since entered the business management field in Texas.
Knocking off the ring rust and getting back into ring shape, I could see him cutting through the indies in the mid-south and possibly getting work out east with a company like MLW—especially if he’s up for being a regular given their light schedule.
With eyes on him there or other east coast indies, a career revival isn’t out of the books for him. Fans dig when wrestlers who were either hot or had potential return, it shows that the passion for wrestling didn’t die in them.
Watching his FCW stuff, you can see there’s something there and he was picking up WWE’s approach quickly. Jesse White would’ve only gotten better.
At 35-years-old, White still has a few years left in the tank. I say that he’s salvageable but having a steady career outside of wrestling, I wouldn’t say that he could have a run in AEW, ROH, or a WWE/NXT return.
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