This is my second entry in my new weekly pro wrestler bio as you can see by the title this weeks edition is about the 4 time, current and longest reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion in history "The Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada.
Summary of career: Kazuchika Okada was born November 8, 1987, in high school he played Track and baseball, he was nothing special at baseball but was a track star in High school and even had offers to run track in college. During High school Okada was first exposed to pro wrestling and knew instantly that's what he wanted to be. He trained under Ultimo Dragon and made his debut at the age of 17 against Mexican Luchador Negro Navarro. Over the next 3 yers Okada primarily wrestled in Mexico for the Toryumon Mexico promotion also ran by Ultimo Dragon and the American and Canadian Independents, this included winning the 2005 Young Dragons Cup.
Okada's big break came on July 22, 2007 when he wrestled on the Ultimo Dragon 20th Anniversary show where he teamed with Japanese pro wrestling legend and New Japan wrestler Jushin Thunder Liger in a 6 man tag team match. After that match Liger put in a good word for Okada and he was shortly afterwards signed to train in the New Japan Dojo as a Young Lion. After one month he made his debut in New Japan, as a Junior Heavyweight losing to fellow young boy at the time and future rival Tetsuya Naito.
An injury would sideline Okada until April 2008 where he returned and was immediately promoted to Heavyweight upon his return. He started to pick up steam when NJPW and Pro Wrestling Noah had a feud in 2009 where he had blow away performances against NOAH stars Go Shiozaki and Takashi Sugiura as well as big stars in NJPW as well such as Shinsuke Nakamura, Tajiri and Hirooki Goto where despite losing all those matches he was earning the respect of the fans with his performances.
Shortly after this it was announced Okada would go to America to work for Total Nonstop Action wrestling to get more experience in wrestling outside of Japan. Okada's time in TNA was possibly the low light of his career where he had his name changed to "Okato" as a parody of the Green Hornet and was made the sidekick to Samoa Joe. It's believed that NJPW knew how bad this would be and did it on purpose because they knew Okada would be a big star and wanted to keep him humble after he became one.
After his failed run in TNA Okada returned to NJPW as "The Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada, claiming he was going to challenge the top star at the time Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Title and with him as the top star he would make NJPW so prosperous it would rain money. In addition to this new persona he would also join a member of the stable Chaos and take on Chaos member Gedo as a manager. He would win the belt from Tanahashi in what would be the first of many matches the two would have a little over one month later at The New beginning 2012, Okada then went on to successfully defend the title against Tetsuya Naito at the 40th Anniversary show, followed by Hirooki Goto at Wrestle Dontaku 2012 only to lose it back to Tanahashi at Dominion 6.16. Okada quickly rebounded by winning the 2012 G1 Climax tournament to get a rematch for the title on January 4th, defeating "Machine Gun" Karl Anderson in the finals. Okada failed in his first attempt to beat Tanahashi for the IWGP Title at Wrestle Kingdom in a match that was described as "a classic". Okada, after defeating Hirooki Goto in the finals of the 2013 New Japan Cup was given a second chance to regain the belt from Tanahashi at Invasion Attack 2013 where this time he was successful in another match that was called a classic and was named the Match Of The Year by many pro wrestling news outlets. From there Okada would spend the rest of 2013 defending the IWGP Title against the likes of Minoru Suzuki, Togi Makabe, Prince Devitt, Satoshi Kojima, another match with Tanahashi (in a match NJPW claimed meant Okada had replaced Tanahashi as the ace of NJPW) and Karl Anderson.
Okada began 2014 with a bit of a rocky start when he was supposed to defend the IWGP Title at Wrestle Kingdom against Tetsuya Naito in the main event, but because of fans being more excited for Shinsuke Nakamura vs Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Intercontinental Title it became the co main event with Nakamura/Tanahashi going on last. A move Okada would go on to say proved he had more work to do to be to Ace of New Japan because if the fans are more interested in Tanahashi then Tanahashi is still the Ace of New Japan. Okada would go onto retain against Naito at thee event itself.
On April 6, 2014 Okada was challenged by NJPW's newest signee AJ Styles. The match would take place on May 3 where AJ Styles would win the match, as well as the ensuing rematches that took place thus ending Okada's 13 month reign as IWGP Champion.
Okada would then enter the 2014 G1 Climax where he would last defeat fellow Chaos stablemate Shinsuke Nakamura in the finals to become a 2 time G1 Climax winner and earn the right to challenge for the IWGP Title at Wrestle Kingdom 9 on January 4 2015. By the time January came around AJ Styles had lost the belt to Hiroshi Tanahashi so once again the main event of Wrestle Kingdom would be another chapter in what was becoming a legendary rivalry between Okada and Tanahashi. At the event Tanahashi would retain the title in another classic battle for the title at the Tokyo Dome.
After the defeat to Tanahashi Okada then participated in the New Japan Cup in an attempt to get a rematch against Tanahashi where he was eliminated in the first round to Bad Luck Fale. After the loss Okada got his win back against Fale at Invasion Attack 2015.
Following his win over Bad Luck Fale, Okada felt reinvigorated and after AJ Styles (who had won the IWGP Title back from Tanahashi in February) retained his title against Kota Ibushi he immediately challenged AJ for the title with the match taking place at Dominion 7.5. Okada would win the title back from AJ. Following this win Tanahashi won the G1 Climax to get the right to challenge Okada for the IWGP Title at Wrestle Kingdom 10 on January 4 2016 where Okada after having his last 3 Wrestle Kingdom's ruined by Tanahashi finally beat him to officially be crowned the Ace of New Japan.
Okada's 3rd reign was short lived however as 3 months later he lost the belt at Invasion Attack 2016 to New Japan Cup winner and the leader of Los Ingobernables De Japon Tetsuya Naito following interference from LIJ member Sanada. Okada would immediately rebound by first defeating Sanada the next month then winning the belt back from Naito one month later at Dominion 6.19.
Okada would spend the rest of the year competing in the G1 Climax and then defending the IWGP Title against the people who beat him in the tournament. Okada would then successfully defend against G1 Climax winner Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom X in what many pro wrestling reviewers would call the greatest match of all time, with Dave Meltzer giving the match a 6 out of 5 star review.
Okada would spend the rest of the year defending the IWGP Title against Minoru Suzuki, Katsuyori Shibata, Bad Luck Fale, Cody, a rematch with Kenny Omega that went to a 60 minute draw and was given a 6.25 out of 5 star rating and Evil. On January 4th 2018 Okada defended against Tetsuya Naito in what both men looked at as "getting a chance to make things right" in reference to when they were supposed to be the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 8 but didn't because Nakamura/Tanahashi was the bigger match. Okada would go on to win the match retain the title and that's where we are now Okada is still the IWGP Champion, he's officially the longest reigning IWGP Champion both as an individual reign and overall reigns, tied for most title defenses and currently considered by many the greatest wrestler of the 21st centurry
My opinion of Okada: When I first saw Okada in TNA in 2010 I was not impressed in fact I didn't think he'd be anything admittedly (but then again how could you with how badly he was used in TNA). With that said over the last 8 years since he has proven me wrong as not only is he one of if not the best in the world today when all is said and done he'll go down as one of the greatest in the history of pro wrestling altogether
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