Naito vs. Okada

Lore & Background

Okada is best known for his 18-year original tenure in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he was a seven-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, with his fourth reign being the longest in the company's history at 720 days. He also holds the record for most successful title defenses with 12 and the most defenses as the champion with 36. Initially trained by Último Dragón and making his debut in August 2004, Okada spent his first years in professional wrestling working in Mexico before returning to Japan and making NJPW his home promotion in mid-2007. Originally working as a junior heavyweight, Okada graduated to the heavyweight division in April 2008 with limited success. In February 2010, NJPW sent Okada on a learning excursion to American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) where he spent the next 20 months, mainly performing on the promotion's secondary television program, Xplosion. From January to March 2011, he performed under the name Okato on TNA's primary television program, Impact!, as Samoa Joe's sidekick in his rivalry with D'Angelo Dinero. Okada's run with TNA ended in October 2011 and he returned to NJPW in January 2012, repackaged as the Rainmaker, complete with a new look and a villainous persona. Just a month later, Okada defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win NJPW's top title, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, which he would hold for four months before losing it back to Tanahashi. The following August, Okada won NJPW's premier tournament, the G1 Climax. At the end of the year, Tokyo Sports magazine named Okada the 2012 MVP in all of Japanese professional wrestling. The following year, Okada first won the New Japan Cup in March and then regained the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Tanahashi in April. After a 13-month reign, Okada lost the title in May 2014. Three months later, he won his second G1 Climax. Okada went on to win his third G1 Climax in 2021 and his fourth in 2022, which makes him the wrestler with the second-most wins in the tournament with four, just behind Masahiro Chono with five. Okada won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship three more times and headlined NJPW's biggest annual event—Wrestle Kingdom—nine times (7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17 and 20). Okada left NJPW in March 2024, immediately signing with AEW.

In Their Own Story

The arena lights dimmed to a single spotlight over the ring. Okada stood in one corner, eyes locked forward, breathing steady against the roar of the crowd. Across the canvas, Naito paced like a caged tiger, his jacket discarded on the floor. There were no words exchanged, only the sound of leather boots on mat and the electric hum of anticipation. The bell was about to ring for history.

Reader's Guide

Considered as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he became the first Japanese wrestler to top Pro Wrestling Illustrated's list of the top 500 wrestlers in the world in 2017. Readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter named him as the most outstanding wrestler of the 2010s in March 2020. Okada's match with Kenny Omega at Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall in June 2018 is regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestling matches of all time, and received a rating of seven stars by journalist Dave Meltzer, the highest rating Meltzer has ever awarded a wrestling match. Okada was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 2021 (his first year of eligibility).

Did You Know?

• Okada was born on November 8, 1987, in Anjō, Aichi.
• He completed part of his primary education in a boarding school in the Gotō Islands in Nagasaki Prefecture.
• In middle school, he won first place in a regional 100 meter dash competition.
• He made his professional debut on August 29, 2004, losing to Negro Navarro.
• Okada won the 2005 Young Dragons Cup in December 2005.