10 Best Wrestlers Under 30 In The World Today
1. Kazuchika Okada - 29
It's easy to get swept away in Kazuchika Okada's hype wave. The IWGP Heavyweight Champion has been a world-class performer for a number of years, but his buzz among western wrestling fans has gone through the roof in 2017, primarily because of his set of six-star classics with Kenny Omega.
Those matches are every bit as compelling as their ratings suggest, and when the duo meet as part of NJPW's G1 Climax later this week, they'll surely come close to breaking Dave Meltzer's fabled scale once again. But while the Omega matches have created the most hype, the rest of Okada's work has been just as praise-worthy, with his bouts against Katsuyori Shibata, Minoru Suzuki, and Michael Elgin comparing very favourably.
New Japan couldn't ask for a better ace than Okada. His athleticism, cocksure charisma, and versatility mark him as one of his generation's greatest performers, and his ability to escalate drama and tell a compelling in-ring story is incomparable in modern wrestling. He is one of, if not the, best wrestler in the world, and he's not even 30 yet.
Okada will become the longest reigning IWGP Champion of all time if he holds the belt until Wrestle Kingdom 12 on January 4th, 2018, and he deserves nothing less on current form.