10 Best Wrestling Matches I've Seen Live
4. Hiroshi Tanahashi Vs. Kazuchika Okada - Wrestle Kingdom 9 (1/4/15)
The recently-concluded four-year war between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada ranks as one of the greatest feuds in wrestling history.
The undisputed ace of New Japan Pro Wrestling, Tanahashi was challenged by the upstart Okada in 2012 and was shockingly upset for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Tanahashi won his belt back, but Okada had officially arrived.
In 2013, he defeated Tanahashi for the title again and fended off subsequent challenges from "The High-Flying Star".
Tanahashi, repeatedly vexed by the man eleven years his junior, promised that he wouldn't challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship as long as Okada held the title.
"The Rainmaker's" year-plus reign came to an end at the hands of AJ Styles, though, and when Tanahashi got a match with Styles, he captured the title for a record seventh time.
As Okada had won the G1 Climax tournament over the summer of 2014, he and Tanahashi were headed for a showdown at Wrestle Kingdom 9.
The match had to follow Shinsuke Nakamura versus Kota Ibushi, but it was more than able to do it. The two had an ultra-athletic, high-risk contest that saw Okada plant Tanahashi with a Heavy Rain (Attitude Adjustment) on the entrance ramp, and Tanahashi hit a High Fly Flow (Frog Splash/Press) from the top rope to the outside of the ring, over the guardrail.
Okada used his Rainmaker finisher, but Tanahashi became the first man to kick out of it. A pair of High Fly Flows from the champion finally ended the bout.
Though the prevailing opinion was that Nakamura-Ibushi was the match of the evening, the two pulled out all the stops for a contest that, in the arena, at least, blew everything that came before it away.