10 Best Wrestling Matches Of This Decade

After Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Minoru Suzuki at Wrestle Kingdom VI, he was immediately challenged by Kazuchika Okada. Okada was a young lion who had recently been on excursion in TNA but had returned to New Japan, and most didn't take his challenge seriously. What fans didn't realize at the time was that both men's careers - and New Japan Pro Wrestling - had been changed forever.

The two men spent the next four years locked in comeback, with Okada quickly showing that he had Tanahashi's number, but Tanahashi managing to win the Tokyo Dome matches between the two. It all built to their Wrestle Kingdom 10 encounter, where Tanahashi - who was headlining his eighth WK and going for his eighth straight win - challenged Okada for the title.

Their match was actually less athletic that some of their other bouts, as Tanahashi had spent much of 2015 nursing various injuries, but the psychology more than made up for it. Two men who had learned everything about each other managed to counter every trademark move, but Tanahashi soon expanded his repertoire in hopes of throwing Okada off his game. While it worked for a bit, the younger star fought back, and soon both men were stealing each other's finishers.

In the end, Okada hit two Rainmakers in a row, and while Tanahashi slapped him, he never relinquished his grip on the challenger's wrist. The third Rainmaker put the Ace down for three, heralding a changing of the guard and ending a perfect match.