10 Greatest IWGP Heavyweight Champions

The Rainmaker, The Record Breaker, the Ace of the New Generation, the Leader of Chaos, Kazuchika Okada is seemingly to New Japan what Neo was to The Matrix. A five time IWGP Heavyweight champion, Okada now holds the record for most defences in a single reign, most defences overall and the longest title reign in the history of the promotion with run number four lasting an utterly insane 720 days.

After a pitiful excursion in TNA, Okada returned to New Japan and from the ashes of his rookie years rose The Rainmaker. A wrestling prodigy who crushed Hiroshi Tanahashi’s 13 month reign at 24 years of age, Okada has ruled New Japan with an iron fist for much of the seven years since.

Okada’s title defences against the likes of Tanahashi, Katsuyori Shibata, Kenny Omega, Tetsuya Naito and A.J. Styles are the stuff of modern wrestling legend. His series with Kenny Omega are among some of the most epically paced athletic displays in industry history.

Reign number five began this year with a victory over Jay White in Madison Square Garden. Selling out the Garden in the process, Okada is also the only man to have won the title outside of Japan in his ongoing quest to break every conceivable record on offer.