10 Things You Need To Know About Kazuchika Okada
5. His First Title Win Was An Unbelievable Upset
Okada made his return to New Japan at Wrestle Kingdom VI, taking on Yoshi-Hashi in an undercard match. Okada was victorious, but his evening was far from over. After Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Minoru Suzuki in the show's main event - scoring his record-breaking 11th IWGP Championship defense - Okada challenged him for the belt.
The young "Rainmaker" looked to have promise, but surely he wouldn't unseat the greatest IWGP Heavyweight Champion of all time... or so fans thought. At February 2012's The New Beginning, Okada used the Rainmaker to defeat Tanahashi, winning the championship in what was called "the upset of the century."
Okada's performance in that bout and subsequent matches made him a main-event player. He would lose the title back to Tanahashi after a few months, but he won the 2012 G1 Climax tournament, and when he regained the belt in 2013, he was a certified top star. The aggressive approach paid off in making Okada the face of New Japan.