10 Wrestling Matches We Didn’t Know Changed EVERYTHING
6. Okato Vs. D'Angelo Dinero - TNA IMPACT, March 15, 2011
The absolute state of the best pro wrestler on the planet here. Kazuchika Okada epitomised TNA's fundamental inability to spot, build or preserve talent that hadn't arrived in its lap from WWE.
After a brief run as the nonentity 'Okada' character, very much a token Japanese act that, while obvious, was not particularly offensive by the standards of a North American promotion, Vince Russo repackaged the future Rainmaker as 'Okato'. Okato was modelled after Bruce Lee's Kato character in the 1960s Green Hornet TV show. Double retrograde, Okada was a joke under that black eye mask, under which Russo hid him because, in his words:
"You will never, ever, ever, ever, ever see the Japanese wrestlers or the Mexican wrestlers truly be over and draw money in American mainstream wrestling."
Russo said that years and years after Rey Mysterio, a performer boasting rich Mexican heritage, had gotten himself over as revolutionary superstar on US soil. Russo, a known cable TV junkie, watched a re-run and thought "F*ck it". New Japan Pro Wrestling, appalled at the presentation of its top prospect, also said "F*ck it," and severed ties with TNA. TNA effectively annoyed NJPW into creating the most critically acclaimed wrestler of all time. With Okada at the helm, a Japanese promotion took over Impact as the second biggest company in North America prior to the emergence of AEW.
At this year's G1 Supercard in Madison Square Garden, the same headlining "Japanese wrestler" Vince Russo made a mockery of outdrew, by orders of magnitude, any gate Russo ever managed at the helm of TNA.