Broken Kazuchika Okada Is The Best Ever Wrestling Storyline You’re Not Watching
Journey To The Centre Of The Dearth
Kazuchika Okada found himself in incredibly unfamiliar territory as he stared at the Osaka-jõ Hall lights following his loss to Kenny Omega in what many and most considered the greatest match of all time. And not just because he’d finally - finally - been defeated for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship after a 720-day reign.
Despite contributing 50% to wrestling’s most brilliant battle at June's NJPW Dominion pay-per-view, he was almost instantly a forgotten man. Arguably the most talked-about match of all time had just concluded, and the performer on the losing end already wasn’t even the conversation.
This wasn’t normally how these things played out. Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat’s iconic 1989 trilogy resulted in the ‘Nature Boy’ emerging as a pre-eminent babyface despite starting the rivalry as a top heel, and both being cemented as the best North American performers of the entire decade. Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin transformed an already-seminal wrestling match into a seminal wrestling moment with a double turn that reignited both their careers as opposing forces in the process. Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker shone in 1997 and 2009 respectively as they engaged in cinematic epics many felt permanently untouchable. There were defined winners and losers, but ‘HBK’ and ‘The Deadman’ propelled themselves into a galaxy beyond the other alleged ‘Superstars’ around them.
Even in 2018 with WWE not remotely the hard and fast quality benchmark it should be considering the size and reach of the roster, NXT has incubated a feud between Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa that has been spoken of in similarly spectacular tones. As with Sasha Banks and Bayley’s 2015 heroics, these two will be lauded for their developmental efforts regardless of how their main roster careers pan out.
All of these case studies persistently proffer the shared spotlight, but Dominion’s exclusively shone down on the newly-christened Golden Elite. New Champion Omega, The Young Bucks and Kota Ibushi pledged to “change the world”, but the offer wasn’t extended to man who’s entire universe had just caved in. ‘The Rainmaker’ as the world knew him disappeared into the darkness, and hasn’t been seen since.
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