Broken Kazuchika Okada Is The Best Ever Wrestling Storyline You’re Not Watching
It was during ring entrances on Night 1 of the 2018 G1 Climax that Kevin Kelly employed the deftest of touches to relate the extraordinary visuals of the 'Draw In The Downpour' between Kazuchika Okada and Minoru Suzuki on June 23rd to the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion's obvious anxieties. Gamely suggesting that all of Okada's foibles had been "washed away" by the torrential rain that greeted the already-epic encounter, he was in reality just looking for answers on Okada's behalf.
Answers to questions raised by Okada's bizarre behaviour ever since. An answer, perhaps, that satisfied why his gold and purple get-up had been replaced by rank-and-file red and black. An answer, per chance, that explained what on earth had transformed his once-grandiose entrance music into a rave remix of itself. An answer, when one blatantly wasn't apparent, why the greatest wrestler in the world had replaced his entrance billions with balloons. Kelly, like every truly great play-by-play, was the voice of the audience; a panicked, troubled audience struggling to deal with their icon struggling to deal. Okada literally made it rain going toe-to-toe with Suzuki in the latter's 30th Anniversary show, but 'The Rainmaker' was there in brand alone. The heavens had opened on a man in need of spiritual solace, but God was still in Hell.
The NJPW roster didn't experience much of the United Kingdom's traditional weather conditions a week after the Yokohama storm. Azure skies and beaming days contributed to heated nights in Milton Keynes and Altrincham, but Okada's trip across the Pacific was more profound than most. It was here he debuted the new aesthetic, confusing and confounding audiences that nonetheless popped just to get a glimpse of a man they still considered a ('small c') champion. He still couldn't peel his shoulders from the mat, either. Falling in a tag team battle on Night 1, Okada put forth his scintillating best against Zack Sabre Jr on Night 2, but it categorically wasn't good enough. He was barely able to hit his big moves thanks to his opponent's sensational counter-game, but everything he did land had already been diluted by his debilitated limbs. The loss, tragically, wasn't a one-off. Nothing about his current incarnation was.
The worries intensified when he returned home for NJPW's last pre-G1 stop in San Francisco. He hadn't spent yen on fresh clobber for his holiday abroad - this was his 'New Coke' moment, a terrifyingly permanent trip few devotees wanted to take. Least of all Okada himself. Teaming with CHAOS acolyte Will Ospreay in a victory over Tetsuya Naito and Bushi, he had no presence in the finishing sequence. His surprising Wrestle Kingdom victory over the Los Ingobernables de Japon leader from January was barely still in the rear-view mirror along with a once-incredible confidence that continued to drain...
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