Broken Kazuchika Okada Is The Best Ever Wrestling Storyline You’re Not Watching
Much like how his original rise to supremacy was defined by his rivalry with NJPW's former 'Ace' Hiroshi Tanahashi, his return to the summit will be inexorably linked to current champion Kenny Omega. In kayfabe, it is Omega that has experienced impossibly gutsy growth as an athlete in order to meet Okada's eyes and shoot him right between them. Their three 2017 matches didn't just break Dave Meltzer's brain. They physically and mentally broke both men. Okada's long gold jocks at 2018's Wrestle Kingdom 12 were a flex too far for some but in reality reflected a dormant insecurity about his position atop the card. Omega - as identified in the incredible pre-match video package - had to find Kota Ibushi and lose everything else in order to ready himself to beat his fiercest foe when it mattered most.
Outside of kayfabe, the current divergence in their paths is even better.
Kenny's pressure as IWGP Heavyweight Champion is to remain the very best professional wrestler in the world. It's a reputation he's tried to uphold with the quality of his G1 performances, his sports entertainment-style title defence over Cody Rhodes and his non-binary gimmick as the ultimate version of himself. "Am I heel or baby?" he rhetorically retorted in a post-match press conference before going on to try and define his patently indefinable genius.
Okada meanwhile is proving he's really still the best by being the worst.
How good must a performer be to control his own greatness in such a manner that fans no longer believe it's even there? It's the most crucial part of the act away from the wild glares, thousand-yard stares and dyed red hairs. Fans are already pining for the return of the version of him they adored, and not just because they miss getting to see his glorious entrance gowns. People are desperate for dropkicks with snap, tombstones that crackle and the original Rainmaker clothesline that guaranteed the victor's pop. This Okada is still just a breakfast snack instead of a Michelin-Star meal, with the elite worker inside his frazzled frame on astute portion control. Just dishing out a taste of his former self has fuelled the audience's desire. It'll be an untold feast for the senses when 'The Rainmaker' serves himself back to the wrestling world.
And a seat at Kenny Omega's top table is still unquestionably reserved for him. But will their fifth instalment - hopefully at Dominion 2019 - fix what was broken a year earlier? That can only be decided by the best in the world...whichever one of them, exactly, that is.