NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13: Every Match Ranked By Level Of Hype

So, one year ago, Kazuchika Okada was the undisputed ace of New Japan, the reigning champion for over a year, and someone who was portrayed in storyline as basically unbeatable in title matches. He was a bleach-blonde, robe-wearing, swaggering conqueror. He was the Japanese Ric Flair.

Now? His hair is red, he's carrying balloons, and his match at WK13 is third from the top of the card, and it's against Jay White, the man New Japan are oh-so-desperately trying to make the new Kenny Omega in the event Kenny's not available due to AEW commitments.

Understand: I get that every great character needs to go through peaks and troughs, and that after losing his title following such an iconic reign, Okada was bound to suffer a relative decline.

Really, the problem with this match lies with Jay White. New Japan have invested a lot in him in 2018, and to his credit, White hasn't been a slouch. However, the fact that he's now the leader of Bullet Club, which is now just composed of him, Gedo, Jado, and all the non-Elite scrubs people didn't care about? The fact that New Japan wants us to take him seriously when he still feels like a teenager wearing his father's clothes. Yeah, sorry Gedo, I'm not buying it.

Hopefully, I will be eating crow on January 4th, and Okada and White have a stellar match where The Switchblade truly comes into his own as a main-eventer. Right now, however, this match is relatively low on the hype scale.