From NJPW to AEW: The Underrated Versatility of Kazuchika Okada

From main-eventing the Tokyo Dome to capturing gold at AEW’s All In at Wembley Stadium, “The Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada’s AEW journey has been far from what we expected from the former seven-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion.

Fond memories of years of battles against Bullet Club seemed to be cast aside in an instant when Okada joined AEW and shook hands with The Young Bucks, the favored tag team through every version of Bullet Club.

A cockier side of Okada quickly emerged, eschewing the Rainmaker pose of old to flip off the crowd while calling his opponents “bitches” with unwavering contempt. Now a member of The Don Callis Family, Kazuchika Okada’s demeanor has veered towards trolling even his own teammates in a quest for dominance.

While a far cry from the laser-focused IWGP Champion at the top of the NJPW mountain, Okada’s history shows that there was always much more variety and different sides to “The Rainmaker”. So, let’s take a closer look at them…

Kazuchika Okada spent his excursion from NJPW in TNA, crediting the experience for the creation of the “Rainmaker”, as well as for his understanding of the televised entertainment side of pro wrestling in the United States. With this experience, he returned to NJPW at Wrestle Kingdom 6 in 2012 to take on YOSHI-HASHI, one of his best friends and a member of CHAOS.

It was after this incredibly unremarkable match that Okada’s plan unfolded. He would challenge the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion at the time, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and also proceed to join YOSHI-HASHI in CHAOS.

Combining an underwhelming return with ill-fitting dress attire as he made the challenge, Okada had the wrestling world fooled. What followed on February 12 (a mere month later) was the “Rainmaker Shock”, as the upstart returning from excursion ended the Ace’s dominance in the first of many classic matches.

Despite the deathly serious aura that Okada presented to the audience at this time, his time in CHAOS quickly revealed a more comedic side through his friendship with Toru Yano. By this time, Yano had gone from a malicious, dirty brawler to the resident “Clown Prince of NJPW”, with his character shifting to that of a dastardly cheat who would squeak out wins in comedically underhanded ways while shilling his latest DVD production.

The DVDs themselves featured his fellow stablemates in numerous sketch comedy scenarios, typically with more “school/university”-based gimmicks, and among the members, Okada was perhaps the most active. Whether it was his presence in the actual bits or how he couldn’t contain his laughter opposite the “Sublime Thief”, it was very clear that there was more to “The Rainmaker” than a cocky, pro-wrestling prodigy.

His time in CHAOS and as IWGP Heavyweight Champion saw Okada quickly adapt to a very fluid match style, pacing himself according to what he needed to output. NJPW’s schedule often uses multi-man tag matches at Road to shows to help set the stage for future 1-on-1 PPV matches, so Okada would often wrestle these matches at a faster yet somehow more relaxed pace, perhaps owed to his training at Toryumon Mexico under Ultimo Dragon.

Picking his spots and opting not to overstay his time in the ring became a standard part of Okada’s ring work in these tag matches. An appetizer for the 30+ minute epics that would make up the majority of his singles matches as champion, these shorter bouts showcased the versatility Okada brought to the ring very early in his career, with 3-5 minute sprints.

Kazuchika Okada’s persona within New Japan Pro-Wrestling saw relatively little change as he grew into the role of the company’s unbeatable wall, capped off by a record-setting 720-day IWGP Heavyweight Championship reign from 2016 to 2018.

After the devastating loss to Kenny Omega at Dominion in 2018, as well as the Draw in the Downpour shortly thereafter against Minoru Suzuki, the active NJPW audience saw the shell of the man tasked with holding the company on his back finally begin to break. With a more down-tempo beat to his entrance theme, red hair dye replacing his traditionally blonde look, and a fixation on balloons, Kazuchika Okada had gone from the highest of heights to seemingly descending into the lowest of lows.

Okada started to openly showcase the comedic side that we saw in the Toru Yano DVDs, with his entrance now much less showy and more erratic. The veneer of confidence in his entrance was replaced by a man unsure of himself, carrying balloons and occasionally passing by the commentators’ desk to smack Rocky Romero once or twice with them. The man who was the symbol of NJPW’s future direction as Hiroshi Tanahashi began to relinquish the reins had come undone.

During the first All In event in 2018, we caught a further glimpse into the mind of Kazuchika Okada on Being The Elite, revealing his real-life friendship with The Young Bucks as he chased their children around the empty arena seats while also stealing and posing with their gear. Even with this comedic edge to his character, his in-ring capabilities remained almost completely unmatched, creating a juxtaposition between a wrestler coping with the loss of his IWGP Heavyweight Championship with hair dye and balloons and one of the single greatest in-ring performers, who still maintained a spot near the top, all while shouting “Scooby Dooby Doo” coming off the top rope.

Okada would rediscover himself and reclaim the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at the G1 Supercard in Madison Square Garden in 2019. As NJPW struggled during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Kazuchika Okada came up with an out-of-the-box idea: the KOPW Championship.

The KOPW Championship had a unique ruleset in which matches involving the championship featured stipulations proposed by all match participants, which would then be voted on by the fans on Twitter. The speed at which this went off the rails with Toru Yano as the inaugural champion was lampshaded by Kazuchika Okada referring to its creation as “controversial” and claiming the title existed on “the edge of New Japan”.

The “Rainmaker” who stood at the center of the company was now conceptualizing an utterly chaotic title in NJPW’s lineage, with defenses ranging from a No Finisher match to a match type that included an eating contest, as proposed by the involved wrestlers. It seemed almost strangely irregular for “The Rainmaker”, but it was not so long ago that we saw Okada’s descent into madness, leaning into his more whimsical nature that was seldom displayed at his peak. Okada’s versatility as a five-tool player was being proven from a creative perspective, and his adaptability as a performer was about to be put to the test.

As the 2020s progressed, Okada’s grip on the IWGP Heavyweight Title became more and more tenuous. Early 2021 saw reports of Okada working through two slipped discs in his back, resulting in a visual change in his in-ring performance as his style adapted to the injury. The top-rope elbow that would set up his Rainmaker lariat didn’t have the height it used to. The dropkick lacked some of its famous sting. His movement wasn’t quite as crisp.

With new limitations, his performances adapted. A new “Cobra Flowsion” was added to his repertoire. Less dives. Less crossbodies. All to go back-to-back at the G1 Climax and win two straight Wrestle Kingdom main events for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title. Unbeknownst to us at the time, this would be Okada’s swan song as the top singles wrestler in NJPW.

Okada’s focus began to wander during this period, especially. It was around this time that he would begin tag-teaming with Hiroshi Tanahashi and form a trios team with Tomohiro Ishii, making overtures and attempts at both sets of titles before finally finding trios gold as the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Titles found a home with the dream team.

The former IWGP Heavyweight Champion once famously viewed any other championship as a “waste of time”, refusing to so much as entertain them despite how Shinsuke Nakamura, his mentor and leader within CHAOS, cherished and elevated the IWGP Intercontinental Title. Now? “The Rainmaker” was creating titles with completely random stipulations and chasing tag gold in various forms.

The movement up and down the card kept Okada from becoming too stagnant while spreading his star power throughout. Partnering with Ishii and Tanahashi injected a level of high intensity into the trios division that was rarely seen, and the KOPW Championship served as a reminder of the main eventer who had the soul and mind of a comedy act. All of this, however, merely precipitated the most drastic change yet for “The Rainmaker”.

The start of 2024 was rocked by the news that Kazuchika Okada would be departing NJPW after 16 years. In March, Kazuchika Okada officially jumped to AEW, and his first act as a member of the AEW roster was to shake the hands of The Young Bucks and replace Kenny Omega as a member of The Elite, taking Eddie Kingston’s Continental Championship in short order thereafter. A cheesy smile on his face, followed by, at first metaphorically but later literally, flipping the bird at those who expected something else.

There was an expectation for Okada to simply come to AEW and be the same “Rainmaker” that had been mythologized for so long. A drought had been placed on those expectations immediately, but while the myth of Kazuchika Okada had grown to astronomical proportions, the reality of “The Rainmaker” was always far more nuanced, and AEW was the perfect place to show this.

The weekly TV schedule of pro wrestling in the United States is the type of thing that runs at odds with the sheer scale of the epics for which Okada had become known. Combined with Okada’s body having been beaten down in the last few years of his time in NJPW, his style took a turn more toward what you’d expect from his Road to show appearances, with a more relaxed, loose style condensed into short bursts becoming the norm. Adapting to the rigors of the schedule, evidenced by his four G1 Climax victories, had slowly been mistaken for a lack of care as he mocked rivals, helped The Elite stage a takeover of AEW, and, eventually, joined the Don Callis Family in a quest for more power.

Okada’s jump to the DCF came with a deviation in “The Rainmaker”’s focus once again. While in NJPW, Okada’s lackadaisical leadership of CHAOS had come under scrutiny from his own friends and team members. Tomohiro Ishii would also question Okada’s partnership with Tanahashi despite being forced to work with him as part of a three-man unit. As a member of the Don Callis Family, however, Kazuchika Okada’s ambitions are laid bare as he pushes to be at the top, trolling friend and foe alike while Callis watches on, the glitter of Okada’s golden presence blinding him to the schism Okada has created within his own family.

Perhaps the two men who have suffered the most from this rift are the pair who shared the ring with Kazuchika Okada at AEW’s All In: London 2026. In one corner, there’s Konosuke Takeshita, the man who was constantly patronized and belittled by Kazuchika Okada until the combustible elements exploded in a dazzling display at Double or Nothing 2026, where Takeshita proved he was the better man.

In the other corner was Kyle Fletcher, returning from injury to take the International Title back and exile Takeshita from the Don Callis Family. Okada’s manipulation of events, and especially Don Callis, has put him in a prime position to be viewed as the proverbial “golden goose” of the Family, while Fletcher, once thought to be the “future”, has seemingly lost Callis’ focus due to his time away with injury. Meanwhile, Takeshita, the man Callis called “The Alpha” after defeating Kenny Omega, has been rooted out entirely. This level of scheming to assure his own place at the top would be unheard of from “The Rainmaker”… except for when he returned from excursion back in 2012.

In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Kazuchika Okada described his style as a fusion of three elements: Mexico, due to his dropkick; Japan, due to his “fighting spirit”; and the US, due to the “TV and entertainment” side of things.

Since joining All Elite Wrestling, Okada has further fine-tuned this into a hybrid of his experiences in NJPW. Scheming his way to the top just as he did in 2012 to stun the wrestling world. Pacing himself to take care of his body like he did on the Road to tour circuit and after working through two slipped discs. Even learning a bit from his previous failings as CHAOS’s de facto leader after Nakamura’s departure, weeding out the threats to his power rather than letting them fester and threaten to usurp him. Most importantly, and perhaps most dangerously, however, was what was evidenced by his bout with Takeshita: the Rainmaker of myth still lurks within Kazuchika Okada.

With the years of epics Okada had piled upon his name, it’s easy to forget about the totality that comprises his career.

The versatility and adaptive nature of “The Rainmaker” are often overlooked in favor of his battles with Tanahashi, Omega, and Naito, as the epic feuds provide a more tangible barometer for greatness. While mythologized to a larger-than-life degree, those confrontations are only one part of what makes Kazuchika Okada great.

The triple-threat match at AEW All In: London against Konosuke Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher proved to be a culmination of Okada’s full body of work, with his entrance coat and adornments reminiscent of his old self. Fletcher was smart enough to try to get rid of Okada early, immediately superkicking him to start the match and even working with his former tag partner to double-team their mutual opponent. However, Fletcher took his eye off the ball for one brief moment in an effort to secure victory. Weaseling his way in and out of the match allowed “The Rainmaker” to preserve himself for the right moment to spring his trap.

The durability to withstand the punishment forged in his many IWGP Title and G1 Climax bouts came together with the fluidity to “stick-and-move” in multi-man matches and the frustratingly comedic theatrics from even his earliest days in NJPW in near-perfect harmony, with the Rainmaker striking like a bolt of lightning on Kyle Fletcher to wrest the AEW International Title from his grasp. His control of the Don Callis Family seems secure at the top for the time being, despite Fletcher’s protest. With all of Okada’s experience paying off against Takeshita and Fletcher, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before “The Rainmaker” brings a downpour to the AEW World Heavyweight Championship.