Kazuchika Okada

Kazuchika Okada (岡田 和睦) (born November 8, 1987) is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is a member of The Elite stable.

He is best known for his 18-year tenure in New Japan Pro-Wrestling where he was a five-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, with his fourth reign being the longest in the company's history at 720 days.

He also holds the record for most successful title defenses with 12.

After the title was unified into the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, Okada went on to hold the new championship a record two times.

Okada was born on November 8, 1987, in Anjō, Aichi.

As a child, he lived and attended a primary school in Anjō.

However, before completing primary school, Okada was lured by the nature in his mother's hometown in the Gotō Islands in Nagasaki Prefecture and chose to complete the rest of his primary education in a special boarding school there.

Upon graduation, he returned to Anjō.

In middle school, Okada joined the school's baseball and track team.

Although he did not stand out as a baseball player, Okada was able to win first place in a regional 100 meter dash competition.

His reputation as a sprinter was good enough to be scouted by high school recruiters.

He was exposed to professional wrestling for the first time when one of his older brothers happened to borrow a New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) video game from his friend.

Initially trained by Último Dragón and making his debut in August 2004, Okada spent his first years in professional wrestling working in Mexico, before returning to Japan and making NJPW his home promotion in mid-2007.

Trained by Último Dragón at his Toryumon professional wrestling school, Okada made his debut on August 29, 2004, against Negro Navarro and would spend the next couple of years wrestling primarily in Toryumon Mexico.

In December 2005, Okada won the 2005 Young Dragons Cup.

Okada would also make appearances in the United States and Canada for promotions such as UWA Hardcore Wrestling and Chikara.

On October 27, 2006, Okada participated in UWA Hardcore Wrestling's 2006 Grand Prix Tournament, but was eliminated in the first round by Puma.

The following day, Okada and Último Dragón unsuccessfully challenged Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin for the NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship.

On November 12, 2006, Okada made his debut for Chikara by defeating Osiris.

During his time in UWA Hardcore Wrestling, Okada also unsuccessfully challenged Josh Prohibition for the UWA Canadian Championship on May 26, 2007.

On July 22, 2007, Okada took part in Último Dragón's 20th anniversary show, where he wrestled in a six-man tag team match alongside NJPW wrestlers Jyushin Thunder Liger and Milano Collection A.T. After the match, it was announced that Okada was graduating from Toryumon and joining NJPW.

Upon joining NJPW, Okada entered the NJPW Dojo, where he went through further training.

Originally working as a junior heavyweight, Okada graduated to the heavyweight division in April 2008, with limited success.

In February 2010, NJPW sent Okada on a learning excursion to American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where he spent the next twenty months, mainly performing on the promotion's secondary television program, Xplosion.

named him as the most outstanding wrestler of the 2010s in March 2020.

From January to March 2011, he performed under the name Okato on TNA's primary television program, Impact!, as Samoa Joe's sidekick in his rivalry with D'Angelo Dinero.

Okada's run with TNA ended in October 2011 and he returned to NJPW in January 2012, repackaged as "Rainmaker" (レインメーカー), complete with a new look and a villainous persona.

Just a month later, Okada defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win NJPW's top title, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, which he would hold for four months before losing it back to Tanahashi.

The following August, Okada won NJPW's premier tournament, the G1 Climax.

At the end of the year, the Tokyo Sports magazine named Okada the 2012 MVP in all of Japanese professional wrestling.

The following year, Okada first won the New Japan Cup in March and then regained the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Tanahashi in April.

After a thirteen-month reign, Okada lost the title in May 2014.

Three months later, he won his second G1 Climax.

Okada went on to win his third G1 Climax in 2021 and his fourth in 2022, which makes him the wrestler with the second-most wins in the tournament with four, just behind Masahiro Chono who has five.

Okada has since won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship three more times and headlined NJPW's biggest annual event—Wrestle Kingdom—eight times (7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16 and 17).

Okada left NJPW in March 2024 and signed with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) shortly thereafter.

Widely considered one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, he became the first Japanese wrestler to top Pro Wrestling Illustrated's list of the top 500 wrestlers in the world in 2017.

Readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Okada's match with Kenny Omega at Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-Jo Hall in June 2018 is regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestling matches of all time, and received a rating of seven stars by journalist Dave Meltzer, the highest rating Meltzer has ever awarded a wrestling match.

Okada was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 2021 (his first year of eligibility).