One of the (if not the) greatest series of wrestling matches ever, the Okada vs Omega series were so good that they broke Dave Meltzer’s star system to where they weren’t 5 star matches, but 6, 6 1/4, and 7 star matches. Damn! Amirite? This was not only an impact on Dave, but the wrestling world as many wrestling critics, fans, bloggers, YouTubers, and wrestlers themselves began talking about the match and how great the matches were. I’m not just here talking about the matches, but I’m gonna talk about the wrestlers themselves and how far they got to where they were at. First, I’m gonna talk about Okada.

Kazuchika Okada

Kazuchika Okada has supplanted his long time rival Hiroshi Tanahashi as the ace of New Japan Pro Wrestling. Not only’s he’s the top guy in his company, but one of the best in world right now. Even tho he’s been wrestling for nearly 15 years and at the pinnacle of his career, he’s only 32, but his years of experience in wrestling won’t stop him from accomplishing more.

Now, Okada’s career started in 2004, around the age of 16-17. He was trained by Yoshihiro Asai aka Último Dragon, and was trained at UD’s gym Toryumon, which was a part of promotion that would later become Dragon Gate. He mostly was under the wing of the Dragon during his time at Toryumon. He eventually graduated from there and went to the New Japan roster in 2007. In his first stint, he was mainly a low to mid carder and his in ring work, while solid, didn’t fully develop yet. In 2010, like many puro wrestlers, he went on training excursion, which are made for wrestlers to pick up some skills and ideas so they can hone their craft in and out the ring. But where he ended up, he was in for a rude awakening.

In 2010, Okada was sent abroad to TNA (now Impact Wrestling) hoping to become a better wrestler, but he was just there to be a jobber or a racist foreigner character. However, it got worse for him as he later became Okato, just to cash in on the Green Hornet movie, and he was essentially the dame in distress between the feud of Samoa Joe and The Pope D’Angelo Dinero, a very unnecessary feud. This didn’t sit well with NJPW, who was serious about the excursion to improve Okada. This resulted in NJPW pulling Okada and ending their relationship with TNA. If there’s anything to learn about this is don’t f*ck with New Japan or you’ll be in their doghouse for a long time. To add, Okada’s time at TNA was just a major example of how TNA viewed NJPW and their wrestlers: they didn’t give a damn about em. One main reason was their then head writer Vince Russo, who was known for not only being a reviled figure, but a huge racist. However, Impact got rid of all poisons in their company, and I can hope that they can repair the relationship between NJPW. Ok, I’m really off topic now because it’s about Okada and Omega not what a company did in the past. Ironically, Okada learned from there that one of the most major aspects of wrestling is character, which he thought puroresu was lacking in.

Okada made his return in NJPW a year later and was slowly making waves over there. It was then in 2012 that he really broke out. Debuting a new gimmick and look, Okada would be known as the Rainmaker, a millionaire playboy. Not only that, he finally hone his craft, mixing in styles from America, Mexico, and Japan, and the Rainmaker was born. He became a member of Chaos, being managed by Gedo and made it clear that he’s going after the big prize: The IWGP Heavyweight Title. This led to one of the biggest feuds in NJPW between him and then titleholder Hiroshi Tanahashi, which resulted in so many great matches between em. He eventually beat Tana and eventually became a multi time IWGP Heavyweight Champion. He eventually would rival his then leader Shinsuke Nakamura in importance and became the leader after Nakamura left.

Kenny Omega

Kenny Omega was one of the best foreign wrestlers in Japan, starting off a huge name in the Japanese indie scene and coming off as an underrated junior heavyweight to a top guy in NJPW. But before he made himself a name in Japan, he was a Canadian boy who grew up on Japanese culture like anime, hoping one day that would become a name in Japan. Some stuff I’m just exaggerating a bit, but he did love Japanese culture. He started off as a wrestler who made himself a name in the Canadian and American indie scene, hoping one day he would make it big somewhere.

In 2005, he signed up to WWE, being sent to then territory Deep South Wrestling, hoping to become a big star. However, he left a year later, feeling unhappy of his time. Omega had stated that he left because of the mistreatment by some of the trainers, in which one of them is known for a being a terrible person (cough cough Bill Demott). Luckily, Omega didn’t try to go back and turned down every opportunity because it probably wouldn’t look good for him. He later continued into the indies, progressing his skills and adding more to his repertoire.

In 2008, his dreams of going to Japan became a reality. He landed into the biggest indie promotion in Japan, Dramatic Dream Team or D2T or DDT for short, two years after giving a video to Kota Ibushi to get in. The promotion mixture of lucharesu and comedy, fit well with him as he was forming his over-the-top video game persona that he was originally known for. During his time over there, he was mostly associated with Ibushi, who was not only his BFFL and tag team partner, but had occasional matches with him.

In 2010, He signed with NJPW while still in DDT. At that point, he mostly dominated the junior tag team division with Ibushi as Golden⭐️Lovers, getting over with their amazing aerial offense and grappling skills. In 2014, the team broke up as Kota moved up to the heavyweight division, and Omega was on his own. In 2014, after becoming a full time wrestler with NJPW, something changed about Omega. After he said he wasn’t a member, Omega joined the top foreign heel stable, the Bullet Club. With that, he shed his original gimmick, becoming the Cleaner, who’s goal was to clean the junior heavyweight division with some added humor. He became the junior heavyweight representative of the Bullet Club, winning the IWGP Jr Heavyweight Title twice. He eventually became the leader of the Bullet Club after ousting their then leader AJ Styles and eventually transitioned out of the junior heavyweight division, challenging then IC Champion Shinsuke Nakamura for the title. That didn’t happen because Nakamura left for the WWE. He eventually won it, and later began his pursuit for the IWGP Heavyweight Title. He also was the first IWGP US Champion during this period.

Now for Okada vs Omega

After winning the G1 Climax in 2016, Omega went after Okada, who was in his fourth reign with the title and was on the way to become the longest IWGP Heavyweight Champion. This led to a match at Wrestle Kingdom 11, which was considered the high point of a great show. The first match was about seeing how far these two went against each other. They really pulled out the stops didn’t hold back. It started off slow, but the pace increased as the match went on. Okada won this match, leading the series 1-0. Months later, Okada chose Omega to be his opponent at Dominion 6.11. This match, while it had a similar pace as the last one, got more intense as the two became more and more frustrated and were ready to dish it out. The fury was so much that nobody win, ending the match in a draw, thus 1-0-1. Then the 2017 G1 Climax came, and Okada and Omega racked up a lotta points in their block, so they had a match who determine who goes to the finals. This match had the two literally beating the crap out each other, stemming from the frustration the two had from their last bout. This was an intense bout, and Omega came out victorious for the first time, going 1-1-1. After defeating his long time rival Tanahashi that gave him his 12th record breaking defense, Okada, not satisfied, wanted Omega to challenge him again for the title at Dominion 6.9, in which he did. On June 9th, 2018, Omega and Okada would have what would be their last match as to date. These two knew that rather than trying to see who’s the better man or going savage on each other, it was all about putting on a story and the title. These two delivered a heart wrenching story that showed how storied their rivalry were and gave it their all. First fall was Okada, then the next one was Omega, and the final one was Omega, with him winning the title. This began Omega’s first time with the title and ended Okada’s 720 historic reign. A beautiful end to the chapter at 1-2-1.

Summary and Epilogue

Omega and Okada not only had an amazing series of matches, but both had a storied wrestling career. Even though their whole career is dissimilar from each other, they did share similar moments. Both started out young, and hit a snag on their careers as they went to their respective major American promotion. However, Omega got himself out of it, while NJPW saved Okada. Both had changed their character when they joined their respective stables and both became the leader after the then leader left NJPW for WWE. Coincidence, right? Okada and Omega has had always someone backing them up in the corner. Okada had Gedo, while Omega had the Young Bucks (and later Ibushi). Eventually, both, as leaders, had someone/somebody turn against them in their stables. Okada had Gedo and Jay White (and Jado too), while Omega had Cody, the Bucks, and later the Tongans (man, Omega had some bad luck in the BC). Anyway, both held the IWGP Heavyweight Title and won the G1 Climax at least once. These guys accomplished so much before the age 35 (as Okada held his first championship in NJPW at 24 and his latest at 31, while Omega at 27 and 34). That wraps up everything.