Kazuchika Okada

Kazuchika Okada is a 13th Term graduate of the Ultimo Dragon Gym. He actively wrestles in New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Early North America
Okada began his career as a professional wrestler through Toryumon Mexico. Following his debut, he made a lasting impression by advancing far into the 2004 Young Dragons Cup before being eliminated in the semi-finals by Rocky Romero. He then competed in the next year's tournament, this time winning the whole thing. In March 2006, he participated in the Yamaha Cup with Hiromi Horiguchi, but they were eliminated in the first round by Chuck Palumbo and Johnny Stamboli.

He would make trips up north to the United States and Canada, competing in such promotions as UWA Hardcore Wrestling and CHIKARA Pro Wrestling. In UWA Hardcore Wrestling, he made numerous attempts at trying to win gold. He first participated in the promotion's 2006 Grand Prix Tournament on October 27, 2006, but was eliminated by Puma in the first round. The next night, he teamed with his sensei Ultimo Dragon challenged Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin for the NWA International Lightweight Tag Team Championship, but were not successful. On May 26, 2007, he unsuccessfully challenged Josh Prohibition for the UWA Canadian Championship. Following his defeat, he would venture to Japan.

New Japan Heavyweight
Once in Japan, Okada joined New Japan Pro Wrestling and entered their dojo for further training. He made his debut for the company in a losing effort against Tetsuya Naitō on August 26, 2007. After being sidelined with an injury for eight months, he returned on April 2008 as a heavyweight. It was during the New Japan vs. Pro Wrestling NOAH feud that Okada experienced a career breakthrough with performances against Takashi Sugiura and Go Shiozaki. His momentum continued with matches against Shinsuke Nakamura, Hirooki Goto, and Yoshihiro Tajiri. While he lost all of his big matches, he was garnering a huge support from the fans.

In January 2010, it was announced that Okada would be sent to the United States and compete in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling on an learning excursion. According to New Japan president Naoki Sugabayashi, this tour would likely take up to two or three years. Okada was defeated in his farewell match on January 31, 2010 against New Japan ace Hiroshi Tanahashi.

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling
Wrestling simply as Okada, he made his debut for TNA on February 15, 2010 losing to Alex Shelley in a dark match prior to the evening's Impact! tapings. Beginning April 6, he would start appearing in the Internet show Xplosion teaming with Homicide. Okada would pick his first victory by defeating Kid Kash in a dark match prior to the August 9 tapings. On October 8, he formed a tag team with compatriot Kiyoshi. However, his position in the company hardly moved up and was generally defeated in all of his matches.

On December 14, 2010, New Japan announced that Okada, while still on his learning excursion in TNA, would make a brief return at Wrestle Kingdom V in the Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2011. He made a surprise appearance early on December 23, performing a German suplex on the 290 lb. Yoshihiro Takayama after the latter had won a tag team match. As a result, his scheduled tag team match at Wrestle Kingdom was changed to a singles match against Takayama, with the latter getting the win.

He turned face in TNA on January 20, 2011 in only his second ever appearance on Impact! in helping Samoa Joe expose D'Angelo Dinero of his lies about helping the needy. He changed his look to be similar to that of Kato from The Green Hornet and changed his name to Okato. His in-ring debut on the show was March 24, defeating Dinero via disqualification. His participation in the feud between Joe and Dinero was immediately ended and he returned to performing under his real surname. His profile was removed from the TNA roster page on October 13, effectively ending his relatively uneventful run in the company.

Okada would participate in the United States tour of shows New Japan ran in conjunction with Jersey All Pro Wrestling in May 2011. He participated in the tournament to determine the inaugural IWGP Intercontinental Champion, but lost in the first round to MVP. He would also make tours in Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre throughout the year.

Return to New Japan
On December 9, 2011, New Japan announced Okada would be returning to the promotion full time at the next Wrestle Kingdom event on January 4, 2012. He defeated YOSHI-HASHI in his match and reappeared following the main event to challenge Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. A press conference was held the next day to make the match official, during which he revealed his joining the top heel stable, Chaos. Okada went on a main event winning streak going into his title match, which included pinning Tanahashi in a tag team match on January 29.

On February 12, 2012, Kazuchika Okada defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to become the 57th IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. It is widely believed that this is the highest achievement to date any trainee of Ultmo Dragon has made. Okada made his first defense on March 4 at the New Japan 40th Anniversary event, defeating Tetsuya Naitō in the main event. He would lose the belt back to Tanahashi on June 16.On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2012, Okada defeated 2012 New Japan Cup winner and reigning IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hirooki Goto to make his second successful title defense. On June 16 at Dominion 6.16, Okada lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship back to Hiroshi Tanahashi, ending his reign at 125 days.[56] On August 1, Okada entered his first G1 Climax tournament. In the tournament, Okada wrestled in the same block as Chaos leader Shinsuke Nakamura and, on August 5, was defeated by Nakamura, who effectively solidified his spot as the group's leader in the process. However, Okada bounced back from the loss, winning five of his eight round-robin stage matches and finished at the top of his block, advancing to the finals of the tournament. In the finals on August 12, Okada defeated Karl Anderson to win the 2012 G1 Climax. Breaking Masahiro Chono's record for the youngest G1 Climax winner in history, Okada announced that he wanted his shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on January 4, 2013, at Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome. Okada signed a contract for the Tokyo Dome match on September 6, making him the official number one contender to the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at NJPW's biggest event of the year. However, before January 4, Okada would have to defend his contract as if it were a championship. On October 8 at King of Pro-Wrestling, Okada made his first successful defense of the contract against Karl Anderson. On November 11 at Power Struggle, Okada made another successful defense against Hirooki Goto. Later in the event, after Hiroshi Tanahashi had successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Yujiro Takahashi, the Tokyo Dome title match between him and Okada was made official. From November 20 to December 1, Okada took part in the round-robin portion of the 2012 World Tag League, alongside stablemate Yoshi-Hashi under the team name "Chaos Ride the Lightning".[69] The team finished with a record of three wins and three losses, with a loss to Sword & Guns (Hirooki Goto and Karl Anderson) on the final day, costing them a spot in the semifinals of the tournament. On December 10, Tokyo Sports named Okada the 2012 MVP in all of puroresu. His match with Hiroshi Tanahashi from June 16 was also named the Match of the Year. On January 4, 2013, at Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome, Okada failed in his title challenge against Tanahashi. On January 15, Okada publicly dismissed rumors that he was going to be signing with WWE and instead announced that he had just signed a contract extension with NJPW.

In February, Okada led Chaos to a war with NJPW's other heel stable, Suzuki-gun, which built to a match on February 10 at The New Beginning, where Okada, positioned as the face, was defeated by the stable's leader Minoru Suzuki, following interference from Taichi. In preparation for the 2013 New Japan Cup, Okada announced that he had created a new submission finishing maneuver, the Red Ink, in order to win the tournament. On March 11, he used the Red Ink to defeat Suzuki-gun member and IWGP Tag Team Champion Lance Archer in his first round match. Six days later, Okada advanced to the semifinals of the tournament with a win over Karl Anderson. On March 23, Okada first defeated Chaos stablemate Toru Yano in the semifinals and then Hirooki Goto in the finals to win the 2013 New Japan Cup and once again become the number one contender to Tanahashi's IWGP Heavyweight Championship. On April 7 at Invasion Attack, Okada defeated Tanahashi to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the second time. On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2013, Okada made his first successful title defense against Minoru Suzuki. His second successful defense took place on June 22 at Dominion 6.22 against Togi Makabe. On July 20, Okada made his third successful title defense against IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Prince Devitt. From August 1 to 11, Okada took part in the 2013 G1 Climax, where he opened by losing three of his first four matches. After bouncing back to a three-match win streak and a time limit draw with Hiroshi Tanahashi, Okada finished his tournament with a loss against Satoshi Kojima, which meant that he was eliminated from the tournament. On August 18, Okada made a rare appearance outside of NJPW, when he took part in the Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) promotion's annual Ryōgoku Peter Pan event, defeating Kota Ibushi in a special non-title match. On September 29 at Destruction, Okada avenged the loss from G1 Climax by defeating Satoshi Kojima for his fourth successful defense of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

On October 14 at King of Pro-Wrestling, Okada made his fifth successful title defense against Hiroshi Tanahashi in what Tanahashi claimed would be his final challenge for the title. With the win, NJPW claimed that Okada had taken over Tanahashi's spot as the "ace" of the promotion. On November 9 at Power Struggle, Okada defeated Karl Anderson in a rematch of the 2012 G1 Climax finals for his sixth successful title defense. Okada and his next challenger, 2013 G1 Climax winner Tetsuya Naito, faced off on November 23 during the first day of the 2013 World Tag League in a match, where Okada and Yoshi-Hashi were victorious over Naito and La Sombra. Okada and Yoshi-Hashi however managed to win only one of their five remaining matches in the tournament and finished second to last in their block, failing to advance to the semifinals. Following a disappointing fan reaction to a confrontation between Okada and Naito, NJPW announced that fans would get to vote whether they or Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship would be the true main event of the Tokyo Dome show. When the results were released on December 9, Okada and Naito had gotten only half the votes Nakamura and Tanahashi had gotten and, as a result, lost their main event spot for NJPW's biggest show of the year. That same day, Okada became the first wrestler in 25 years to win back-to-back MVP awards from Tokyo Sports. On January 4, 2014, at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome, Okada defeated Naito for his seventh successful title defense. Okada's eighth successful title defense took place on February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka, where he defeated Hirooki Goto. On April 6 at Invasion Attack 2014, Okada found himself a new challenger in Bullet Club's newest member, the debuting A.J. Styles, who claimed that Okada was still the same "young boy" (rookie) he had known in TNA. On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2014, Okada thirteen-month reign as the IWGP Heavyweight Champion came to an end, when he lost the title to Styles in his ninth defense, after Yujiro Takahashi turned on him and Chaos and joined Bullet Club.

In May, Okada took part in NJPW's North American tour, during which he received a rematch for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. On May 17 at War of the Worlds in New York City, Okada unsuccessfully challenged Styles for the title in a three-way match, which also included Michael Elgin, whom Styles pinned for the win. Okada received another shot at the title on May 25 at Back to the Yokohama Arena, but was again defeated by Styles. From July 21 to August 8, Okada took part in the 2014 G1 Climax, where he won his block with a record of eight wins and two losses, which included a win over A.J. Styles, advancing to the finals. On August 10, Okada defeated Chaos stablemate Shinsuke Nakamura to win the 2014 G1 Climax. On September 21 at Destruction in Kobe, Okada teamed with Yoshi-Hashi to unsuccessfully challenge Bullet Club's Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson for the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Two days later at Destruction in Okayama, Okada successfully defended his IWGP Heavyweight Championship number one contender's contract against Karl Anderson. On October 13 at King of Pro-Wrestling, Okada made another successful defense of his contract against Tetsuya Naito. The following month, Okada once again teamed up with Yoshi-Hashi for the 2014 World Tag League. The team finished their block with a record of four wins and three losses, failing to advance to the finals. On January 4, 2015, at Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome, Okada received his shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, but was defeated by the defending champion, Hiroshi Tanahashi. Okada then started a stoyline, where the loss to Tanahashi had broken him both physically and mentally, causing him to enter a slump. This led to a rivalry between him and Bullet Club's Bad Luck Fale, who scored several pinfall wins over Okada, including in the first round of the 2015 New Japan Cup. Okada finally defeated Fale in a singles match on April 5 at Invasion Attack 2015, after which he announced his intention of regaining the IWGP Heavyweight Championship by attacking A.J. Styles at the conclusion of the event.

On July 5 at Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall, Okada defeated Styles to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the third time. From July 23 to August 15, Okada took part in the 2015 G1 Climax. He entered the final day with a chance to advance from his block, but a loss against Chaos stablemate Shinsuke Nakamura cost him a spot in the finals, giving him a record of seven wins and two losses. On August 16, Okada had a staredown with Genichiro Tenryu, who chose him to be his opponent in his retirement match. On November 15, Okada defeated Tenryu in his retirement match. On December 7, Okada won his third MVP award from Tokyo Sports, while his match with Tenryu was named the Match of the Year. With the win, Okada became only the fifth three-time MVP award winner. In December 2015, Okada signed a one-year contract extension with NJPW. However, following A.J. Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura's departures from the promotion the following month, NJPW owner Takaaki Kidani announced that the promotion was scrapping the one-year contract system and was looking to offer Okada, their top priority, a new five-year ¥200 million contract. On January 4, 2016, Okada defeated 2015 G1 Climax winner Hiroshi Tanahashi in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship He made his third successful title defense on February 11 at The New Beginning in Osaka against Hirooki Goto.[166] On April 10 at Invasion Attack 2016, Okada lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to 2016 New Japan Cup winner Tetsuya Naito, following outside interference from Naito's Los Ingobernables de Japón stablemates Bushi, Evil and the debuting Sanada. Okada gained revenge on Sanada by defeating him on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2016.

Arsenal

 * Finishing moves
 * Bridging German Suplex
 * Rainmaker (Wrist lock transitioned into a short-arm lariat or a lariat takedown)


 * Signature moves
 * Belly-to-Back Suplex
 * DID - Deep In Debt (Arm trap inverted three-quarter facelock)
 * Dropkick, sometimes from the Top Rope
 * Heavy Rain (Standing fireman's carry takeover)
 * Jumping Neckbreaker
 * Kneeling Belly-to-Belly Piledriver
 * Over the Shoulder Back-to-Belly Piledriver onto the Knee

Other Wrestling Information

 * Entrance Themes
 * "Kick It, That Makes Me Funk" by New Japan Pro Wrestling
 * "Rain Maker" by New Japan Pro Wrestling

Championships and Accomplishments

 * New Japan Pro Wrestling
 * IWGP Heavyweight Championship (3 times)
 * G1 Climax (2012, 2014)
 * New Japan Cup (2013)
 * Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 * PWI ranked him #5 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2013
 * Tokyo Sports
 * Best Bout Award (2012) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi on June 16
 * Best Bout Award (2014) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura on August 10
 * Best Bout Award (2015) vs. Genichiro Tenryu on November 15
 * MVP Award (2012, 2013, 2015)
 * Toryumon Mexico
 * Young Dragons Cup (2005)
 * Wrestling Observer Newsletter
 * 5 Star Match (2013) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi on April 7
 * 5 Star Match (2013) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi on October 14
 * 5 Star Match (2016) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi on January 4
 * Best Wrestling Maneuver (2012, 2013) Rainmaker
 * Feud of the Year (2012, 2013) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi Match of the Year (2013) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi on April 7
 * Most Improved (2012)