WhiteTail Wrestling

Kazuchika Okada the hall of fame wrestler. One of the all time greats and the biggest star of New Japan Pro Wrestling is leaving his promotion seemingly for one of the big two US promotions.

In the last few months there has been some speculation that Okada would leave NJPW when his contract expires at the end of this month. But it never really seemed likely. While it is common for foreign talent to leave Japanese promotions home grown talent rarely leave Japan especially those at the top such as Okada who are able to demand high salaries without having to leave their home country.

Okada leaving NJPW is one of the biggest stories in wrestling particularly for those enjoy the art of the sport rather than the sports entertainment that has polluted the sport over the last 40 years. Okada the multi time IWGP world champion has competed in some of the greatest matches in all time with the likes of Kenny Omega, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Will Ospreay. He has been the man in NJPW since taking over the ace role from the ace and new president Hiroshi Tanahashi.

So where does Okada go now? There are two possible destinations. WWE and AEW. If he signs with AEW he will retain a large amount of freedom including the ability to work shows for NJPW and perhaps more importantly being able to live in Japan which to a man with a voice actress wife and a young child must surely be tempting. AEW will allow Okada to retain his legendary style of wrestling with only small adjustments for US TV.

Okada signing with WWE would be a disaster in my view for my own fandom and for those enjoy the artistry of the highest tier of professional wrestling. WWE means Okada moving to the US. It means no option to work with other promotions. It means working for a promotion with a history of racism towards Japanese talent and that includes in recent years with multiple cartoon gimmicks for talent and forcing Sarree to dress up like a Japanese schoolgirl.

Okada in WWE will likely enter a form of voluntary retirement where he will perhaps get the opportunity to wrestle top talent such as Gunther and Cody Rhodes but will be forced to change his style dramatically and even in his best matches will be a shadow of his former self.

While there are some that say that WWE has changed under Triple H and Endevour I have seen no real evidence of this promotion being significantly better as an in ring product. RAW is still mostly unwatchable especially live with advertisements their PPV (sorry PLE) are mostly unremarkable and NXT has some of the worst gimmickry you’ll see. Io Shirai is a great example of a talented wrestler completely wasted in this promotion. Looking at Cagematch data shows the first 18 matches on her match guide are from outside WWE despite her being with that promotion for the past 6 years. It must also be remembered that Shirai wrestled for Stardom prior to the Bushi Road takeover and matches from that time period are a lot harder to find than matches from the current incarnation of the promotion (Stardom World has very little content prior to 2017). If Io Shirai had as good of a run as the WWE Stan’s say than we would expect her matchguide to be filled with **** matches and above but clearly that is not the case and it is not the case for Asuka, Kairi Sane or Okada’s great friend Shinsuke Nakamura.

Nakamura despite a few good moments has been a dud in WWE where he has done significant damage to his legacy and has spent more time surfing than wrestling. Perhaps Okada has that surfboard ready and wants to spend the next few years clowning around. If that what he wants to do with himself making lots of money while doing very little than good for him. But for me it would be one of the greatest wastes of a talent than has ever occurred in professional wrestling.

So where does this leave NJPW? The loss of Okada coming at the same time as the loss of Will Ospreay to AEW is obviously devastating to the promotion. But it is not all doom and gloom provided NJPW makes some changes to their approach.

Firstly the promotion has to lock down their top talent to longer contracts which will prevent or at least delay the exodus of talent to the United States. This includes their home grown talent which in the past have only been on one or maybe two year contracts. This invites significant speculation as to who will re sign with the company and who will leave on a yearly basis.

Secondly the promotion once they have signed their top talent to long term deals must push their young up and coming stars. Yota Tsuji, Shota Umino and Yuya Uemura have the ability to be massive stars for years to come. They cannot be sat in mid card for years paying their dues like wrestlers have in the past. The future is now for NJPW they just have to be brave enough to embrace it.

On this very issue the promotion missed an obvious opportunity to push Umino by giving him the new global championship and instead put the title on the life time midcarder David Finlay who has failed completely as Bullet Club leader. Instead of wasting a Jon Moxley vs Will Ospreay match by adding Finlay to create a triple threat. Ospreay should have beaten Moxley I what would have been a classic. This would have given Ospreay the opportunity to put Umino over prior to leaving the company.

With Okada now wanting to leave the company he should be doing so on his back preferably to put over Yota Tsuji the most talented and charismatic of the new talent. A final Okada vs Tanahashi match will no doubt be memorable and nostalgic but will do nothing in building the future of the promotion. Regardless of what happens in the coming months we are at a crossroads for NJPW with crossroads comes both opportunities and challenges. Can NJPW embrace the opportunities that they have for the future or will they find themselves struggling against the challenge of replacing their biggest star.