Okada was trained by Ultimo Dragon at his Toryumon school. After graduating, Okada spent his early years honing his skills in Toryumon’s Mexican branch. He would wrestle throughout North America for minor promotions, including a brief stint in CHIKARA, before wrestling in a six man tag alongside Jushin Thunder Liger and Milano Colection A.T. (that’s one person), after which he was signed by NJPW.
NJPW
Okada trained further under Yuji Nagata at the NJPW Dojo, and soon graduated to the full roster in 2007, losing to Tetsuya Naito in his debut. Okada returned nearly a year later after suffering an injury, and bulked up to join the Heavyweight division. He made his return and began to show out against big names like Go Shiozaki, Shinsuke Nakamura, Tajiri, Hirooki Goto, and a few matches tagging with and fighting solo against Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Ain’t it a shame those two never wrestled again? They had some pretty good chemistry. Just kidding.
In 2010, NJPW announced that they were sending Okada to TNA in order for him to learn the American style and give TNA some national flavor as part of their soon to be doomed talent exchange. NJPW also had a much more practical motive behind sending him to America, but we’ll get to that.
TNA
Okada spent his first four months losing in dark matches and on episodes of Xplosion, which no one watched. Okada appeared on Impact for the first time as an unnamed roster member who was sent down, along with the rest of the locker room, to prevent the ECW invaders from marauding.
Okada continued to be unseen on the A show, until Samoa Joe revealed him to be his camera man that he had sent to tail The Pope and record his lies about helping the helpless. He was dressed like Kato from “The Green Hornet,” and he was briefly renamed Okato. He wrestled The Pope at the next Impact, where he won via DQ. He was then dropped from the feud, leaving him back to jobbing on Xplosion. He returned to New Japan shortly after.
The word is that NJPW began to consider ending their relationship with TNA after they handled Okada in such a galling way, and they did after the next year’s Wrestle Kingdom, where TNA talent put on either decent or (in the case of Hardy vs. Naito) terrible matches. Okada seemed to be a test run to see if TNA would book their talent correctly, which they failed, having booked him in a gimmick apparently only an Asian could play.
NJPW is also rumored to have sent Okada to TNA, knowing that he would be a nobody and booked terribly, so that he would not be cocky when his mega push in Japan arrived at the tender age of 23.
Speaking of which…
Back to New Japan: The New Ace
Okada made his return at the 2011 Dome show, and began to build his star back up. He spent the rest of 2011 on NJPW’s international tours. He returned again at the 2012 Dome show, where he had gained nearly 20 pounds of muscle. After the main event, he challenged Tanahashi for to a match for the Flying Ace’s IWGP Heavyweight title. He then revealed in the contract signing/press conference that he had joined Chaos, the super villian super group, and would take on Gedo as his manager. He then took on an entirely new persona as “The Rainmaker.” He dyed his hair bleach blonde, began wearing elaborate fur coats and boas to the ring, having money with his face on it rain from the ceiling, and debuting his new finisher, “Rainmaker,” a waist lock into a lariat.
He would go on to win the title from Tanahashi in February, only to lose it back to Tanahashi in June. He needn’t fret for long, however, as he made a comeback in August to defeat Machine Gun Karl Anderson and win the 2012 G1 Climax tournament. He demanded a shot at Tanahashi at the 2013 Dome show, which he was granted, but only under the condition that he defend the right to challenge as if it were a title. He did, and wound up losing to Tanahashi. Rumors then came up that he would be signing with WWE, which he shot down by signing an extension with New Japan.
He used his new “Red Ink” submission to win the 2013 New Japan Cup, and again became #1 Contender to Tanahashi’s IWGP title. He would again defeat Tanahashi and win the title. Tanahashi asked for one more shot, and Okada defeated him to retain the title, leading NJPW to proclaim Okada as the promotion’s new ace.
Okada would go on to reign for 13 months, before AJ Styles made his NJPW debut, claiming that Okada was the same young boy he had met in TNA, a great slight to the Rainmaker. AJ defeated Okada in May for the title, and thus began a feud against the Bullet Club when Yujiro Takahashi abandoned Chaos, turned on him during the match, and joined the Bullet Club.
Okada would then beat his fellow Chaos member Nakamura to win the 2014 G1 Climax. Okada could not beat Tanahashi for a third reign, and entered into a program with Bad Luck Fale, who would beat Okada numerous times, as Okada was broken in mind and spirit by being unable to beat Tanahashi. He would eventually beat Fale, and announce that he would beat AJ for the title, come hell or high water. He did, and became IWGP champion for a third time just earlier this month.
