Kazuchika Okada needs a slump like a forest needs a fire
Note: I’m slowly editing and adapting blog posts I’ve written elsewhere to this new blog, so it’s going to be things that aren’t necessarily timely. I hope you’ll enjoy them anyway!
This piece was originally published elsewhere on August 8th, 2017, just after Kazuchika Okada and Minoru Suzuki fought to a time-limit draw in their G1 block match.
This question was submitted by a reader:
The Okada/Suzuki draw today got me thinking: with how NJPW plays the long game, is Okada losing his edge a bit? His loss to EVIL, the draws with Kenny and Suzuki, all people he’s beaten before. Maybe I’m just looking too far into it.
You’re right in one sense: it does look like Okada’s heading into a local slump in his overall arc. This could definitely be the start of the downslope before a title loss. Which is a good thing!
Because I don’t think, in terms of the long game, Okada is losing his edge at all. Homeboy is 29 years old. The terrifying thing about Okada is actually that this isn’t even his final form. NJPW couldn’t ask for a better person to stake the next 10 years of their promotion on, and probably no one else could either. He truly truly is the best in the world.
Think about it like this: Tana’s almost 41. He’s still The Ace, still going strong. Tanahashi has been in front of our faces nonstop for like ~12 years now? And the crowd still loses their shit for his damn air guitar thing. His fuckin’ catch phrase is I love you! and the fans still love him too. When he came to the US, only Okada himself got a bigger pop than Tana. There are cultural differences to be sure, but John Cena could fucking never. This is equal parts due to Tana’s god-tier CHA modifier, personal awesomeness, and NJPW’s ability to book him well.
For Okada to have that same kind of longevity as NJPW’s Top Guy, his career is going to need to have ebbs and flows, just as Tana’s has. Not only because he as a person will have good and bad days, weeks, months, years — and he will — but because it would be suicide for NJPW (not to mention really goddamn boring) if Okada’s thing were Dominant Champion for his entire career. It would stagnate the growth of entire promotion by not cycling in new talent or unexpected developments.
So these local peaks and valleys in an overall unparalleled career are very necessary. NJPW needs the flexibility to do exactly this when he starts to get too dominant: when the fans get sick of him winning so much, when the booking angles become difficult to keep fresh (both of which are happening), you have him get more heelish, start losing, look weaker. He will at times need to re-create himself, wander in the woods, and grow as a person/character/wrestler. NJPW did a really really amazing job during the Ace Wars, where they used this very tension, unique to the man carrying the promotion, to cement Okada as Young Ace and Tana as Living Legend. Both of them developed as characters and wrestlers during that time, and both of them had some rough patches in that time.
My man Kazu can’t hold that title at all times for the next 10+ years. He’ll still be The Guy, but he can’t be The Champ that whole time. But: he is TWENTY NINE and he already has the 2nd longest heavyweight title reign in IWGP history, AND the third most total days as champ — and he’s less than a month away from moving into second place there, too. Even if he doesn’t do it right now, he’s gonna break all their damn records. By a lot. It won’t even be close. He’s gonna be the best of all time. He’s Twenty Fucking Nine and that’s already all but certain as long as he stays healthy (prayer circle!). And? He deserves to be that person. He’s good enough to make that kind of history. How rare is it to have someone that young who’s already a living legend and unquestionably deserves that and more? We are so #blessed to have Kazuchika Okada.
But for the reasons I mentioned above, that undeniable dominance could be a huge vulnerability to NJPW, and they know it. They have to tread very carefully with the story of his career, and honestly I can’t wait to see where he goes. I hope I feel that way about him 10 years from now, too, and it says volumes about Gedo, Okada, and NJPW that I fully believe I will. Like you said, they’re great at the long game, and there could not possibly be a more crucial single long game for them to get right than Kazuchika Okada.
