For fans of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, it’s probably hard to imagine Kazuchika Okada anywhere but there. Yet for WWE enthusiasts, there’s renewed hope that maybe the Rainmaker will make his way to North America in the not too distant future.
According to Dave Meltzer’s latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription required), WWE has had interest in Okada “for years.” But he has also heard “renewed interest” recently and explained why perhaps the timing and WWE’s recent booking of a friend might help sell a move to Okada.
The pitch is that he’s now 36 and he’s close with Nakamura and Nakamura has worked years in WWE and it’s far easier on his body. The idea is that WWE is the one thing Okada has never done and he’s done everything he can do in New Japan. One person who buzzed us about the renewed interest in Okada said that one of the reasons Nakamura is getting a renewed push is to show Okada that this regime is not going to treat Japanese like the stereotypical children-like role (although Tozawa is still playing that role) because Vince does that with people who don’t speak fluent English, but this is a new regime.
He’s not wrong about Shinsuke Nakamura. After spending quite some time as a glorified mid-carder, Nakamura has been the beneficiary of a concerted effort to refocus on him as a dangerous, unpredictable title threat, and had a heck of a championship match against Seth Rollins at Payback.
Might that, plus the idea that Okada has little left to accomplish in NJPW, be enough to sway him to make a move? He has seemed to genuinely enjoy wrestling in front of North American audiences during his appearances with AEW (who, one would think, would also be interested in signing him).
WWE is so hot right now that it doesn’t need anyone from the outside to bolster its business, but it’s also enjoying a creative renaissance under Paul “Triple H” Levesque that suggests it would find a way to present Okada like a big star. It’s a fascinating idea that will stay that way until it either happens or goes down as one of the big “what if” questions of this era of pro wrestling.