[2012-03-04-NJPW-40th Anniversary] Kazuchika Okada vs Tetsuya Naito

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Superstar Sleeze]

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada vs Tetsuya Naito - NJPW 3/4/12

 

About 21 months later, these two would have a match at the Tokyo Dome where they would throw a zillion dropkicks and no fucks would be given.

 

Much to my surprise, this actually a damn good match to the point where I say it was Okada's best match until Invasion Attack 2013 and his best non-Tanahashi match until G1 Climax Finals 2014. This is worked much in the same vein as the Tanahashi matches from 2012, but I think Okada's selling is a lot better in this. Naito uses his speed to set up the leg work. Okada responds with a big time Tombstone piledriver, which hurts his knee, but gives him valuable time and significantly derails Naito's plans. I just feel Okada and Naito's selling are meeting the work better. I like the hope spot of Naito firing up in the corner, beating up Okada trying to rally the fans only to eat a dropkick. Nice roller coaster ride. Another good example of this was Naito missing a dropkick to the knee and Okada immediately following up with a senton. Loved the transition back to Naito's leg work with him sweeping the leg and then a missile dropkick to the knee. I thought he was ferocious on the outside working the knee climaxing with a dropkick to the knee on the railing. Gedo said best when he says "Shit!". Kneecrusher and an inverted figure-4 and looks like the young champion is in serious trouble. Well what's the one thing Okada can always rely on to get him out of trouble. His dropkick and he nails one while Naito is on the top rope. Even after that, there is still plenty of time before Okada finally nails the Rainmaker. He gets all these nearfalls off those suplexes that never finish anyone off. I just feel you don't always have to go through these rituals and there were more organic ways to finish the match. I would say if they edited the ending to keep the focus on the knee vs neck rather than shoehorning in a big Naito finish run this would feel a lot better. I thought the limb work and selling here were totally top notch. Just need to tighten up the finish. ****1/2

 

What did Okada use to win the title just a month prior to this? A tombstone on the floor and so in desperation that is exactly what he hits even though his knee has gone to shit. Great selling by both. Okada goes for a neck submission and then a big elbow. Looks like Rain is Imminent, but Naito gets a drop toehold into a leg submission, which Okada sells so well. I actually felt like this was a sufficient big time nearfall for Naito and that Okada using the big elbows to Naito's injured neck set up the Rainmaker well. Still they felt the need to do a big Naito finish run before missing the Stardust press. It felt excessive and obligatory.

[bradhindsight]

2012 Naito is super fast! It's knee vs. neck and both guys tear each other apart with really sick work around the guardrail outside. Okada putting Naito's head between the rails and kicking it into the back of his head and then that's topped with Naito draping Okada's knee over the guardrail and hitting missile dropkicks to the knee. As we work though Okada's strengths, I definitely feel he has exceptional facials and really sells well when being worked over. He may fall to a knee after a big move on offense, or collapse outside trying to get back in the ring. Really good attention to selling and getting Naito's work over. I like that he works the neck because you can't ever really forget about the neck right? A bump hurts the neck, any suplex, etc. Okada is not complacent with that kind of psychology however; he wrenches this thing - I'm not convinced Naito actually sells enough for him, but there are moments. Naito runs through his heavy offense - destino! (prob before it was called that; but I did note he had the same entrance music back then as today) but the Stardust press is missed. He does go back to the knee one last time, but its just a segue into the finishing stretch and the Rainmaker puts down another guy. The limb work here is top notch stuff here. ****1/2

[soup23]

I adore this match. Two hungry guys of the future going out there and ripping it off giving off a classical title vibe worthy of being the main event on the 40th anniversary show for the promotion while also bringing in a new narrative for the entire Kidani era of the promotion. Okada's leg gets decimated by Naito and he sells it for all it is worth. The facial expressions of Okada is stronger here than at any point of this run so far as he is the ring leader throughout the match and provides some complex emotions like whether he should perform the tombstone on the floor or not. Okada also goes back to his Toryumon roots and really executes the neck submissions well based off the llave mat work. The RainMaker has been established so well as a flash killer finish that the crowd really bites on these submissions as a finish. The finishing run is frantic and full of drama without ever dipping into excess. I really miss the days when RainMaker was all it took for the match to finish and once that was hit, the match was over. MOTYC for sure in the absolutely loaded 2012 year. ****3/4

[Childs]

Apparently, I had the same thought as Brad and Chad as I started re-watching some Okada matches because of the insane hype he's generating this year. I thought the Feb. title win over Tanahashi was an excellent, tight match that established Okada as a major player. But I didn't like this one nearly as much. First of all, it struck me as a complete knock-off of the Tanahashi match, with the same focus on Okada's leg and his opponent's neck. Okada certainly tried to sell conscientiously in these matches. But rather than convince me that his leg hurt, he convinced me that he wanted me to know he was trying to sell. I'm hoping to see him become more naturalistic with experience. Also, his too-cool-for-the-room vibe worked better in contrast to Tanahashi's ace persona than in opposition to Naito's eagerness. I wanted him to be more of a dick, basically, as he started to feel his oats. Naito, meanwhile, was too all over the place with his attack to feel like a major threat in the finishing stretch. The one thing I really liked was their treatment of the Rainmaker. Completely agree with Chad about the unfortunate devaluing of that move over time. Overall, there wasn't anything hugely wrong with this match. But nothing about it screamed classic, and Okada was still very much a work in progress.

[GOTNW]

I'll note that at the time, this was really THE match that made people buy into Okada-the extravagant money falling at the entrance and the match itself (which I thought was New Japan's 2012 MOTY at the time and one of the best matches of the year then) really made that switch from "what are they doing" to "yeah, there's something there". Another important note to add is that 2012 is when footage of japanese wrestling started becoming more scarce and harder to find in the west-it was just before they started doing international IPPVs that some of the usual sources disappeared, and it resulted in a couple of months of chaos.

[Boss Rock]

Very good match and a good sign of New Japan's future. Here, you had Okada as the recently-crowned, young hot-shot champion and Naito as the plucky underdog. Naito gets him early with flashy moves and Okada absolutely cuts him off by planting him with a tombstone-all within a few minutes into the match. Okada then works over Naito's neck to logically set up another tombstone and Rainmaker, but Naito fights back by going after Okada's leg (take away the dropkick). Great back-and-forth battle with Naito showing some good fire and Okada cutting him off every time.

 

****1/4.

[cactus]

Okada has just beat Tanahashi for the IWGP strap in a huge upset victory and Naito is trying to be the next baby-kissing ace, even though he's feeling like Tanahashi-lite at this point in time. The first five minutes sees them work through some mat-work that doesn't really go anywhere. Okada gets to show the world that he can work a mean headlock and look like the cock of the walk, so it wasn't completely pointless.  Naito hits Okada with a basement dropkick and sets his sights on working on Okada's leg. Okada sells his leg exceptionally well. He's able to land a tombstone early, but his bad knee doesn't allow him to follow up. My main complaint about this match is that Okada's submissions look like utter shit. They're overly contrived and you can never buy into them as a match-ender. Thankfully, the rest of the match is excellent, with Naito showing lots of fire and getting some incredibly convincing near-falls before he finally falls victim to the Rainmaker after an explosive finishing run. For two young guys, these two put on an incredible match that cemented both men as superstars in the eyes of New Japan fans. ★★★★½