Jan 4 – Wrestle Kingdom VI 

At the start of 2012, 40 years since its founding in 1972, New Japan Pro Wrestling was not having great success. Pro wrestling popularity across Japan was down dramatically from the highs of the 1990s. New Japan had just been sold to new owners for a surprisingly low $6.5M price tag. New Japan had a few talented, charismatic stars who would reliably put on strong matches, but it had little overall momentum.  

Every January, New Japan hosts Wrestle Kingdom, their biggest show of the year, live from the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome. In retrospect, the most important event of 2012’s Wrestle Kingdom was by far the return of Kazuichika Okada to New Japan after a few years overseas.

Kazuichika Okada

In 2012, 24-year-old Okada was returning to Japan after a two-year tour of duty in the US. It’s typical for New Japan to develop young wrestlers as prelim guys, and then send them overseas for a few years to develop their craft. Then, they come back to Japan with a flourish and make a new ‘first’ impression further up the card. 

Okada spent his time overseas in a remarkably unremarkable run with TNA. His most visible moment was dressed up as “Okato,” an unfortunate Green Hornet and Kato ripoff. 

Okada is always accompanied by Gedo, a New Japan on-screen and backstage mainstay who excelled as a Jr Heavyweight in the 90s.

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Okada came out with flashy new gear and a superstar’s entrance to match his cocky new Rainmaker persona. His opponent Yoshi-Hashi was also a young New Japan wrestler making his first appearance after returning from overseas (Mexico). Okada defeated Yoshi-Hashi in a surprisingly quick 4:37 on the big show in an inauspicious debut. After he took shots from Yoshi-Hashi for the first 2/3rds of the match, Okada got a flurry of offense and got the quick pin to zero crowd reaction with the debut of the Rainmaker short-arm lariat finisher. 

Hiroshi Tanahashi

IWGP Champion Tanahashi has been the ‘Ace’ of New Japan for the past few years, dominating the championship chase and delivering great matches with a variety of opponents. At the start of 2012, Tanahashi was holding the title for the 5th time and had been champion for a full year. Wrestling Observer voters recognized him as the 2011 Wrestler of the Year across all companies.  

Tanahashi is a face’s face, and plays to the crowd by strumming an air guitar. It is super corny, but the crowd loves it and I love it when I’m watching him. His offense is also very traditional, and he manages to make his High Fly Flow frog splash a compelling finisher.

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Minoru Suzuki

At 44 in 2012, Suzuki is a legendary shoot fighter and the founder of
Pancrase, one of the first MMA organizations in the world. In New Japan, Suzuki plays the ultimate dickhead. Suzuki is the toughest old bastard on the roster, and he can still dominate anyone with his submissions and strikes. Playing up his MMA background, Suzuki won’t cooperate with occasional pro wrestling moves to give the impression that his matches are always on the edge of becoming a real fight.  

Suzuki finishes opponents with his Gotch-style piledriver, and he comes out to ‘Kazi Ni Nare,’ a theme that gives ‘Eye of the Tiger’ a run for its money. Suzuki leads Suziki-gun, a heel stable including Taichi, Taka Michinoku (of 90s WWF fame), and Lance Archer.     

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In the main event of the big show, Tanahashi eked out a championship win against his formidable opponent in 25:59 after kicking out of the piledriver that Suzuki has used to pin everyone else on the roster. This match has all the typical elements of a great New Japan title match, and is a great intro to the style. Very physical offense combined with great selling and pacing tells the story of two men pushing themselves past the limit for the sake of the championship. 

During Tanahashi’s celebration, Okada came out to interrupt with a challenge for the championship. This did not go over well with the crowd, since Okada did not impress earlier in the night and did not look like he deserved it. But despite the crowd response, Tanahashi accepted. And unexpectedly, the feud that would define the next two years is off and running! 

Feb 12 New Beginning

Instead being organized around a weekly live TV show, New Japan is organized around monthly PPVs with what are basically house shows in between. So as we follow along, we’ll mostly be moving from PPV to PPV. This makes it much easier to tackle this project! Also, New Japan shows are mainly in-ring, with very little in the way of interview or backstage segments. Storylines are often moved along with in-ring challenges or confrontations after matches. 

The unproven Okada got his shot right away, and Tanahashi v. Okada headlined the very next PPV. Okada started off with a lot of boos based on both his heel antics and the fact that he was unproven. But Okada rose to the moment, and the two put on a great match. Okada established many of his main offensive weapons in these early matches, including the top-rope elbow drop and tombstone piledriver. In a shocking result, Okada won the belt in 23:22 with his Rainmaker lariat finisher after Tanahashi evaded the first attempt. The crowd was legitimately surprised to see Tanahashi’s year-long title reign ended by this newcomer.  

Immediately after the celebration, crowd favorite Tetsuya Naito came out to make a challenge for Okada’s new title. Naito was fresh off a victory over perennial title contender Shinsuke Nakamura earlier in the night, and is next in line for the shot at the belt. 

Mar 4 40th Anniversary Show

Tetsuya Naito

In 2012, Tetsuya Naito was 30 years old and was emerging as a top heavyweight contender. Like Okada, Naito had an extended tour overseas and spent 2 successful years working TNA and CMLL in Mexico. This link to New Japan’s partner CMLL persisted throughout his career. Naito worked his way up the ranks in the two years after he returned, and he was a finalist for the prestigious G1 Climax heavyweight tournament in 2011.  

A fan favorite with an appealing style, Naito has a reputation for great matches throughout his career. 

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Naito and Okada met the following month on New Japan’s special 40th anniversary show. They packed the smaller Korakuen Hall for the special event, headlined by the title match. The two put on a great match, with the crowd split into dueling Naito and Okada chants early on. Okada again finished with the Rainmaker after a great series of reversals. This match got great word-of-mouth, and ended up voted the #6 WON MOTY. Unfortunately, this potential feud was preempted later in the year when Naito suffered a legit knee injury. The new champion now had two very strong matches under his belt!