Late last month in Japan, Kazuchika Okada issued his own version of the words, “Goodbye and good night!” That, of course, is a signature phrase spoken by longtime rival Kenny Omega.
Naturally, when Okada used his rival’s catchphrase, it caught Omega’s ear.
“Absolutely it did,” says Omega. “I checked my text messages right away to see if there was something I wasn’t privy to.”
The history between Omega and Okada is rich. From 2015 to ’18, they shared the ring on 66 different occasions. Those were primarily multiman tags pitting Bullet Club against Chaos, as well as a tag team match where Omega and Kota Ibushi faced Okada and Tomohiro Ishii, but their epic singles bouts helped transform New Japan Pro-Wrestling into a global entity. Okada defeated Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in ’17, a 46-minute cutting-edge encounter, then wrestled to a 60-minute draw months later in June at Dominion. Their final singles bout to date took place a year later at Dominion in ’18, when Omega captured the IWGP heavyweight championship from Okada’s tight grip in a superb two-out-of-three falls affair that set a furious, tense pace for 64 minutes.
In wrestling, the inevitable inevitably occurs. Barring catastrophe, there will be another match between the two, and the odds of that are further enhanced by the working relationship between AEW and New Japan. In January at New Year Dash, Omega and Okada even teamed together, beginning a new chapter in their storied rivalry.
“I wouldn’t be so quick to scratch his name off the list of guys I wouldn’t help,” says Omega, who is New Japan’s United States champion. “Our match together was a wild-card draft. It was a fun time. It felt to me like, ‘We had our thing. Our thing is done.’
“I’ve said it before—Okada is very sharp. He is who he is for a reason. I had a lot of fun teaming with him at New Japan Dash, so I wouldn’t strike that off the list of potential people who I wouldn’t mind having their back.”
Asked to clarify further, especially with Forbidden Door only a month away, Omega touched on the potential of working with Omega instead of against him. Of course, that could also eventually lead to a split, followed by a rubber match in 2024.
“We’re in completely separate divisions right now,” says Omega. “I’m U.S. champion, and he’s competing for the IWGP heavy. It’s good to let us exist in our respective worlds and be comrades for a change.”
Justin Barrasso can be reached at JBarrasso@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinBarrasso.
