NJPW News: Kazuchika Okada breaks 24-year-old record as IWGP Heavyweight Champion

What’s the story?

Current IWGP Heavyweight Champion and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) ace “Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada set another record this past weekend.

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By continuing to hold the title and defend it successfully, Okada has now held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for 706 days, making his reign now the second-longest title reign in Japanese wrestling history.

In case you didn’t know…

Kazuchika Okada captured his fourth and current IWGP Heavyweight Championship on June 19th, 2016 by defeating then-champion Tetsuya Naito.

He has since held it for longer than any heavyweight champion in NJPW history, and continues to break one record after another with his continues streak of successful title defenses.

The heart of the matter

Okada’s historic title reign recently reached its 706th day, becoming the second-longest heavyweight title reign in Japanese wrestling history.

Prior to this, that distinction was held by Mitsuharu Misawa, the former ace of All Japan Pro Wrestling, who held that company’s Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship for 705 days between August 22nd, 1992 and July 28th, 1994.

What’s next

Okada is scheduled to make his 13th title defense against Kenny Omega in a two-out-of-three-falls match with no time limit at Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall. If Okada manages to retain the title in that match, his reign will reach the 719-day mark.

Furthermore, given that NJPW books title defense to be few and far between, if Okada retains against Omega at Dominion, then he’s likely to surpass Kenta Kobashi’s historic 735-day reign as NOAH’s GHC Heavyweight Champion.

If that does happen, then Okada would become the longest-reigning singles heavyweight champion in Japanese history.

Author’s take

NJPW have found a gold mine in Okada as champion. They continue to book him more strongly than any champion before, and that translates into much more interest in the NJPW product.

Although some might argue that the NJPW bookers are giving him the John Cena treatment and protecting him, one cannot deny that Okada has delivered as a main-event draw on every occasion since winning the biggest prize in NJPW.