Anjo, Aichi, Japan · Toryumon · NJPW · AEW · 2004–present
Kazuchika Okada is the AEW International Champion again, as of August 30, 2026 — he pinned Kyle Fletcher with a Rainmaker in a three-way that also included Konosuke Takeshita at All In: London, reclaiming the title Takeshita had taken from him at Double or Nothing in May. 720days as IWGP Heavyweight Champion, 2016–18 — the longest reign in the title’s historyThat is the current chapter of a career that was already, by most sober accountings, the best of its generation before he left Japan: the man who main-evented the Tokyo Dome year after year, held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for a record 720 days, and won the G1 Climax four times.
The AEW chapter has been a title-machine of its own. He signed in March 2024, joined the Elite, and beat Eddie Kingston for the Continental Championship on the March 20, 2024 Dynamite — two weeks in. 648days as AEW Continental Champion — a reign that swallowed a whole second title on its wayHe held that belt 648 days (as Fightful counted it), winning the 2024 Continental Classic as reigning champion along the way — beating Will Ospreay in the Worlds End final on December 28, 2024 — and then, at All In: Texas on July 12, 2025, beat Kenny Omega in a winner-takes-all match to add the International Championship and become the first AEW Unified Champion. The run finally cracked at Worlds End on December 27, 2025, when Jon Moxley beat him in the Continental Classic final to take the Continental half; Takeshita took the International half at Double or Nothing on May 24, 2026 after 316 days. Wembley put one of the two belts back on him.
He is 38, he wrestles a fraction of his old NJPW schedule, and the Rainmaker apparatus — the money-raining entrance, the too-cool deliberateness, the single lariat that ends everything — has survived translation to American television intact. The trainer’s stamp explains the oddity of his origin: he is a Toryumon product, trained by Ultimo Dragon, who debuted in Mexico on August 29, 2004 at sixteen before ever wrestling in Japan, and did a largely wasted TNA excursion before the January 2012 homecoming that changed New Japan’s history.
Sixteen documented bouts — the five Heavyweight reigns' hinges, the Omega series, both Wrestle Kingdom World title wins and the entire AEW title arc. This is a curated ledger, not a career count, and no win–loss total is published because none could be verified. The Sanada loss that ended the last IWGP reign is absent because its exact date conflicts across sources. Filter by match type, tap any column header to sort, and turn spoilers on to reveal results.
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The book is kayfabe protected
| Res | Date | Promo | Event | Opponent(s) | Stipulation | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | 2012-02-12 | NJPW | The New Beginning — Osaka | Hiroshi Tanahashi | Singles — the Rainmaker Shock: champion at 24, one month after returning from excursion | IWGP Heavyweight Championship |
| L | 2013-01-04 | NJPW | Wrestle Kingdom 7 | Hiroshi Tanahashi | Singles — challenge; the trilogy-of-eras rivalry hits the Dome | IWGP Heavyweight Championship |
| W | 2013-04-07 | NJPW | Invasion Attack | Hiroshi Tanahashi | Singles — second reign begins | IWGP Heavyweight Championship |
| W | 2016-06-19 | NJPW | Dominion | Tetsuya Naito | Singles — the record 720-day fourth reign begins | IWGP Heavyweight Championship |
| W | 2017-01-04 | NJPW | Wrestle Kingdom 11 | Kenny Omega | Singles — 6 stars (Meltzer), the scale breaks | IWGP Heavyweight Championship |
| D | 2017-06-11 | NJPW | Dominion | Kenny Omega | 60-minute time-limit draw — 6.25 stars | IWGP Heavyweight Championship |
| L | 2018-06-09 | NJPW | Dominion | Kenny Omega | Two of three falls, no time limit — the 720-day reign ends at V12; Meltzer's first 7-star match | IWGP Heavyweight Championship |
| W | 2019-04-06 | NJPW | G1 Supercard — Madison Square Garden | Jay White | Singles — fifth reign begins | IWGP Heavyweight Championship |
| L | 2020-01-05 | NJPW | Wrestle Kingdom 14 Night 2 | Tetsuya Naito | Double gold dash — Naito takes both belts | IWGP Heavyweight Championship |
| W | 2022-01-04 | NJPW | Wrestle Kingdom 16 Night 1 | Shingo Takagi | Singles — first IWGP World Heavyweight reign | IWGP World Heavyweight Championship |
| W | 2023-01-04 | NJPW | Wrestle Kingdom 17 | Jay White | Singles — becomes a seven-time IWGP champion | IWGP World Heavyweight Championship |
| W | 2024-03-20 | AEW | Dynamite | Eddie Kingston | Singles — two weeks after signing; the 648-day reign begins | AEW Continental Championship |
| W | 2024-12-28 | AEW | Worlds End | Will Ospreay | Continental Classic final — wins the tournament as reigning champion | — |
| W | 2025-07-12 | AEW | All In: Texas | Kenny Omega | Winner-takes-all — becomes the first AEW Unified Champion | AEW International Championship |
| L | 2025-12-27 | AEW | Worlds End | Jon Moxley | Continental Classic final — the 648-day Continental reign ends | AEW Continental Championship |
| L | 2026-05-24 | AEW | Double or Nothing | Konosuke Takeshita | Singles — the 316-day International reign ends | AEW International Championship |
| W | 2026-08-30 | AEW | All In: London — Wembley | Kyle Fletcher & Konosuke Takeshita | Three-way — Rainmaker on Fletcher; second reign begins | AEW International Championship |
| No career-defining bouts match this filter. See them in the full record | ||||||
9 of 17 matches shown
Curated ledger · documented highlights · some bouts are not listed
The Omega series is the spine of the modern star-ratings era, and Okada was in every match of it. Ratings are Dave Meltzer's, as widely published — reported rather than re-audited.
vs Kenny Omega
IWGP Heavyweight Championship, 2/3 falls — the reign ends at 720 days and V12
vs Kenny Omega
IWGP Heavyweight Championship — 60-minute time-limit draw
vs Kenny Omega
IWGP Heavyweight Championship — the first time the 5-star scale broke
Seven IWGP reigns across two titles, and an AEW run that has already produced a 648-day reign and the company's first unified championship. Early Toryumon-era credentials were not verified in this pass and are not listed.
2012 (The New Beginning, def. Tanahashi) · 2013–14 · 2015–16 · 2016–18 — 720 days and a record 12 defenses, ended by Kenny Omega at Dominion · 2019–20, ended by Naito in the Wrestle Kingdom 14 double gold dash · 36 total defenses, the most of any champion per Wikipedia
January 4, 2022 – June 12, 2022 (def. Shingo Takagi at Wrestle Kingdom 16, lost to Jay White at Dominion) · January 4, 2023 – April 2023 (def. Jay White at Wrestle Kingdom 17, lost to Sanada at Sakura Genesis — exact date conflicts across sources)
March 20, 2024 – December 27, 2025 · def. Eddie Kingston on Dynamite, lost to Jon Moxley in the Continental Classic final at Worlds End · 648 days · won the 2024 Continental Classic as champion mid-reign
July 12, 2025 – May 24, 2026 · def. Kenny Omega at All In: Texas to become the first AEW Unified Champion, lost to Konosuke Takeshita at Double or Nothing after 316 days · August 30, 2026 – present · def. Kyle Fletcher and Takeshita in a three-way at All In: London
2012, 2014, 2021, 2022 — second only to Masahiro Chono’s five wins, per Wikipedia
2013 and 2019
One faction for twelve years, then a heel turn into the company he now works for.
Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura (founder era), Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, Will Ospreay (2016–2020), others
He joined CHAOS on the night of his 2012 return and eventually led it. The unit softened from Nakamura's villain gang into the establishment stable of the 2010s — which is roughly what happened to Okada himself, from Rainmaker shock heel to the company's ace. Will Ospreay was his CHAOS protege until the 2020 betrayal that founded United Empire.
Okada, The Young Bucks, at times Kenny Omega and Jack Perry
He debuted as a signed AEW talent on March 6, 2024 by joining the Young Bucks' heel incarnation of The Elite — a deliberate inversion: the NJPW ace arriving as an American company's smirking villain. The alignment has shifted around him since the Bucks reconciled with Omega in late 2025; his 2026 business — Takeshita, Fletcher and the Don Callis Family's belts — has been his own.
Okada, and a shower of fake banknotes
Less a gimmick than a thesis: unhurried excellence, presented with money raining from the ceiling. The pose, the wrist-clutch lariat and the dropkick — routinely called the best in wrestling — survived the move west without alteration, which was the point. Toryumon trained him; New Japan made him; the character needed no translation.
Four phases, one name — his real one. Toryumon trainee (2004–2007) → Young lion and TNA excursion (2007–2012) → The Rainmaker (2012–2024) → AEW’s Rainmaker (2024–present).
Trained by Ultimo Dragon and debuted in Mexico on August 29, 2004, at sixteen — a lucha-school origin that almost nothing in the finished product advertises.
Joined New Japan in 2007, then spent an unglamorous American excursion in TNA, used as an afterthought. The gap between that run and what followed is part of the legend.
Returned in January 2012, challenged Tanahashi immediately, and won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at 24 on February 12, 2012 — the Rainmaker Shock. Twelve years as the axis of New Japan followed: five Heavyweight reigns, two World Heavyweight reigns, four G1s, and the Omega series.
Left NJPW after The New Beginning in Sapporo in February 2024, signed with AEW in March, and has spent the run since as a champion almost continuously: 648 days with the Continental belt, the first Unified Championship, and now a second International reign won at Wembley.
Mexico at sixteen to Wembley at 38.
August 29, 2004, for Ultimo Dragon's Toryumon at sixteen.
Returns from excursion in January, beats Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at The New Beginning on February 12 at age 24, and wins his first G1 Climax that summer.
Beats Tetsuya Naito at Dominion on June 19. The fourth reign runs to June 9, 2018 with a record twelve defenses.
6 stars at Wrestle Kingdom 11 on January 4, a 6.25-star hour-long draw at Dominion on June 11 — the ratings era's ground zero.
Omega wins the two-of-three-falls Dominion main event on June 9 — the first 7-star match Dave Meltzer ever awarded.
Beats Jay White at G1 Supercard on April 6; holds the title until Naito takes both belts at Wrestle Kingdom 14 on January 5, 2020.
Beats Shingo Takagi at Wrestle Kingdom 16 on January 4; wins back-to-back G1s in 2021 and 2022; regains the title from Jay White at Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4, 2023 — a seven-time IWGP champion.
Final NJPW match at The New Beginning in Sapporo in February; signs with AEW in March, joins The Elite, and beats Eddie Kingston for the Continental Championship on the March 20 Dynamite.
Beats Kenny Omega winner-takes-all at All In: Texas on July 12 to hold the Continental and International titles at once; Jon Moxley ends the 648-day Continental reign in the Continental Classic final at Worlds End on December 27.
Konosuke Takeshita beats him at Double or Nothing on May 24 after 316 days; Okada reclaims the belt in the All In: London three-way over champion Kyle Fletcher and Takeshita on August 30, pinning Fletcher with the Rainmaker.
Who he went to war with.
The series that redefined what match ratings could say: 6 stars at Wrestle Kingdom 11, the 6.25-star hour draw at Dominion 2017, and the 7-star Dominion 2018 loss that ended the 720-day reign. Okada took the AEW-era rubber match, beating Omega winner-takes-all at All In: Texas on July 12, 2025 to become the first Unified Champion.
The generational handover, conducted over years of Tokyo Dome main events. Okada announced himself by beating Tanahashi in 2012 at 24, lost the Wrestle Kingdom 7 challenge, and won the belt back from him at Invasion Attack 2013 — the rivalry that made the Rainmaker the ace.
Traded eras with him twice: Okada took the title from Naito to start the 720-day reign at Dominion 2016, and Naito took both belts from Okada in the Wrestle Kingdom 14 double gold dash on January 5, 2020.
Protege turned rival — Ospreay left CHAOS by turning on him in 2020. Okada has kept the receipts since: the G1 Climax 32 final in 2022, and the Continental Classic final at Worlds End on December 28, 2024, both Okada wins.
The man who finally cracked the AEW reign: Moxley beat him in the 2025 Continental Classic final at Worlds End on December 27, 2025, ending 648 days and splitting the Unified Championship back into halves.
The 2026 program: Takeshita took the International title from him at Double or Nothing, Kyle Fletcher took it from Takeshita with Callis interference in July, and Okada beat them both in one match at Wembley to end the family's hold on the belt.
Thin by design — the verified list is short, and nothing is added to pad it.
The signature visual — banknotes falling from the rafters — has traveled with him from Tokyo Dome main events to AEW pay-per-views unchanged.
Wikipedia credits him with nine Wrestle Kingdom headline appearances — the most of his era — including the January 4-and-5 double-show years.
A weekly television character in English for the first time; the act works mostly without dialogue, by design. No film roles, autobiography or documentary series could be verified, so none are listed.
The records, stated the way the sources actually state them — including the two-titles-in-one-count problem that follows him everywhere.
June 19, 2016 to June 9, 2018 — the longest reign in the title's history, with a record twelve successful defenses. Both records still stand.
Five IWGP Heavyweight Championship reigns (2012-2020) plus two IWGP World Heavyweight Championship reigns (2022, 2023). The compressed 'seven-time champion' phrasing is accurate only if you name both titles.
The most of any champion across the title's history, per Wikipedia's championship article.
Second all-time behind Masahiro Chono's five. The 2012 win came months into the Rainmaker run; the 2021-22 pair came back to back.
Beat Kenny Omega winner-takes-all at All In: Texas on July 12, 2025, holding the Continental and International Championships simultaneously until the titles were split apart at Worlds End that December.
March 20, 2024 to December 27, 2025, ended by Jon Moxley — the figure as Fightful counted it. He also won the 2024 Continental Classic as reigning champion, beating Will Ospreay in the final.
July 12, 2025 to May 24, 2026 (316 days), and again from August 30, 2026 — the Wembley three-way over Kyle Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita, won with a Rainmaker on Fletcher.
The Rainmaker Shock: February 12, 2012, beating Hiroshi Tanahashi at The New Beginning in Osaka, in his first title challenge after coming home from TNA.
Deliberately absent: a career win-loss total (none verified), social handles (not verified), and a day-precision date for the 2023 Sanada loss, where consulted sources conflict between April 8 and April 9. Meltzer ratings are reported as published.
Follow, connect and verify.
Yes — he is the AEW International Champion, as of August 30, 2026. He won the title for a second time at All In: London, pinning defending champion Kyle Fletcher with a Rainmaker in a three-way that also included Konosuke Takeshita. His first International reign ran 316 days (July 12, 2025 to May 24, 2026) and began as the AEW Unified Championship.
Seven — but across two different titles, which most retellings blur. He held the historic IWGP Heavyweight Championship five times between 2012 and 2020, including the record 720-day reign, and the successor IWGP World Heavyweight Championship twice, won at Wrestle Kingdom 16 (January 4, 2022, from Shingo Takagi) and Wrestle Kingdom 17 (January 4, 2023, from Jay White). Across all seven reigns he made 36 defenses, the most ever per Wikipedia.
The combined Continental and International Championships, created when Okada — already Continental Champion for over a year — beat International Champion Kenny Omega in a winner-takes-all match at All In: Texas on July 12, 2025. He was the first and only Unified Champion: Jon Moxley took the Continental half by winning the Continental Classic final at Worlds End on December 27, 2025, and the belts have run separately since.
The February 12, 2012 title win that created the modern Okada. Back from a little-regarded TNA excursion just one month earlier, he challenged ace Hiroshi Tanahashi at The New Beginning in Osaka and won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at 24 — a result so unexpected the Japanese press named it for him. Four more IWGP reigns, four G1 Climax wins and a decade of Tokyo Dome main events followed.
648 days, as Fightful counted it — from beating Eddie Kingston on the March 20, 2024 Dynamite, two weeks after signing, to losing the Continental Classic final to Jon Moxley at Worlds End on December 27, 2025. Mid-reign he also won the 2024 Continental Classic as the sitting champion, beating Will Ospreay in the final, and folded the International title in at All In: Texas.