In January it was revealed that NJPW’s Kazuchika Okada would be departing the company imminently after nearly two decades. This shocked fans all around the world, especially as rumors that “The Rainmaker” may be headed to WWE’s NXT brand began circulating. All the rumors about where Okada will end up were put to rest when he became an official member of the AEW roster on this week’s AEW Dynamite. Okada joined forces with Matthew and Nicholas Jackson to form a new subsection of The Elite — one that Kenny Omega has been fired from.
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Earlier this afternoon, Tokyo Sports gave more insight into Okada’s contract signing, noting that it’s a three year contract for roughly $4.5 million dollars. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select was quick to follow up on the report with one of his own, first confirming that his contract is a multi-year deal and that’s a rough estimate of what he will be making with AEW. Not only that, Fightful were able to confirm that Okada will make the move to the United States and relocate, though they aren’t sure if that was a decision made on his part or AEW’s.
Okada has appeared in AEW a handful of times since his debut at the inaugural Forbidden Door pay-per-view. At that show he participated in a four-way match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against then champion Jay White and AEW’s Adam Cole and Hangman Page. He would go on to appear at last year’s event when he wrestled Bryan Danielson for the very first time in one of the biggest dream matches in professional wrestling. Following that PPV he would show up on a random episode of AEW Dynamite in October, teaming with Orange Cassidy to take on the Blackpool Combat Club’s Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli.
After Okada announced his shocking departure from NJPW, he still had a few matches on his contract and saw through his prior commitments before leaving. His final match took place at NJPW The New Beginning in Sapporo. CHAOS’ Hirooki Goto, Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano and YOSHI-HASHI defeated the United Empire’s Callum Newman, Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb as well as Matt Riddle.
What matchups are you most excited to see Okada have in AEW? Let us know in the comments!
