Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada were both victorious at Wrestle Kingdom 17, winning their respective co-main event matches for the IWGP United States and World Heavyweight Championships. New Japan’s follow-up event, New Year Dash, took place on Thursday with Jeff Cobb and Aaron Henare booked to face two mystery opponents in the main event. Those two wound up being none other than Omega and Okada, teaming together for the first time ever.
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The rivalry between “The Rainmaker” and “The Cleaner” dominated New Japan’s main event scene from 2017-18. Omega first challenged Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 11, and while he came up short the quality of the match elevated both men to worldwide acclaim. The two went to an hour-long time-limit draw at Dominion 2017, but Omega was finally able to pin Okada two months later during the G-1 Climax tournament. Omega finally won New Japan’s top prize the following year at Dominion, beating Okada in a Two-Out-Of-Three Falls Match that clocked in at just under 65 minutes.
Okada closed the show by accepting the first challenger for his world championship in Shingo Takagi. Meanwhile, “The Belt Collector” will now have to turn his attention back to AEW, as he and The Young Bucks will face Death Triangle in an Escalera de la Muerte (Ladder) Match on next week’s AEW Dynamite for the AEW World Trios Championships.
AEW and New Japan now have a massive decision to make when their next Forbidden Door crossover event rolls around — do they book a rematch between Omega and Will Ospreay for the IWGP US title, or do they give us the long-awaited fifth installment between Omega and Okada? AEW President Tony Khan has repeatedly indicated that a second show is in the works, and if it winds up being like last year it will likely take place at some point over the summer. Tell us what match you think they should book in the comments!
