As noted, the NJPW Sakura Genesis event on April 8 was headlined by Sanada pulling off a major upset to defeat Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title. Sanada came to the ring with new attire and a new entrance, and countered Okada’s Rainmaker with Deadfall to cement his place in NJPW history.
Okada recently spoke with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated to promote tonight’s NJPW Capital Collision event, and offered comments on Sanada and their match.
“I didn’t really feel a big change in Sanada leading up to the match,” Okada said through a translator. “But in the match itself, I really felt it wasn’t just his gear that had changed his attitude toward the match itself. He had a never-give-up attitude; I think that’s key to why I lost to him.”
Okada remains the face of NJPW, and he’s still chasing gold, but a different title now as he wants to focus on tag team competition.
“For now, I want to focus on tag wrestling,” Okada said. “I think Sanada’s challenge will be to be recognized by every wrestling fan as the champion. But then again, he did beat me, so that should be easy.”
Tonight’s NJPW Capital Collision event will be headlined by NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions The Motor City Machine Guns defending in a Triple Threat against Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi, plus the team of IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Aussie Open, who will not have their titles on the line. A title win tonight would add an interesting new chapter to the storied history between Okada and Tanahashi. Okada commented on the bout and how he just retained the title over Tanahashi at NJPW Battle In the Valley in February, which was their first singles match since 2019.
“I think it will be an interesting story for the two of us,” Okada said. “I just wrestled him [in February] at Battle in the Valley, and it was important to me to have a title match with Tanahashi. I feel like now I’ve wrestled him in pretty much any situation. We’ve been bettering each other since 2012; we have such a story together. And I think tagging with him will be a great experience for me to grow as a wrestler.”
You can click here for Tanahashi’s comments on Okada and tonight’s match.
Okada added, “I think it’s important to be a strong team. We both have the skills as single wrestlers, but it’s the teamwork side we need to work on.”
Okada is honored to return to the United States when he can as he has fond memories from working here, including his fifth IWGP Heavyweight Title win over Jay White in April 2019 at the G1 Supercard event, which was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
“For me, it means we can get more people in the world to know about New Japan Pro-Wrestling,” Okada said. “I don’t think that all American wrestling fans know me or New Japan, so I want to show them how great New Japan Pro-Wrestling is whenever I can.”
Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more.
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