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Post by Cyno on Jun 24, 2022 18:47:56 GMT -5
Also he's in Yakuza 6 along with a few other NJPW wrestlers as part of the JUSTIS gang. The others are Tanahashi, Toru Yano, Naito, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and Satoshi Kojima.
Other Okada stuff can be found in Tekken 7. I think King has one of his sets of ring gear.
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Kalmia
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Post by Kalmia on Jun 24, 2022 19:22:11 GMT -5
Okada > everyone
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Post by Oh Cry Me a Screwball on Jun 24, 2022 19:44:11 GMT -5
Also he's in Yakuza 6 along with a few other NJPW wrestlers as part of the JUSTIS gang. The others are Tanahashi, Toru Yano, Naito, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and Satoshi Kojima. Other Okada stuff can be found in Tekken 7. I think King has one of his sets of ring gear. Shout out to Drew Gulak for sneaking King as Okada into one of his 205 Live Power Points.
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Post by Cyno on Jun 24, 2022 20:21:24 GMT -5
This is still one of my favorite Okada pictures (well, ignoring Brian Kendrick anyway): Okada, Shelley, Bucks, and Kendrick just... chilling at Universal Studios because they've got nothing going on at the TNA Impact taping.
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Post by Fade is a CodyCryBaby on Jun 24, 2022 20:38:42 GMT -5
When you ignore the incredible wrestling he really does have this unique personality. He’s got a larger than life presence that I dunno if I can compare to anyone. I think his NJPW journey also goes a long way in his mystique.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2022 20:54:29 GMT -5
His rise to the main event scene and his rivalry with Tanahashi is the most compelling wrestling story of the best 20 years, in my opinion.
Okada came back from his excursion in North American and his run as Okato in TNA to have a match at Wrestle Kingdom and he sort of stunk up the joint. Match kind of sucked. His finisher looked lame. His outfit didn't fit right. His hair looked stupid. Match stunk. He comes out later and demands a title shot against top star Tanahashi. Tanahashi basically rolls his eyes at him and says "Sure chief." and accepts the match. They face off, but the Okada that shows up for this match is different. He looks better. Faster. More put together. He's wrestling at an entirely different level to the point where fans online legit speculated his return match was bad ON PURPOSE to make this moment more shocking. And he beat Tanahashi. Out of NOWHERE. No one saw it coming.
The next few years are basically these guys going back and forth trading the belt. Okada stops pretending to be a rich snob who doesn't care about anything and shows he wants to be Ace of the company for the right reasons. Tanahashi fights for his spot to prove that he isn't ready to step aside, and even if he was, Okada better be more than just a spoiled rich kid with some athletic gifts to do it. Eventually the whole thing comes down to one absolutely beautiful bit of storytelling where Okada just won't let Tanahashi's arm go, in a moment of pure grit and determination that pretty much won everybody over forever.
I can't do it justice without a three page long post or whatever but I love Okada because I saw him evolve as a character in front of me. He's someone who it looked like was going to be set up as a generic rich super athlete gimmick but then showed unexpected range and emotion. He eventually became a HERO in a way only wrestling can do. The guy rules.
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chrom
Backup Wench
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Posts: 84,715
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Post by chrom on Jun 24, 2022 20:59:22 GMT -5
His rise to the main event scene and his rivalry with Tanahashi is the most compelling wrestling story of the best 20 years, in my opinion. Okada came back from his excursion in North American and his run as Okato in TNA to have a match at Wrestle Kingdom and he sort of stunk up the joint. Match kind of sucked. His finisher looked lame. His outfit didn't fit right. His hair looked stupid. Match stunk. He comes out later and demands a title shot against top star Tanahashi. Tanahashi basically rolls his eyes at him and says "Sure chief." and accepts the match. They face off, but the Okada that shows up for this match is different. He looks better. Faster. More put together. He's wrestling at an entirely different level to the point where fans online legit speculated his return match was bad ON PURPOSE to make this moment more shocking. And he beat Tanahashi. Out of NOWHERE. No one saw it coming. The next few years are basically these guys going back and forth trading the belt. Okada stops pretending to be a rich snob who doesn't care about anything and shows he wants to be Ace of the company for the right reasons. Tanahashi fights for his spot to prove that he isn't ready to step aside, and even if he was, Okada better be more than just a spoiled rich kid with some athletic gifts to do it. Eventually the whole thing comes down to one absolutely beautiful bit of storytelling where Okada just won't let Tanahashi's arm go, in a moment of pure grit and determination that pretty much won everybody over forever. I can't do it justice without a three page long post or whatever but I love Okada because I saw him evolve as a character in front of me. He's someone who it looked like was going to be set up as a generic rich super athlete gimmick but then showed unexpected range and emotion. He eventually became a HERO in a way only wrestling can do. The guy rules. People when they first heard that he beat Tanahashi claimed New Japan was in its Death Knells
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Post by IgnahtaSempria on Jun 24, 2022 21:00:57 GMT -5
I remember seeing this comparison (I think it might have been on this forum):
Okada is a comedy midcarder trapped in the body of one of the best wrestlers in the world.
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Post by Cyno on Jun 24, 2022 21:21:18 GMT -5
I remember him as Okato in TNA when he was there on excursion. There was a lot of buzz around him as this can't miss prospect. I think they actually started calling him Okada by the end of his tenure there.
He didn't really impress that much. IIRC, discourse was split between him being overhyped and TNA wasting his talents (more the latter because of the green hornet shit). I think I remember the way TNA treated Okada was one of the things that poisoned the relationship between them and New Japan.
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r.
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Post by r. on Jun 24, 2022 21:57:15 GMT -5
He was great in TNA. Shame he couldn't live up to the potential he showed there. Please tell me this satire
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2022 22:05:22 GMT -5
He once tweeted 'a bee was in my house. Thought I was gonna die' wonder if his dog stepped on it
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Dub H
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Post by Dub H on Jun 24, 2022 23:12:53 GMT -5
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ASYLUMHAUSEN
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Post by ASYLUMHAUSEN on Jun 25, 2022 0:35:02 GMT -5
Without even being on screen he produced Jake Hagers greatest moment on an old episode of BTE.
Hager (to the Villian when he finds out he’s wrestling Okada at All In); “*laughs* You’re. f***ed!”
Seriously though, dude is SPECIAL.
He makes the hard camera doing a hard zoom out on his ‘signature pose’ f***ing amazing because of his mere stage presence.
His matches with Omega are goddamn works of art.
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Post by GodzillaIsMyMonster on Jun 25, 2022 1:06:31 GMT -5
He's awesome. Charisma for days.
That said, and I'm a fan of Omega to, I found all of their matches against each other boring try hard "epic to be epic" sloughs to get thru.
I hate all of them. Against pretty much anyone else, they rock.
I REALLY want Okada in WWE.
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Post by DeeBee on Jun 25, 2022 1:09:36 GMT -5
I think what makes him special is that he is one of the best wrestlers in the world.
Thank you for reading my essay on Okada.
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Rave
El Dandy
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Post by Rave on Jun 25, 2022 1:30:22 GMT -5
I remember him as Okato in TNA when he was there on excursion. There was a lot of buzz around him as this can't miss prospect. I think they actually started calling him Okada by the end of his tenure there. He didn't really impress that much. IIRC, discourse was split between him being overhyped and TNA wasting his talents (more the latter because of the green hornet shit). I think I remember the way TNA treated Okada was one of the things that poisoned the relationship between them and New Japan. Okada was the breaking point between New Japan and TNA, since TNA had pulled a lot of shit before then and New Japan was tired of dealing with them. I remember Scott D'Amore personally apologizing to Okada for the shit way he was treated during his excursion.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Jun 25, 2022 2:31:58 GMT -5
I remember him as Okato in TNA when he was there on excursion. There was a lot of buzz around him as this can't miss prospect. I think they actually started calling him Okada by the end of his tenure there. He didn't really impress that much. IIRC, discourse was split between him being overhyped and TNA wasting his talents (more the latter because of the green hornet shit). I think I remember the way TNA treated Okada was one of the things that poisoned the relationship between them and New Japan. Okada was the breaking point between New Japan and TNA, since TNA had pulled a lot of shit before then and New Japan was tired of dealing with them. I remember Scott D'Amore personally apologizing to Okada for the shit way he was treated during his excursion. I think they were also annoyed about how TNA handled Sanada, but not to the same extent. Okada, for his part, has been pretty gracious and credits TNA as teaching him a lot about playing to the cameras and other small things that have played a part in his presentation. He'd be well within his rights to shit all over them, but he seems to try to focus on the positives.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2022 3:23:45 GMT -5
His rise to the main event scene and his rivalry with Tanahashi is the most compelling wrestling story of the best 20 years, in my opinion. Okada came back from his excursion in North American and his run as Okato in TNA to have a match at Wrestle Kingdom and he sort of stunk up the joint. Match kind of sucked. His finisher looked lame. His outfit didn't fit right. His hair looked stupid. Match stunk. He comes out later and demands a title shot against top star Tanahashi. Tanahashi basically rolls his eyes at him and says "Sure chief." and accepts the match. They face off, but the Okada that shows up for this match is different. He looks better. Faster. More put together. He's wrestling at an entirely different level to the point where fans online legit speculated his return match was bad ON PURPOSE to make this moment more shocking. And he beat Tanahashi. Out of NOWHERE. No one saw it coming. You know I've been rewatching those early Okada shows and when he comes out for the first Tanahashi match... its a different human being than who came out at Wrestle Kingdom. God knows what he and Gedo did to get him ready, but it wasn't just a level up, it was like someone had put in a cheat code to go from level 1 to 20.
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Post by This Player Hating Mothman on Jun 25, 2022 3:40:04 GMT -5
This is still one of my favorite Okada pictures (well, ignoring Brian Kendrick anyway): Okada, Shelley, Bucks, and Kendrick just... chilling at Universal Studios because they've got nothing going on at the TNA Impact taping. The story is even sadder and funnier than that. To get people in to fill out the sound stage, they had park staff who would offer people photos with the X Division title and stuff. Just anything to grab attention and make people aware a wrestling show was going on. One of those people flagged these guys down, unaware they were on the show, and they played it off like they were just randos so they could get a photo.
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Rave
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Post by Rave on Jun 25, 2022 3:43:02 GMT -5
Okada was the breaking point between New Japan and TNA, since TNA had pulled a lot of shit before then and New Japan was tired of dealing with them. I remember Scott D'Amore personally apologizing to Okada for the shit way he was treated during his excursion. I think they were also annoyed about how TNA handled Sanada, but not to the same extent. That was Muta and Wrestle-1, not New Japan. Sanada was s'posed to be their ace and TNA screwed that up badly. I fully blame Russo, the timeline matches up way too well.
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