AEW's Kazuchika Okada Explains Why He Views Upcoming NJPW Match As 'Repayment'

NJPW legend Hiroshi Tanahashi is set to retire at the upcoming Wrestle Kingdom 20 as he takes on his old rival, AEW Unified Champion Kazuchika Okada. While Okada has previously given his argument for why their match should be the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 20, despite not including a championship, he's yet again sat down for an interview to share his thoughts on Tanahashi and their looming bout.

When asked how it feels like to be Tanahashi's final opponent, Okada expressed that it was a difficult question and he still can't wrap his mind around Tanahashi's retirement. "I think I won't know for sure until the day itself. If I was in NJPW all this time, perhaps I might get a sense that retirement was looming, but I've been over in America; I never really gave it thought," he claimed during an interview with NJPW. "I think it'll be at the end of the year, when I'm finished with the AEW schedule, and next is the Tokyo Dome, that's when I'll be able to give it more thought."

Despite this, Okada admitted that everything about his success in pro wrestling started with Tanahashi, and it only makes sense for him to be the one to retire him. The "Rainmaker" then noted that it might sound self-centered to put it that way, but that he ultimately expressed that things are deeper than that. "But in the end, I feel this is a repayment in a way," he said.

As Kazuchika Okada pointed out, he owes a lot to Hiroshi Tanahashi for his success in pro wrestling, and in the same interview, was asked whether he sees the "Ace of NJPW's" influence on his career as invaluable. "Yes. If it wasn't for that first Osaka match, or if it wasn't Tanahashi in that match, then the Rainmaker wouldn't have become what the Rainmaker was," he admitted. "Everybody would always say those matches were great. I do think in the end if you talk about the Rainmaker without mentioning Tanahashi, there would be a big hole there. He's essential to everything about what the Rainmaker has been."

Following his praise of Tanahashi, Okada was asked whether he could sum his rival's impact on him in one word. "Summing it up is hard. He's a rival, a friend, a senior, all those. Is it a cop out to say the one word is 'intangible?'" Okada explained. "He's a rival in so many ways, but he was a senpai who looked after me, who had kind big brother vibes about him, but someone I've hated, someone who frustrated me with how good he was. There's just so much you can't contain it in a couple of words, you can't put your finger on it in that sense." Despite being a heel in AEW, Okada seems to hold a deep level of respect for Tanahashi, but it remains to be seen whether his feelings toward his rival and mentor will affect him in their final clash.