Kazuchika Okada & Hiroshi Tanahashi Address Their NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20 Match, Okada Says He’ll Be ‘AEW Rainmaker’

Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi spoke about their upcoming match at Wrestle Kingdom 20, with Okada vowing to come out as the “AEW Rainmaker.” As announced on Saturday, Okada will be Tanahashi’s opponent in the latter’s retirement match. The match goes down at Wrestle Kingdom 20 on January 4th, 2026 at the Tokyo Dome.

NJPW held a press conference promoting the match. Both competitors spoke about the match, and you can see highlights below:

Okada On Previously Retiring Genichiro Tenryu In 2015:

“When I retired Tenryu, I put a full stop to the Showa Era (pre 1989) of pro-wrestling. Tanahashi and I have wrestled a lot, but our Tokyo Dome matches were all in the Heisei (1990-2019) Era, so retiring him will put an end to Heisei pro-wrestling as well.”

Tanahashi On Okada Stepping Up To Face Him:

“In the last few years I’ve lost a lot to Okada, I’ve lost our last four or five… there aren’t many who retire with a win [but] with an opponent like Okada, I will give my absolute best. I plan on having people saying I can still go, not that I’m broken down.”

Tanahashi On How the Match Came Together:

“In the end, I wanted someone I had a deep connection to.”

Okada On Getting the Match:

“When I heard, I knew it had to be me… there are a lot of people in NJPW and other companies that wanted to wrestle Tanahashi and won’t get the chance, so I’ll carry those hopes with me.”

Okada On His Plan For The Match:

“I won’t be the old Rainmaker from NJPW, I’ll be the AEW Rainmaker. In AEW I’m really doing whatever I want, so I might just hit Tanahashi low, roll him up and send everyone home crying.”