When Kazuchika Okada made his debut in AEW, fans had a feeling it wouldn't be long until he became a champion in Tony Khan's company.
One of the most prolific IWGP Heavyweight Champions of all time who kept his winning ways going when it was rebranded the World Heavyweight Championship, Okada came into AEW with over 2,000 days holding New Japan Pro Wrestling's top title, a matter made all the more impressive when you consider just home many of the top wrestlers in the world also called NJPW home during that period. But which belt would he pursue? Would he challenge Samoa Joe for the promotion's top title? Or maybe he'd pursue the World Trios Championship belts alongside his new friends in The Elite, the Young Bucks?
Needless to say, when TK announced that Okada was going to be challenging for the promotion's newest belt, the Continental Championship in his first singles match as a full-time member of the AEW roster, it turned heads. Would Okada seriously take the crowning jewel of Eddie Kingston's wrestling career away from him so early in his wrestling run? Or would the “Mad King” find a way to keep the belt by hook or by crook, using the rules of wrestling and faction warfare to get one over on his heelish foe?
Taking the ring in the opening match of Dynamite in front of a sold-out crowd in Toronto, Okada, and Kingston went one-on-one sans any outside interference, a condition of the belt that should have theoretically given the campion an advantage, but as the match went on it seemed as though the challenge consistently found a way to stay one foot ahead of the champ, toying with him between devastating offensive maneuvers like a DDT on the entrance ramp.
While Kingston fought back, using his normal offense of lariats and clotheslines to try to physically overpower Okada, in the end, it didn't matter, as the potent combination of a Landslide into a Rainmaker was all it took to secure the 1-2-3, turning over the Continental Championship for the first time in AEW history on the way to a statement win.
What does the future hold for Kazuchika Okada? Well, it sure looks like he's going to wrestle PAC at Dynasty in St. Louis next month, but outside of that? Well, Okada's belted up, has the EVPs by his side, and can now take his corporate gimmick to new heights as the big-money playboy AEW has cast him as over his first month in the promotion.
RAINMAKER!
Watch #AEWDynamite LIVE on TBS!#EddieKingston | @rainmakerXokada pic.twitter.com/2pXdkxyR6I
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) March 21, 2024
Is Kazuchika Okada the Triple Crown Champion now too?
Alright, so since Kazuchika Okada beat Eddie Kingston for the Continental Championship, which is the crown jewel of the Modern Day Triple Crown Championship, does that mean the “Rainmaker” is also the New Japan STRONG Openweight Champion and the Ring of Honor World Champion?
Well, based on TK's comments after Full Gear, the show where the belts' union was announced, the answer to that question appears to be a resounding no, as each title was put on the line under a unified moniker, not unified into a single title.
“New Japan has cleared this — Eddie is their champion, and New Japan is aware,” Tony Khan said after Full Gear via Post Wrestling. “The winner of the AEW Continental Classic will be the New Japan STRONG Openweight Champion, they'll be the Ring of Honor World Champion, and they will be the AEW Continental Champion. So we are unifying all three titles. It will be a Triple Crown, and forming a Triple Crown of three titles, it'll be the Ring of Honor World title, the New Japan Strong Openweight title, and this tournament.”
Rocky Romero, who does major booking work for NJPW in America, commented on the title situation in an interview with Fightful, noting that New Japan okayed the booking decision, even if the idea was “a bit unusual.”
“There was something going around that New Japan didn't know. I knew the whole time. I told New Japan. Obviously, it's an unusual concept to have a New Japan Champion put up his titles at the end of this thing. It's just a bit unusual and I think that's where some of the people didn't really fully understand everything. New Japan knew, and I think it's cool,” Rocky Romero explained via 411 Mania. “I hope at the end of it, it's Eddie or Mox [Jon Moxley] or somebody who does wrestle in New Japan. Even Danielson [Bryan Danielson], that they come out on top so hopefully I don't have to tell my bosses, ‘We messed up and now here is somebody that we can't book,' who is in Triple A or something. I think it will all work out and I'm excited. It's a cool concept for US fans as an introduction since it's like the G1. So fans who haven't watched the G1 will get hooked on the concept and come on over and check out the G1 next year because it's the best wrestling tournament on earth. You can't really duplicate it exactly. I do think it's a cool introduction.”
Welp, there you go, folks, the Modern Day Triple Crown is officially dead, at least for now, and fans will have to wait for the fall to see if AEW brings the idea back in time for next year's C2 as well.
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