AJ Styles: The Phenomenal One’s 10 Best Matches Prior to Joining WWE
By Tim Sherry
5. Vs. Kazuchika Okada – NJPW Dominion 7.5 – 2015
When Styles signed with New Japan Pro Wrestling April of 2014 most fans assumed that he would take on a main event type role upon entering the company. It wouldn’t have made sense to bring in a guy with a resume like Styles and relegate him to mid-card status. His position was immediately confirmed when he debuted on April 6th at Invasion Attack as he jumped IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada and revealed himself as a part of the Bullet Club. Less than a month later Styles, in his first match with NJPW got a crack at Okada’s belt and with some help from his new stable, made good on his promise to become champion as he became the first man to win world championships in both NJPW and TNA.
When the match between these two was announced, expectations of what they could produce in the ring were very high. After all, we knew what Styles could do but Okada, in his second run as champion had officially established himself as a legend of the sport at only 27 years old. Their first ever match took place at Wrestling Dontaku 2014 in Fukuoka, Japan, and the result of the performance? It was pretty good, not great. The duo met up again three weeks later in Yokohama and put on a better match than the first with Styles again winning. Two months after that, they went to battle again at the 2014 G1 Climax and Okada got some revenge in a winning performance in a match that was better than the first two.
It would take nearly a year before the two would finally find each other again and this time, at Dominion 7.5, they finally put on the masterpiece everyone knew that they were capable of. The match told an amazing story of the baby face Okada trying to get his belt back while fighting off other members of the Bullet Club that Styles relied on, only to see the group ejected from ringside which ignited the heel to almost pull off the title defense victory. And the ending two minutes of this match are about are about the best sequence of pro wrestling you’ll ever see.
Styles got another crack at Okada three months later in Tokyo but again came up short giving Okada a 3-2 career lead. If there is justice in the world of pro wrestling, some day fans may see match number 6.