Kazuchika Okada poses with Finn Balor backstage at WWE Monday Night Raw (Photo)
Finn Balor had a special guest backstage at Monday Night RAW in Phoenix this past Monday: New Japan Pro Wrestling’s biggest star and current IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada.
For those who don’t know about Prince Devitt, that was the persona of Finn Balor before he became the longest reigning NXT Champion in history and the first WWE Universal Champion last summer at SummerSlam.
Balor, the creator of Bullet Club, the modern-day version of the New World Order in New Japan Pro Wrestling and Ring of Honor, still has good relationships with plenty of stars outside of WWE and that includes the face of NJPW: IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada.
Okada, who wrestled during NJPW’s two-night special G1 Special in USA in Long Beach, California this past weekend, was reportedly in the house for Monday Night RAW this past Monday to see his good buddy in action against Cesaro.
The four-time IWGP Heavyweight title-holder also joined the Balor Club, which would probably break Pro Wrestling Twitter if it ever actually happened.
Could you imagine NJPW’s gold standard (and arguably the professional wrestler on the planet today) and Finn freakin’ Balor on the same side of things in front of a WWE camera?
That wasn’t all from Okada on Monday night. He also spent some time with another familiar face to WWE fans these days (along with NJPW fanatics). You know him as the “Rock Star of WWE” now, Shinsuke Nakamura. (He’s the King of Strong Style and will always be just that, but still.)
If you want to talk icons of New Japan Pro Wrestling, you can start the list with these two. Sure, there’s names like Hiroshi Tanahashi, The Great Muta and Antonio Inoki, but in terms of popularity, Okada and Nakamura rank near the top of that list. Even Balor himself gained a supreme amount of notoriety in NJPW.
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Now, let’s get all three of them in the same company again and watch the magic happen.