If Tanahashi thought that his successful defence of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Okada at Wrestle Kingdom had been enough to put the 'Rainmaker' back in his place for at least the forseeable future he was much mistaken. Just as he'd been with his first IWGP title challenge, and his first entry into the G1 Climax, Okada won the New Japan Cup on the first time of trying and here we are only three months later.

Clearly both have now learnt a lot about the other at this point, and in order to stay ahead they will both have to adapt.

This is the first of the Tanahashi-Okada matches to be given the five-star rating from one-time sceptic Dave Meltzer, and as a result, Lorcan and Simon have already discussed this match during the first year of the Meltzer Five-Star Project. Link below if you want to listen to that either before or after this one.

Apple podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-meltzer-5-star-project-080-hiroshi-tanahashi-vs/id1330423543?i=1000453641848

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1cQSOeQaCkRSpNo27UrvhL

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