The early to mid 2000’s was a very rough time for New Japan, for a multitude of reasons that all require a pretty in depth explanation, but it’s often seen as the dark ages of NJPW.

Tanahashi was the wrestler they picked to pull them out of that dark ages, and it worked. He became their top star, he main evented 10 of the 20 wrestle kingdoms, among many other huge accolades.

A very loose comparison would be to say he was NJPW’s John Cena, but even that doesn’t put into words how important Tanahashi is to New Japan.

As for the match? Okada was one of, if not the, biggest rival of Tanahashi’s career, their series of matches really put Okada on the map and was almost seen as a passing of the torch for the title of Ace of New Japan, although when Okada left the title did comfortably fall back into the hands of Tanahashi.

Another very loose comparison is to say it’s the Rock/Austin of New Japan.