10 Legendary Pro Wrestling Rivalries

#2 Kenny Omega vs. Rainmaker Kazuchiko Okada

Kazuchiko Okada eats a V Trigger from Kenny Omega

In pro wrestling, something that rarely happens is when a stable faces off against another stable. This is because most wrestling stables are heel wrestlers--all the better to help each other by interfering in their matches--and it makes good drama for a face to have to overcome the numbers game in order to win.

However, in the New Japan Pro Wrestling promotion, there was a stable vs. stable rivalry that lasted many years; Chaos, a stable of mostly Japanese wrestlers who represented the status quo, and Bullet Club, a group of primarily western athletes who were in an NWO-type role.

The leaders of each faction wound up being Rainmaker Kazuchiko Okada, the IWGP World Champion, and Kenny Omega, the upstart with a penchant for naming his moves after anime and video games. Their matches became instant sensations and earned both a five-star rating and the first ever Seven-star rating from the well respected Wrestling Observer Newsletter's Dave Meltzer.

Without a shadow of a doubt, their rivalry not only catapulted Omega to super stardom but made many non-Japanese fans aware of the NJPW promotion.