Battle of the Feuds: Comparing Reigns/Lesnar and Okada/Omega

#4 Impact on the business

Rivalry of the future?

If there is one category you might expect Reigns and Lesnar to shine in it is this one. After all, they wrestle for the WWE and despite the growing popularity of New Japan amongst the Western audience, the McMahon-led promotion is still the epicentre of the world's professional wrestling intake.

The mere fact that these two have been fighting over both the WWE Championship and Universal Championship means their feud mattered. Forget match quality and the likability of the men involved, when you're defending or challenging for the biggest title in WWE, you are fighting for the biggest title in the entire industry.

Whether Omega and Okada managed to strike a bigger impact on the wrestling business has a lot to do with how wide you cast the net. In the short-term, they were not able to draw as much money and probably reached quite a small audience with their matches compared to the WWE's main eventers.

It might be tempting to exaggerate the impact these two made, but when you seriously look at the numbers, that fact is that more people cared about the outcome of WrestleMania 31 and 34 than they did about any Wrestle Kingdom, G1 or Dominion show the Japanese could muster.

That being said, if we are thinking more long-term, Okada and Omega most certainly has the ability to change the wrestling landscape going forward, especially when compared to the Lesnar/Reigns rivalry.

If, as many people are hoping, Omega can ride the waves of this sensational spotlight Okada has given him, NJPW could genuinely fulfil its dream of becoming a globally recognised brand with the ability to go head to head with WWE. Should that happen, we will be looking back at this rivalry as the place where it all began.

For better or worse, Lesnar and Reigns is still the go-to feud for professional wrestling in 2018 and whoever comes out on top of it will be placed firmly in the driving seat when it comes to directing the next 5-10 years of Sports Entertainment. Okada and Omega can only dream of having this level of impact, but what the future holds for them, only time will tell.