Remember how two days ago Chris Jericho announced another Jericho Cruise will happen? That might as well have been two years ago, because, like a battleship pulling up next to a tugboat on a sunny day, 2 Jericho 2 Cruise has been overshadowed by a new boat-based wrestling fan event: the Okada Cruise.
For most people, this announcement came out of nowhere. For people like me who spend way too much time on the wrestling internet, however, it’s a realization months in the making of what seemed at first like a joke. Let’s break down the Okada Cruise timeline!
On October 20, 2018, four-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada tweeted the words “Okada Cruise,” seemingly in reference to Chris Jericho‘s Rock ‘N’ Rager At Sea, commonly known as the Jericho Cruise.
Okada Cruise
— Kazuchika Okada (@rainmakerXokada) October 20, 2018
On October 24, 2018, Kazuchika Okada and his friends/Chaos faction-mates Rocky Romero, Chuckie T, and Beretta went on a boat while on the Road to Power Struggle tour. They listened to at least one (1) Beach Boys song while on this boat, as you can see in the video below. They posted on social media about this nautical excursion and dubbed it “Okada Cruise 2018.”
Okada Cruise 2018 has begun… pic.twitter.com/ts51CHYCYx
— ROCKY ROMERO🇵🇷 🇲🇽 🇺🇸 🇯🇵“Chico El Luchador” (@azucarRoc) October 25, 2018
This event inspired a fan to compile pictures of it into a slideshow, set the slideshow to “Let’s Get Lost” by Carly Rae Jepsen, and upload this video to YouTube.
The creatively promoted Jericho Cruise took place from October 27-31, 2018, and included wrestling matches you can still watch as a $25 PPV on Fite and the Elite officially separating themselves from the Bullet Club.
On December 15, 2018, Kazuchika Okada tweeted, “OKADA CRUISE 2019 is coming soon.”
OKADA CRUISE 2019 is coming soon.
— Kazuchika Okada (@rainmakerXokada) December 15, 2018
On December 2018, Okada tweeted again about a cruise but soon deleted the tweet and told his followers to ignore it. However, the Team NJPW fan club sent out emails about the Okada Cruise around the same time.
The actual real Okada Cruise consists of two different two-hour boat trips for up to two fans plus Okada on Kobe Bay with the Rainmaker, one a “Lunch Cruise” and one a “Twilight Cruise.” People can apply to go to this event, and participants will be selected via lottery. Both events cost 27,000 yen (about 243 USD) for Team NJPW members and 29,000 (about 261 USD) for non-members. The cruises include a souvenir and a meal with drinks (including alcoholic ones) included. Also, the description of the Okada Cruise says “let’s fashion more than usual,” which, clearly, if you are not prepared to do, you should not be allowed on a boat for an extended period of time with the Man Who Makes It Rain Money!
The conclusion of this article should probably have a more wrestling-related takeaway in order to make it past editorial, so I will point out that the year-long Jericho vs. Naito feud started when Naito complained about Jericho vs. Omega being billed as double main event to Wrestle Kingdom 12 along with his match with Okada (which he worked towards for four years, etc.), so there’s no reason to rule out this kicking off a Jericho vs. Okada feud for 2019! We’ll find out if Y2J attacks the Rainmaker at New Year Dash!! on January 5, probably!
