IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Okada's run with TNA ended in October 2011 and he returned to NJPW in January 2012, repackaged as , complete with a new look and a villainous persona. Just a month later, Okada defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win NJPW's top title, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, which he would hold for four months before losing it back to Tanahashi. The following August, Okada won NJPW's premier tournament, the G1 Climax. At the end of the year, the "Tokyo Sports" magazine named Okada the 2012 MVP in all of Japanese professional wrestling. The following year, Okada first won the New Japan Cup in March and then regained the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Tanahashi in April. After a thirteen-month reign, Okada lost the title in May 2014. Three months later, he won his second G1 Climax. Okada has since won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship three more times and headlined NJPW's biggest annual event—the January 4 Tokyo Dome Show—six times including (2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020).