The number of successful consecutive title defenses is a streak that tends to be very important over in Japan. I remember when Tanahashi beat Yuji Nagata to eclipse Nagata's old record with the IWGP Heavyweight title and how much of a big deal that was. Okada beating Tanahashi to then eclipse Tana's record was also a big deal. By the time Okada set the new record though there was an obvious problem developing. Okada's title reign had to be extremely long to allow him to set that record and you have to think that other stories had to be sacrificed to make it happen.
I've thought for awhile that New Japan may not have wanted to have such a long title reign to do this story line again. This probably wasn't the only factor in the decision, but I have to think that it was something that went into the thinking when it came to the decision to end the old title lineage.
by Wizardknee