Kanji Inoki
Antonio Inoki
Early life
Kanji Inoki was born in an affluent family in Yokohama in 1943. He was the sixth son and the second youngest of the seven boys and four girls. His father, Sajiro Inoki, a businessman and politician, died when Kanji was 5 years old.Inoki entered the Higashidai Grade School. By the time he was in 7th grade at Terao Junior High School, he was 180 centimeters tall, and joined the basketball team. He later quit and joined a track and field club as a shot putter. He eventually won the championship at the Yokohama junior high school track and field competition. Inoki was taught karate by an older brother while in 6th grade, and was scouted for a career in professional sumo while in junior high school.
The family fell on hard times in the post-war years, and in 1957, the 14 year-old Inoki immigrated to Brazil with his grandfather, mother and brothers. His grandfather died during the journey to Brazil. Inoki won regional championships in Brazil in the shot put, discus throw, and javelin throw, and finally the All Brazilian championships in the shot put and discus 
.
Early professional wrestling career
Inoki met prominent Rikidozan at the age of 17. He was brought back to Japan for the Japanese Wrestling Association as Rikidozan's Disciple. One of his dojo classmates was Giant Baba. After Rikidozan's death, Inoki worked under the taller Baba's shadow until he joined the original Tokyo Pro Wrestling in 1966. Returning to JWA in late 1967, he was made Baba's partner and the two dominated the tag team ranks as the "B-I Cannon", winning the NWA International tag team belts four times.Fired from JWA in late 1971 for planning a takeover of the promotion, Inoki founded New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1972. His first match as a New Japan wrestler was against Karl Gotch. During his career, Inoki has had classic bouts with Tiger Jeet Singh, Johnny Powers, Stan Hansen, Hulk Hogan, André the Giant, Big Van Vader, and Masa Saito. In 1995 the Japanese and Korean governments came together to hold a two-day wrestling festival for peace in Pyongyang, North Korea. The event drew 150,000 and 190,000 fans respectively to May Day Stadium. The main event saw the first and only match between Inoki and Ric Flair with Inoki coming out on top. Days before this event, Antonio Inoki and the Korean press went to the grave and birthplace of Rikidozan and paid tribute to him.
On November 30 1979, Inoki defeated then WWF Champion Bob Backlund in Tokushima, Japan but, in a re-match on December 6th, Backlund pinned Inoki. However, then WWF president, Hisashi Shinma declared the match a no-contest due to interference from Tiger Jeet Singh and Inoki still held the title. However, Inoki refused the title on the same day and it would be declared vacant. Backlund later defeated Bobby Duncum in a Texas Death Match to regain the title on December 12. As Inoki refused the title his reign is not included, nor is it recognized, by the WWE in its official history and Backlund is recognized as having one reign from 1978-1983.
Inoki as a mixed martial arts fighter
Antonio Inoki was amongst the group of professional wrestlers who were tutored in the art of hooking and shooting by the professional wrestler Karl Gotch. Inoki then went on to stage a series of mixed martial arts matches against champions from numerous other disciplines of martial arts. Inoki named his method of fighting Strong style professional wrestling. This method of professional wrestling as taught to Inoki by Karl Gotch, which borrowed heavily from professional wrestling's original catch wrestling roots, is one of the most important influences of modern shoot wrestling.
Antonio Inoki was a pioneer of mixed martial arts and has faced many opponents from all dominant disciplines of combat from various parts of the world, such as Akram Pahalwan in Pakistan, Willie Williams of Kyokushin Karate, Olympic judo gold medalist Willem Ruska and WBA and WBC World Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali.
Though many of Inoki's matches were dismissed by the skeptics as worked, there has been little or no proof at all to suggest the validity of the worked theory and Inoki's mixed martial arts opponents have never stated that the matches were "fake". Most of the skepticism arose from the fact that Inoki was a professional wrestler, which automatically led to an assumption that the matches might have been worked. This has yet to dent the image of Inoki in the eyes of the Japanese fans, where he is still viewed as a very legitimate wrestler.
The worked theory also arises from Inoki's June 26, 1976 match in Tokyo with Muhammad Ali. Inoki initially promised Ali a worked match to get him to fight in Japan, but when the deal materialized Ali's camp feared that Inoki would turn the fight into a shoot, which many believe was Inoki's intention. Ali visited a professional wrestling match involving Inoki and witnessed Inoki's grappling ability. This led Ali's camp to restrict the fight to striking rules only, with grappling disallowed.
The rules of the match were announced several months in advance. However, two days before the match a several new rules were added which severely limited the moves that each man could perform. A rule change that had a major outcome on this match was that Inoki could only throw a kick if one of his knees was on the ground.
In the match, Ali landed a total of six punches to Inoki and Inoki kept to his back in a defensive position almost the full duration of the match of 15 rounds, hitting Ali with a low kick repeatedly. The bout ended in a draw, 3-3. Ali left without a press conference and suffered damage to his legs as a result of Inoki's repeated leg kicks.
Final countdown and retirement
Inoki's retirement from professional wrestling matches came with the staging of the "Final Countdown" series in 1998. This was a special series in which Inoki re-lived some of his mixed martial arts matches under professional wrestling rules, as well as rematches of some of his most well known wrestling matches. Inoki faced Don Frye in the final match of his professional wrestling career.One of the few professional wrestlers whose career lasted longer than 35 years, Inoki established the "strong style", using stiffness and realistic maneuvers borrowing from professional wrestling's original catch wrestling roots. Shoot style wrestling arose from Inoki's "strong style".
Influence in mixed martial arts
Many of Inoki's disciples, including the original Tiger Mask Satoru Sayama, Masakatsu Funaki, Nobuhiko Takada, Minoru Suzuki, Akira Maeda, Shinsuke Nakamura and Kazuyuki Fujita, among others, have had success in mixed martial arts, and the roster of NJPW is known to have pioneered mixed martial arts federations including RINGS, Shooto, PRIDE, and Pancrase.
It is due to Antonio Inoki that fighters like Naoya Ogawa, Josh Barnett, Wallid Ismail and Ryoto Machida have actively represented NJPW in mixed martial arts events giving notoriety to it and professional wrestling.
Inoki continues to bring fighters like Mark Coleman, Quinton Jackson, Dan Bobish to the professional wrestling ring for organizing of professional wrestling events like HUSTLE.
Antonio Inoki also organizes Mixed Martial Arts events like "NJPW Ultimate Crush" and "Jungle Fight", showing traditional professional wrestling matches and mixed martial arts matches on the same card. Some of the major attractions of these events involve the best of NJPW against world renowned fighters in mixed martial arts matches.
Antonio Inoki vs Renzo Gracie was a professional wrestling match that took place at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2000 against mixed martial artist Renzo Gracie.
Antonio Inoki's Inoki Dojos are also known to have cross-trained wrestlers like Ken Shamrock, Kazushi Sakuraba, Chris Benoit and Samoa Joe.
Inoki is now the ambassador for the International Fight League's Tokyo entry, the Sabres.
Decline in influence
Cultimating in 2006, Inoki's influence within New Japan has declined. An example of this has been the purchase of his image by YUKE's, who in 2005 purchased his controlling 51.5% stock in New Japan. As a result New Japan are now able to control Inoki's appearances and the use of his image.Inoki began a new promotion in 2007 called Inoki Genome Federation that competes with New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Political career
- In 1989, Inoki established the Sports and Peace Party (スポーツ平和党). He was elected to the House of Councillors of the National Diet of Japan. Inoki was the first pro-wrestler in the world to be elected as a legislator of a country. He continued to wrestle and promote while serving as a legislator.
- Inoki met with Saddam Hussein for the release of prisoners from Iraq before the Gulf War. As is the traditional gift for a visiting head-of-state, Saddam gave Inoki a pair of golden swords.
- He served in the Diet until 1995, when he failed to win re-election, after accusations of Yakuza involvement and bribery lead to a decline in his popularity.
In wrestling
- Finishing and signature moves
- *Slap
Championships and accomplishments
- *AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship (3 times) - with Michiaki Yoshimura (2) and Kintaro Ohki (1)
- *JWA 11th Annual League
- *IWGP Heavyweight Championship (1 time) (First)
- *NWA North American Tag Team Championship (Los Angeles/Japan version) (2 times) - with Seiji Sakaguchi
- *NJPW Annual MSG Tag League (1982) with Hulk Hogan
- *NJPW Annual MSG Tag League (1983) with Hulk Hogan
- *WWWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Championship (1 time) (First and Last)
- *Promoter of the Year (2001)
MMA record
| 16 wins (9 KO, 5 submissions, 2 pins), 1 loss (1 KO), 3 draws | |||||||
| Result | Opponent | Method | Date | Round | Time | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Win | Chota Chochoshvili | Submission (kimura) | 1989-05-25 | 2 | 1:07 | Osaka, Japan | |
| Loss | Chota Chochoshvili | KO | 1989-04-24 | 5 | 1:20 | Tokyo, Japan | |
| Win | Leon Spinks | Pin | 1986-10-09 | 8 | 1:23 | Tokyo, Japan | |
| Win | Anoalo Atisanoe | Pin | 1984-09-20 | 5 | 0:25 | Osaka, Japan | |
| Draw | Willie Williams | Draw (both fell out of the ring) | 1980-02-27 | 4 | 1:24 | Tokyo, Japan | |
| Win | Kim Klokeid | KO | 1979-12-13 | 3 | 0:58 | Kyoto, Japan | |
| Win | Willem Ruska | Submission (bow and arrow) | 1979-10-05 | 15:06 | South Korea | ||
| Draw | Jhara Pelwan | Draw | 1979-06-16 | 5 | Lahore, Pakistan | ||
| Win | Mike Dayton | TKO | 1979-04-03 | 6 | 1:19 | Fukuoka, Japan | |
| Win | Submission (arm scissors) | 1979-02-06 | 3 | 0:50 | Osaka, Japan | ||
| Win | Karl Mildenberger | Submission (boston crab) | 1978-11-09 | 4 | 1:15 | Frankfurt, Germany | |
| Win | Everett Eddie | KO | 1978-06-07 | 7 | 1:58 | Fukuoka, Japan | |
| Win | Johnny Lee | KO | 1978-04-04 | 3 | 1:19 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | |
| Win | Chuck Wepner | Submission (boston crab) | 1977-10-25 | 6 | 1:35 | Tokyo, Japan | |
| Win | Everett Eddie | KO (leg drop) | 1977-08-08 | 5 | 1:38 | Tokyo, Japan | |
| Win | Akrum Pelwan | TKO (kimura, broken arm) | 1976-12-12 | 3 | 1:05 | Karachi, Pakistan | |
| Win | Willem Ruska | TKO | 1976-12-09 | 21:27 | Tokyo, Japan | ||
| Win | André the Giant | TKO (head to ring corner post) | 1976-10-07 | 23:44 | Tokyo, Japan | ||
| Draw | Muhammad Ali | Draw (time limit) | 1976-06-26 | 15 | Tokyo, Japan | ||
| Win | Willem Ruska | TKO (back suplexes) | 1976-02-06 | 20:56 | Tokyo, Japan | ||
Trivia
- Inoki is one of the founders of Kansuiryu Karate.
- Inoki was married to actress Mitsuko Baisho from 1971 to 1987. Initially the wedding was going to be paid by JWA, but JWA fired him in late 1971, so Inoki had to form NJPW to keep feeding his new family. Inoki and Baisho have a daughter, Hiroko (who uses her father's surname). Hiroko is married to Simon Inoki, who in 2005 was named President of NJPW.
- Antonio Inoki started the Universal Fighting Arts Organization with Satoru Sayama and Naoya Ogawa in 1997. The organization is no longer in the business since 2002 after the Tokyo Dome show.
- Inoki appeared in the movie, The Bad News Bears Go To Japan, as a wrestler.
- During one visit to a school in the 80's, Inoki was punched twice by a student. Inoki slapped the student across the face, knocking him down. The student, who later turned out to be an Inoki fan, then rose, bowed deeply, and thanked Inoki for the slap. The incident became very famous as the then live clip of the binta (slap in the face) was shown many times on Japanese television. Now various celebrities and even common people in Japan ask Inoki to slap them to install courage or even as some sort of strange blessing. The slap's name is the "Fighting Spirit (or Toukon) Slap." (闘魂ビンタ)
- His theme song is "Honō No Fighter" (炎のファイター). It was originally used in the 1977 Muhammad Ali biopic The Greatest and was given the rights to the music by Ali as a present of respect. While he normally uses a Samba version during his entrances, during his retirement "Final Countdown" a Harpist played the song live at events. An orchestral version has also been used in various situations, including the presentation of trophies after tournaments. The theme also has a line that goes "Inoki Bom-by-ye!" which is a tribute to Muhammad Ali, who heard a similar battle cry (Ali Bom-by-ye) during his trip in Africa to promote Rumble In The Jungle.
- In the Manga and Anime series Grappler Baki, the Japanese Pro-Wrestling character Kanji Igari (猪狩 完至 Igari Kanji)(Voiced by: Tōru Ōkawa) is based on Antonio Inoki. In the English dubbed version of the Grappler Baki anime series, Igari Kanji is called Kanjo.
References
External links
- Puroresu.com: Antonio Inoki
- Website of the film 'Catch - the hold not taken', featuring Inoki
- Inoki's Mixed Martial Arts History.
- Article on NJPW's Influence in Mixed Martial Arts on NJPW.com
- All Roads Lead To Inoki on NJPW.com
- Antonio Inoki and Mizutani-sensei form Kansuiryu Karate in 1979
- Muhammad Ali vs Antonio Inoki
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday October 09, 2008 at 20:37:52 PDT (GMT -0700)
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