10 Most Revolutionary Individuals In Wrestling History

Antonio Inoki’s career-long goal was to have his product be as legitimate as possible. After becoming disillusioned with the ‘dusty finishes’ and other overly-theatrical elements of wrestling, Inoki transformed NJPW’s style into a more realistic one.

Inoki’s ‘strong style’ combined elements from various martial arts disciplines, submission holds (especially armbars) were in many cases applied for real, and matches were won ‘by knock-out’ or ‘doctor stoppage’. These elements revolutionized wrestling in Japan, and served as the primary precursors for modern MMA.

This new philosophy not only made NJPW a wildly popular product both in Japan and abroad, but it led to one of the most revolutionary storyline concepts in history: that of the ‘outside invaders’. In 1990, after Universal Wrestling Federation Japan, a promotion built on shootfighting, closed its doors, a large group of wrestlers joined the NJPW roster, under the guise of ‘outsiders’ invading the promotion seeking its ruin.

The idea was wildly successful, and served as the direct inspiration for Eric Bischoff’s nWo in WCW. Just like the UWF invasion, the Outsiders combined elements of reality with a scripted storyline in such a complex and interwoven way that many fans thought that it was actually real, leading to an explosion in fan interest in the storyline.

So while Inoki did have a few bad ideas, his successes greatly outweigh his failures.