10 Most Shocking NJPW Upsets
6. Kengo Kimura & Tatsumi Fujinami Vs. Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi - IWGP Tag Team League - Day 25
![Okada Naito](https://d2thvodm3xyo6j.cloudfront.net/media/2019/03/c2be08150a15f385-600x338.gif)
Antonio Inoki's legacy is complicated; he is both the creator and very nearly the destroyer of the very company.
The company found itself embroiled in scandal by the mid-1980s; Inoki and Vice President Seiji Sakaguchi stepped down (only to mysteriously return) after it emerged that the former had embezzled NJPW live event profits and funnelled them into his failing bio-tech supplement company. This, in addition to the stranglehold Inoki seized over the top of the card, compelled several name acts to depart the company, creating offshoot renegade and shoot-style promotions in the form of Japan Pro-Wrestling and the Universal Wrestling Federation.
With the problems traceable to Inoki, Inoki removed the focus from himself as the IWGP governing body added a fictional coherence to a company in chaos. Fans had clamoured to see the vastly influential technical wizard Tatsumi Fujinami reign over the jungle, and on this night, he emerged, using his fighting spirit and advanced scientific nous to reverse Inoki's old school abdominal stretch with his state-of-the-art, innovated Dragon suplex.
A finish and indeed a match based on succession, that Inoki very rarely lost, much less to a fellow native, much less cleanly, put Fujinami over as an established main event talent.
(Should you wish to learn more about New Japan's fascinating history, Chris Charlton's Lion's Pride comes highly recommended.)