10 Most Unwatchable Wrestling Matches Ever
1. Antonio Inoki Vs. Muhammad Ali
A little down on his luck, and offered $6 million to fight our old friend Antonio Inoki, the greatest boxer in the history of the sport found himself in Tokyo in June 1976, ready to finalise the last few details of this unique exhibition bout. Unfortunately, there had been a few crossed wires.
Opinions vary as to the initial nature of the dispute. Alis people contended that the match was always supposed to be a fix, or the usual pro wrestling work. There would be a referee bump, distracting the Great One, and Inoki would then knock him out with a kick to the head. Ali would lose, but in a way that allowed him to save face. The trouble was, no one had run this past Ali himself, and once he heard about the proposed finish, he adamantly refused to put Inoki over in any fashion.
Inoki's people, on the other hand, have it that Ali was under the impression that the thing was a work, a spectacle, and had no idea that Inoki was a mixed martial artist - a shooter - of some renown. When they figured out that the bout was supposed to be legit, they panicked and began bringing further ground rules and restrictions into play.
Inoki couldn't tackle, throw or take Ali down. He couldn't kick Ali unless one knee was down. Ali's team sought to take all the serious offence out of Inoki's game - and they were insistent that these new rules not be made public. No one was to know why Inoki suddenly seemed so hamstrung.
The fight, when it finally took place, was a farce, fifteen rounds of idiocy. Inoki lunged for Ali immediately the bell rang, and then spent almost the entire of the first three-minute round on his back, occasionally flicking a kick at Ali's legs. The second round went the same way, and the third. Ali tried to taunt Inoki into standing and fighting, but Inoki was relentless in his strategy of lying on his back and kicking the boxers legs.
And that's the way the fight continued, the action only heating up a couple of times, when Inoki had Ali backed in a corner, and when a sudden takedown and elbow to the face occurred. By the fifteenth round, Inoki had just barely scraped ahead on points, all of which had been docked for fouling.
Ali was declared the victor, with quite nasty wounds to the legs that would later become infected, and which would impair his health and mobility for the rest of his career.
The crowd, unaware of any of the restrictions that Inoki was working under, hated the match, chanting that they wanted their money back. Although the fight was considered to be the most embarrassing moment in Alis career, he and Inoki actually became friends afterwards. Well, traumatic incidents are supposed to bring people closer together...