10 Parallels Between Vince McMahon And Antonio Inoki

2. Overemphasis On Realism & 'Real Fighting'

Vince has long had an obsession with making creative decisions based on the question, €˜who would win in a real fight?€™. This philosophy has led to him booking bigger strongmen more often than smaller technicians, and was an instrumental reason for him pushing Brock Lesnar to prominence, both before and after his MMA career. This philosophy, though implemented with good intentions, has led McMahon to overemphasize people like Lesnar (as well as unskilled big men) at the expense of better storytellers and more charismatic individuals. As for Inoki, he€™s the poster child for making bad decisions regarding booking MMA in his wrestling promotion. He created the spectacular failure known as €˜Inokism€™, which saw MMA fighters defeat the strongest NJPW wrestlers in shoot-fights, and featured the same MMA fighters wrestle against experienced grapplers. The results were terrible for NJPW - the careers of many NJPW veterans were tarnished, a lot of those MMA guys ended up failing to make the proper transition to pro wrestling, and NJPW€™s fanbase dwindled significantly during the late 90s/early 2000s. It was so bad that Inoki had to sell his own promotion, because fans hated his obsession with the shoot world. Wrestling fans just didn't want to see it, either. Perhaps both of them should stop focusing on the €˜reality€™ aspect of things and focus instead on telling better stories in the ring.