10 Parallels Between Vince McMahon And Antonio Inoki

8. Being Influenced By Powerful External Forces

Despite both men being considered masterful promoters, both McMahon and Inoki have to deal with powerful external forces influencing their decisions. In Vince€™s case, he has to deal with Wall Street. Ever since WWE went public, he has had to make certain business decisions that have catered more towards these investors (who see WWWE as nothing more than a stock valued at a certain price), than towards the wrestling industry and fans. These decisions have included: pushing certain €˜merchandise-moving€™ wrestlers more at the expense of building new stars, not allowing WWE to take any creative risks so that the same revenue stream can continue uninterrupted, and pushing the more €˜entertainment-heavy€™ aspects of the show instead of the actual in-ring action. Inoki, meanwhile, has had to deal with an external force of his own: the Yakuza. It has long been speculated that the Yakuza has had heavy involvement in the Japanese wrestling industry, with promoters, wrestlers and other parties allegedly being members. In Inoki€™s case, the Yakuza are allegedly involved with NJPW quite a lot, acting as back-up investors for the promotion (so that NJPW NEVER has to worry about bankruptcy, unlike Vince and WWE), and have been allegedly involved in €˜papering€™ (manipulating live ticket sales) NJPW events for years. So, even though both these promoters consider themselves masters of their respective worlds, it turns out that both of them answer to powers higher than their own.