10 Wrestlers Who Became Successful Bookers
2. Antonio Inoki
The man with the coldest neck in the business was indisputably the biggest name in Japanese wrestling when he turned his hand to the book in 1972.
A contemporary and close colleague of Shohei 'Giant' Baba, the pair separately decided to found their own promotions after the decline of JWA in the years following Rikidozan's murder. For Inoki, he was left with little choice; he'd been given his marching orders after attempting a takeover of the company in 1971.
It was just about the last mistake JWA made. Inoki, bolstered by his universal popularity, formed New Japan Pro Wrestling, installing himself as its headline star. Throughout the '80s, New Japan vied with AJPW for the crown of Japan's top dog, gaining the edge in 1981 with the emergence of a certain Satoru Sayama. Under the hood as Tiger Mask, Sayama introduced the exciting new Junior Heavyweight style which would become one of the bedrocks of New Japan's success.
Inoki's next innovation was the introduction of the International Wrestling Grand Prix, the formula which would be refined by Riki Choshu some years later. Even when NJPW's top stars exited to found UWF, Inoki kept the promotion relevant by drafting in a string of top foreign stars. Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, and perhaps most notably, Big Van Vader, helped take group to new levels of both national and international prestige.
Inoki stepped away from the day-to-day running of New Japan when he was elected to the Japanese Diet in 1989. Sadly, his flirtations with MMA when he was back at the helm in the mid-2000s, whilst a brave attempt to follow a new trend within the industry, resulted in abject failure. Under 'Inokism', NJPW began to wither, until it was bought out by Bushiroad in 2005.