8 Most Powerful Backstage Politicians In Wrestling History
6. Antonio Inoki
In an incredible quirk of fate, New Japan Pro Wrestling founder Antonio Inoki and All Japan Pro Wrestling founder Giant Baba both made their debut on the same day: September 30, 1960. Before creating the respective groups in 1972, they wrestled for the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance before the promotion tumbled into disarray.
Inoki was an early political rival of Baba, whose incredible size propelled him to the top in a trajectory unlike the typical Japanese novice. Inoki saw his future and decided it looked too bleak. Eventually, after returning to the JWA, Inoki formed a team with Baba, which very nearly extended beyond the ring: in a failed joint coup, Inoki was fired for attempting to overthrow the existing management structure (Baba, a major star, was convinced to stay before the whole enterprise fell apart).
Inoki was significantly more successful at the game when at the helm of Shin Nihon. That’s because he was able to get away with it; he owned and operated the company, and justified his top spot. It was said, at the time of his death on October 1, 2022, that Inoki was essentially Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan combined. Inoki was a household name, and felt within his rights to win constantly throughout NJPW’s early years. He only lost in the most lousy and anticlimactic finishes. There’s an old cliché of movie dialogue: “If you want to take this from me, you’ll have to kill me”.
This was almost true of Inoki’s spot; in 1983, he only lost definitively to Hulk Hogan after an Ax Bomber removed him from the apron and the resulting bump knocked him unconscious.
Politics is a shadowy game, one that consequently spawns profound mistrust and, eventually, conspiracy theories. Inoki was the subject of much suspicion when, after funneling money from live gates into his failing Anton Hisel bio-tech supplement company, he was apparently “voted back in” under dubious circumstances after resigning as company president in 1983.
Beyond the usual power grabs and such, Inoki was an actual, shoot politician - he represented the now-defunct Sports and Peace Party in the House of Councillors between 1989 and 1995 - and managed to strike up diplomatic relations with, of all nations, North Korea.