In December 1977, New Japan Pro Wrestling founder and living legend Antonio Inoki would take on his namesake The Great Antonio in Tokyo, but their similarities would end with their names. The Great Antonio was a Croatian strongman and weirdo whod built stories around himself by, Hogan-style, lying his enormous behind off at any given opportunity. He claimed to have been able to uproot trees with sheer upper body strength by the age of twelve, and in later life would tell people that he was an alien. Contrast this with Inoki himself, the legendarily proud progenitor of strong style Japanese wrestling, and youve got a mis-match made in hell. Which was precisely the point: the conceit was the heroic good guy, all rules, technique an rigid pride taking on the grotesque gaijin monster, a shambling wild man. Variations on this basic booking construction have made money worldwide for decades, and still do good business in 2014. In any event, what actually happened wasnt in the script. The 9,000 fans in attendance saw the match begin as expected, albeit more awkwardly than predicted. However, when The Great Antonio began to no-sell Inokis moves, the Japanese legend didnt appreciate it in the slightest. The Croatian strongman didnt even try the traditional monster approach of acknowledging a dropkick but powering over it he just stood there as if nothing had happened. And of course, nothing had but the audience wasnt supposed to know that. At the point that the foreign wrestler began clubbing him with imprecise blows to the back of his neck, Inoki realised that his opponent had gone off-book and reacted exactly the way youd expect a genuine shoot fighter with legendary pride and an old school mentality to react. He beat the living tar out of the larger man. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lXAGZtMxU8 Striking the Croatian in the face over and over, Inoki executes a perfect single-leg takedown and begins to, essentially, kick the other man to pieces. The Great Antonio was beaten to an unconscious, bloody pulp by the fiery wrestling legend. Do you have a story youve heard about wrestlers going into business for themselves? Reckon it should join our list? Tell us all about it in the comments!
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
