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4 unusual facts about Antonio Inoki


Ehrgeiz

As evidenced by the character's name, appearance, fighting style, vocal grunts, and committee status, Inoba is heavily inspired by the real-life Japanese professional wrestler, Antonio Inoki.

Steve Veidor

Between the months of February and March 1975, Veidor toured New Japan Pro Wrestling, taking on such Japanese professional wrestling legends Antonio Inoki, Seiji Sakaguchi and Strong Kobayashi.

The Brawl to End It All

Antonio Inoki, the WWF World Martial Arts Heavyweight Champion won two matches at the event, as he retained his championship against Charlie Fulton and later won a 20-man battle royal.

WCW Wrestling

The game featured several puroresu legends of the era, including Giant Baba, Antonio Inoki, and Stan Hansen.


Akram Pahalwan

Some of his well known opponents include Haji Afzal (1963), George Gordienko (1967), Anton Geesink (1968) and Antonio Inoki (1976).

In 1976, when the World Champion Japanese Wrestler, Antonio Inoki fought with the boxing legend Muhammad Ali in a mixed martial arts match to a draw.

Hartley Jackson

In 2005, Hartley Jackson made his first trip to the USA which was sponsored by Rick Sanders, a founder of EPW in Perth, and took Mikey Nicholls with him Hartley and Mikey lived and trained at the NJPW Dojo located in Los Angeles, California where they trained pro wresting with Kendo Kashin, Rocky Romero, Antonio Inoki and Terry Taylor and also trained in MMA which was coached by UFC referee Herb Dean.

Ikki Kajiwara Memorial Show

In the semi-main events, Team WAR (Genichiro Tenryu & Arashi) defeated Team Kitao Dojo (Koji Kitao & Maasaki Mochizuki) while PWFG's Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Super Tiger, NJPW's original Tiger Mask, fought to a no-contest with Antonio Inoki as the special guest referee.


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