Inoki and Islam

[ohtani's jacket]

I heard recently that Inoki is a muslim. His Islamic name is Mohammed Hussein.

 

Is this common knowledge? The con thread should be full of Inoki stories.

[ohtani's jacket]

Inoki is insane.

 

Apparently he's trying to develop a perpetual motion machine.

 

Not only that, but at one point when he was deep in debt he considered committing suicide by fighting lions.

[Loss]

Wow.

 

I don't have anything to add, but hopefully this will take off and be a blast to read.

 

I wonder what his views are on the war in Iraq.

[Jingus]

So Inoki has morphed over the years into a combination of Vinnie Mac, Jesse Ventura, and the Ultimate Warrior? Maybe throw a little Tazz in there for the faux shootfighting angle. Wacky.

[Dan]

Whoah. Where'd you hear this?

[Johnny Sorrow]

Ha, Mohammed Hussein is the name of the owner of the strip club I dj at part time. He calls himself Marty, though.

[ohtani's jacket]

Whoah. Where'd you hear this?

I was searching about Inoki's political career, since I reckon any guy who worked Castro, Saddam Hussein, the Kremlin and North Korea has got to be the greatest con guy in pro-wrestling history. The guy smooched with presidents in the Middle East, Central America and South America. He not only got hostages released during the Gulf War, he ran one of his Peace Festival Shows in Baghdad, which the hostages attended.

 

He ended getting done for tax evasion and election law violation. Not surprising considering he once funneled all of NJPW's money into fund that "Anton Hisel" project in Brazil (converting sugar cane into an alternative energy source.)

 

Zach Arnold:

 

""There was a legendary myth in Japan that Inoki had created a company called

"Anton Hisel" in 1980 to invest in biotechnology in Brazil. However, it wasn't

just a myth - it was a reality. In 1980, Inoki attempted to broker deals with

the Brazilian Government in investment in his biotechnological projects.

Originally, the Brazilian Government had a plan to use refined alcohol as

energy produced from sugarcane instead of crude oil. Oil was expensive and the

Brazilians had a lot of sugarcane crops. The big challenge for the Brazilian

Government was this - how could they produce this alternative form of energy

without polluting the rain forests and the environment? One of the great side

effects from the refined alcohol process involved the disposal of wastes. The

waste disposal was not done properly and in turn, caused agricultural problems.

Inoki thought that he had a perfect idea for turning the waste from the refined

sugarcane alcohol into feed for livestocks by adding enzymes. At first, the

idea sounded good. However, Inoki not only wanted to take the refined sugarcane

alcohol waste and confert it into feed for livestock, he wanted to take the cow

crap from the livestock after they ate the refined waste and recycle the cow

crap into even more feed for animals. Inoki, in his mind, felt that this

solution would solve hunger on the entire planet. Not only did the idea fall

flat on its face, it cost him a lot of cash. The fermentation process failed

and combining with the inflation of currency between Brazil & Japan, the

project gathered enormous debt in no time. The project was immediately halted -

until more money arrived to fund it. The project, for the next three years,

continued to operate. How was Inoki able to fund such a money-losing project?

Where was the cash flow?"

 

To be fair, Inoki is pretty honest about his business failures.

[jdw]

Inoki's investment issues in Brasil have been well known since 1983, and the old Sayama & Co. rebellion (since NJPW profits were being used to fund it rather than tickle down to the wrestlers). Meltzer had them in the WON back in 1983 as current news.

 

Inoki's relations with other governments while a "Senator" was always a grandstand. Just about any politico of that level can travel the world. In this country, we hear about roughly 1% of the trips made by Senators and Reps. Most of them are only when the shit hits the fan over them, such as the wingnuts trying to smear the Speaker earlier this year for doing exactly the same thing Republicans were doing when they ran Congress... and continued to do at the same time Nancy was.

 

Inoki was able to get a greater level of PR on them because he's Fucking Inoki. A master of PR, manipulating the press/media, and grandstanding. But in the end, they were almost all grandstanding.

 

My recollection on the "Inoki Frees The Hostages" story was that it was grandstanding by Inoki, and instead it was others who actually got them released. Inoki simply didn't have the means to get anyone released - i.e. the backroom payoffs and deals between Japan and Iraq that would seal the deal. The people who actually got the deal done were more than happy to let Inoki and others take credit for it since it would throw the scent off what it really cost to get people released.

 

That's typical of why Inoki is one of the greatest con men in wrestling history.

 

 

John