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Antonio Inoki passes away

Jmare007

By Jmare007
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KinchStalker Collaborator

KinchStalker

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To be honest, I knew it was coming. But it still hits. 

For many years, wrestling was just something I observed from a distance. But as soon as I learned about him, I was compelled by Inoki. He seemed like a character from a Herzog film transposed into wrestling, and that impression has never dissipated. I may have gotten into this space to tell other stories, but what I have come to realize in the two years I have spent researching puroresu is that there's no getting around him. I have a responsibility to tell his story as much as Jumbo or the others I got into the game to tell.

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Suplex-12 Newbie

Suplex-12

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There is crazy people, there is insane people and then there is Antonio Inoki who was an awesome level of crazy and insanity. His ideas were unorthodox to say the least but I have huge respect for his influence on Japanese Wrestling as well as being an early pioneer in MMA history. Bonus points for as everyone else so far has pointed out literally having the best jawline in history right until the end. RIP Inoki.

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sek69 Grand Master

sek69

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To show how well respected he was in wrestling, CMLL even acknowledged his passing during their weekly big Friday show tonight and they are pretty much the last "don't mention anyone outside the company unless they are doing something for us" place left in the world. 

Also as Mike Sempervive pointed out, people like to talk about having to deal with villainous old school wrestling promoters and Inoki was out there making deals with Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-Il. It really can't be understated that he not only had the idea to do a dome show in North Korea, the mf'er actually made it happen. That's fucking insane. 

Not only is he easily in the top five of most important figures in pro wrestling history, as mentioned before the fight with Ali was essentially the first promoted MMA event ever. You can draw a direct line from that event to the MMA boom in Japan and then to UFC as we know it. 

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El-P Mentor

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50 years after founding arguably the second most important pro-wrestling company ever (arguably because CMLL), Inoki passes away. He's legit one of the most famous and most important promoter/wrestler in history (top 3 ?) and one of the most insane too (top 1 ?). The Queen is dead, the King is dead.

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EnviousStupid Enthusiast

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Something that's always stuck with me about Inoki's legacy as a beloved national icon is the slap. I'm sure we've all seen clips of Inoki slapping dozens of wrestlers, staff, and fans alike, all waiting in line to be touched by such a figure, but is there any other modern culture that treats a slap across the face as a blessing? Mexico? Europe? Even in Japan, who else is able to have that kind of act recognized with such reverence from the public?

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Matt D Community Regular

Matt D

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I've been spending a lot of time with 86 Inoki and really Inoki in general over the last year as I went through every 86 match and went back to fill in a bunch of holes (like his four week series with Abby in 82). I'll post some things in spoiler tags. I've been writing everything up at DVDVR as they're not reviews that stand up as well to scrutiny.

Here's my sum up of his 86 that I actually had written on Monday of this last week:

Spoiler

Inoki: Inoki's as good a place to start as any. Watching Inoki helped me rethink how I look at an "ace." I'm not sure I ever gave it too much thought. Hogan's an Ace. Misawa's an Ace. Hijo del Santo's probably an Ace. Cena. Reigns. Flair. Bruno. Douglas or Taz? Sting? 94 Bret?  I always joked that Christian was the best WWE one (And ECW one!) but what I learned from watching Inoki is that you ought to expect an ace to excel at maximizing moments. It took me by surprise a bit because the implicit storytelling inherent in AJPW matches don't often allow for it. In a lot of ways, NJPW matches follow a similar bent, guys pressing up against each other with what passes as accepted reality as opposed to overt, explicit storytelling with build and payoff and obviously (but again accepted and normative) storytelling. The difference with Inoki is that he's excellent at dropping in a single pivotal moment of that blatant artifice in the midst of the implicit narrative. It's the use of red in an otherwise black and white movie, a lone firework to cap off an orchestra's performance. In fact, the biggest problem with the hour long Brody match was that he wasn't able to insert that well enough in so long a match when the setting and opponent should have been the ultimate opponent for him to do it with. In the Spinks match, on the other hand, it was absolutely there (even if Spinks didn't go up for the suplex in the end like he was supposed to). Where he excelled was against the Murdochs and Andres of the world, or even guys like Sakaguchi. Against random foreigners and monsters like the Maxxes. Against Maeda or Kido, he stumbled because he tried to keep up with them as a point of pride and he simply couldn't. He did far better when he leaned into his strengths and his strengths were only 2/3rds legit, but made all the stronger by that 1/3rd of beloved bullshit. Against a Fujiwara, it worked because Fujiwara was good enough to transcend being a shooter. I'm glad for the time I spent with him. I see right through him, but I'm still glad for the looking.

Said 82 series with Abby:

Spoiler

1/8/82: Inoki/Fujinami/Tiger Mask vs Abby/Dynamite Kid/Babe Face: This was a blast. It was 2/3 falls and was pretty fluid between the pairings of Fujinami and Tiger Mask and Dynamite and Babe Face. Heels spent a lot of the match dragging the faces back into their corner with Fujinami or Tiger Mask scrapping from underneath. All four of them matched up very well. A lot of tags and double teams. They teased Abby vs Inoki a few times but rarely paid it off as it's just the start of the cycle. Occasionally things spilled out and went crazy. Occasionally Dynamite would be a dick. There was a point in the second fall where Abby just kept running through Tiger Mask, which was great until Fujinami came in so they could double dropkick him. He went out and Tiger Mask went up to follow up with a dive but Dynamite just ran in and shoved him off the top denying us all. That sort of thing. Dynamite was excellent at carrying that attitude. First fall ended with a Fujnami Catapult into a Tiger Mask body press (and a suplex that followed). Second ended with Abby tossing someone over the rail. Post-match was great as SD Jones ran out too and they kept slamming the guardrail into Inoki's gut on the outside until WAHOO made the save and chopped everyone.

1/15/82: Inoki/Fujinami/Choshu vs Abby/Bad News/SD Jones: Another 2/3 falls match but the TV show cuts off 18 mins in (incl. entrances but with a bit of a skip early) so we don't see the finish. Again, this was pretty good. Bad News really directs traffic in how he works with SD. A lot of "Hey, put your head out so I can slam someone into it," sometimes with a double headbutt, sometimes with a sort of backbreaker. SD had a great flurry but often got swept under right afterwards. That's how the first fall ended with him having an advantage one moment and eating a belly to back the next. He had a nice little wrestling exchange with "short hair wrestle guy" Choshu. Bad News was always a bit more stylized, with more spots (I'll hip toss you twice, and you reverse the third, etc.). They once again teased Abby vs Inoki but then immediately had Abby tag out as Inoki was pissed. Then, Abby who had been stretching on the ropes, waltzed in and kicked Choshu while he had the Scorpion on. Things broke down early in the second fall with Abby pulling out something from under the ring to open up Choshu and hitting the elbow for the fall immediately thereafter. They kept control in what we saw of the last fall. Cagematch says this was a draw and maybe the ref threw it out soon after this.  Two weeks, two fairly different matches that forwarded the central idea.

1/22/82: Inoki/Fujinami vs Abby/Bad News: Early on, this was all about Bad News feeding for Fujinami and it ends with Rusher Kimura coming out of the stands to attack Inoki, but in the middle it was all about delayed satisfaction for Inoki vs Abby. They face off relatively early but Abby gets a cheapshot in and Bad News gets tagged in soon after. Inoki fights back and eventually gets a back brain kick and suplex on Abby but then Bad News breaks it up and he can't press the advantage. Then finally, he pulls Abby out to the ringpost and they work the groin but that's when Rusher comes in. So they tease the encounter, give Inoki an advantage he can't capitalize on, and then take away the final bit of triumph to make the fans want more for the singles match. All good stuff.

1/28/82: Abby vs Inoki: Inoki has weird cupping things going on with his arm here. Abby controls early with cheapshots (his throat shot or a quick kick). Inoki engages, gets wailed on, disengages, regroups. He tries a drop toehold and gets jammed. He tries a Russian Leg Sweep and Abby just pries him off. He tries headbutts and Abby just smiles at him. Either he gets opened up hardway on those or he blades right around then and it's not a gusher but it adds early drama. Slowly, he chips away at Abby with leg kicks, or getting a drop toe hold, but he can't capitalize and Abby just lays in the headbutts or drops an elbow for a nearfall. Eventually, he gets Abby down with shots an a dropkick to the eye and the crowd explodes. But Abby is the best at the world in cutting someone off. His backdrop at this point is great too. It's almost more like a Torture Rack drop. Finally, he's able to pull a leg out from the apron and work the ankle around the post and that lets him start on the arm with big kicks, an pumphandle over his shoulder, even jumping kicks to it. Abby's selling here is amazing. Inoki's channeling the crowd is all time good. Abby fighting literally from underneath with diving throat shots is iconic. But Inoki stays on him, smashing the skull with the enziguiri over and over. Right when it's obvious he's about to win, Bad News comes in, draws the DQ and everything breaks down, but it was a big and clear moral victory to end this part of the feud.

The hour match with Brody

Spoiler

9/16/86: Antonio Inoki vs Bruiser Brody:

I survived it. I did not fall off the treadmill. Like anything else in life, there was good and there was bad. There were things which happily surprised me on a small scale and things that disappointed me on a large scale. The first thing that you need to know is that even though the video is ~1 hour and 2 minutes, it is a sixty minute match. We don't get entrances or post-match silliness. I've never quite seen a Brody match like this, which is not to say that it is not a Brody match. Because it is. In some ways, it can pay off the promise of Brody as 1986 Brock, larger than life, indomitable, unbeatable, impossible to harm. Part of why I hate his work is because it tears down everything around it. If Brody is going to take a huge bump, bigger than what anyone else was doing, especially factoring in his size, only to jump right back up a moment later unharmed, it puts him over every move and every other wrestler taking bumps. It puts him on a pedestal above every other wrestler on the roster. And you know what? It worked for him. It got him booked. It got him paid. It kept him protected. And it has people who don't actually watch the footage thinking he's this legendary figure as opposed to just some jerk who refused to earn his way through following the narrative rules of the game.

In a setting like this, however, you can justify chipping away at him, can really lean into the mythos that he's created for himself to the point where hurting him, harming him, having him in danger, surviving him for an hour, holding an advantage, taking him to the limit, could really make someone. Of course, the flip side is that it was Inoki in there, who didn't need to be made even though maybe he needed to be sustained.

But Inoki did not maximize the opportunities here. Inoki was a very, very smart wrestler. He was a cinematic wrestler, maybe the most cinematic Japanese wrestler of the 20th century. He understood the value of moments, things that could be built to, that fans would remember for the rest of their lives. I don't think the match had enough of them. I'd be curious if this is some big legendary match in Japan but it's not talked about in the states, and if you ask me what the big iconic moments of the match were? I'd say that there was Inoki launching a knee off the top and accidentally hitting the ref. That barely had a meaning in the match. Someone else rolled in. Maybe Inoki had a phantom pin on a double arm suplex. Maybe. I think considering what Brody kicked out of following that, he probably would have kicked out anyway (the match got that wrong, see?). Maybe Brody hitting a pile driver on the floor on Inoki but again, they flubbed the follow up. The ref had to practically beg them to roll into the ring instead of it being one of those amazing, dramatic, NJPW countout moments where someone just barely gets in. There was Inoki surviving the knee drop or finally hitting the belly to back (teased earlier) but the former just didn't feel dramatic enough and the latter should have been timed with the ringing of the bell instead of Brody kicking out and the bell ringing after. The former makes you think Inoki might have won with it. The latter makes you wonder if Inoki might have won with anything at all ever? Inoki is amazing at creating memories. He had such a canvas to do so here and he came up short.

What did work, for the most part. was the story for the first third-to-half of the match. Inoki came in outwrestling Brody in a big way. My headcannon is that this is due to him trying his skills against the UWF guys, like in some sort of action anime where the hero trains to level up and the villain who gave him so much trouble previously has no idea what they're getting into. Brody's able to shrug him off, though, right until the point Inoki locks in the UWF leglock/kneebar thing, which, let me tell you, is 100% the MOVE of 1986. and for the next fifteen minutes, Brody sells. So the hold itself is NOT good because I don't think Brody has any idea how to actually sell in a hold. Not compelling. There's also 1-2 long chinlocks from Brody throughout which are not compelling and Inoki going back to the leg with a long figure four which is also not compelling. The leg-submissions are symbolically compelling in theory because of the damage they are doing but in execution and emoting, they're terrible and long and frustrating. But I did like Brody's selling after the fact. Inoki's able to stay on him because he's got one leg, but he's always danger and able to catch Inoki on the outside when he tries to capitalize (that starts with a chairshot and ends with a chinlock so... y'know Brody). Brody missing the knee and getting kicked a bunch is kind of a compelling moment too. And if they somehow went to a finish towards the end of 30 minutes or so with that being the big heart of the match, maybe it would have worked. But they don't. Instead Brody comes back and after a while decides that nah, his leg's ok. All good, boss. Enough of that. He takes over on offense. Inoki comes back and hits the ref. They go to a bunch of bombs. At some point Inoki hits a bunch of enziguiris and Brody walks back and forth like he's in a shooting gallery. They kick out of a few too many things. It's a draw.

What's weird about the match and something else I'd change if I wanted an outcome that was a better match and not just Inoki seeming like the world's greatest hero, is that Inoki takes so much of the match. On the one hand, that's not so bad because it means Brody never really offended me with crummy offense. But it messes up the drama to a degree. If I was shifting things around, I'd have Brody have some control before Inoki finally solved the puzzle with that legbar. Chop some time off the last quarter to do that. It'd give Brody another section of control, make Inoki work for things more, and mean that there wasn't so much meaningless bomb throwing and bloat towards the end. The best thing I can say about the match, I suppose, is that I think you could make it a lot better with just a few edits, which means that there was something there in the first place.

It just wasn't nearly enough given how good Inoki usually is at working this stuff out (for all his other faults) and the fact the match goes an hour. However good Inoki is at finding moments and crafting narratives which will paint him in the best possible light, I think this task was just a bit too big for him and opportunities were lost, big and little, in a match that he really couldn't afford to lose any.

But hey, it didn't kill me, right?

The Spinks match:

Spoiler

10/9/86: Antonio Inoki vs Leon Spinks: You know what? This actually almost worked. No lie. I'm not even kidding. If three or four things happened differently, it would have not just worked but been a monumental success. Even as it was, it still feels like a small success. Here's the most important thing: Inoki learned from his previous mistakes. He spent the first two and a half rounds more or less boxing with Spinks and he got his ass handed to him! 100%. He was getting pummeled in the corner. His best offense was a cheapshot after a hug, and the fans still sort of appreciated it since at least he was trying. He went down to a knee now and again. It was only towards the end of that third round that he started throwing a kick or two or maybe even teased a takedown. I mean, who knows what the rules even were. Maybe it was set up as X rounds with gloves, X rounds without? But here's the point. The only thing anyone in that crowd probably remembered in six months was that Inoki took his lumps and stood up to Spinks at his own game for almost three rounds. From there he started to come back with kicks, takedowns and submissions (though he knew enough to give Spinks one big knockdown at the end of the 5th).

So, the four things. 1.) Inoki probably shouldn't have gone down to his butt for the kicks so much. Who cares if it really works. It made him look cowardly when a standing kick to the leg wouldn't. He should have thrown some higher kicks to keep his distance instead (but not the enzuigiri! more on that in a second). 2.) They weren't clear to me on the rules, but the first time Inoki gets a submission, Spinks is in the ropes. Later times, the ref breaks it after a five count. Spinks should have always been near the ropes. Inoki could get him in a bunch but only when they were near the ropes; that's the story, or it should have been. 3.) Too many back brain kicks when Spinks wasn't going to sell them at all. Either convince him to sell them a bit or just don't do them except for maybe one big one to shock him and signify the momentum shift even if he doesn't sell it.  4.) My god, the finish. Look, there were points in this when Inoki was getting rocked where the crowd chanted his name as loud as I'd ever heard it. Towards the end, he finally, finally could have gotten the belly to back and then a pin. He tries it but Spinks jams him and just kind of falls and Inoki pins him and the ref counts to five and then goes down and counts a five count pin as they just lay there and it's terrible. If Inoki had just paid him enough to actually take the belly to back the place would have exploded and it certainly would have seemed more genuine and real (and protected Spinks even!) more than the actual finish.

Still, I bet people remembered him taking those early round shots more than the finish or him sprawled on his butt or anything else.

A Murdoch singles I really liked:

Spoiler
 

6/19/86: Murdoch vs Inoki. The finals of the Inoki-Is-No-Longer-In-The-Doghouse tournament. Loved this. It's 30 minutes. About twenty seconds in, Murdoch nails Inoki in the gut and starts on the arm and he really never looks back. Lots of compelling and varied offense, including the beloved short arm scissors, but also whacking it on the apron and dragging him around with it. Inoki comes back now and again, first with an enzuigiri out of nowhere and later with the other sort of "milking the moment" comebacks you'd expect from him, Murdoch missing off the top, reversing a slam into the post on the outside after Murdoch had previously used it to open him up, etc. When he was on offense, he respected the fact his arm was hurt for the most part, using the other arm to strike or using kicks. Murdoch would go back to the arm though, or capitalize on a mistake and THEN go back to the arm and they made the most of it. I'm almost certain the fact it only ranked 26 was because of the finish. After Murdoch kicked out of the back brain kick (this was the culmination of that last comeback with the posting), Inoki hit a German with a bridge and the ref seemed to count to three but didn't call for the bell and the crowd though it was over. You can sort of buy that Inoki couldn't hold the bridge due to his arm but at the angle we had, it didn't really look like that. He hit another enzuigiri for the win, and the fans still loved it but it was all a bit weird. Anyway, great match.

and Inoki vs Fujiwara

Spoiler

 

6/12/86: Inoki vs Fujiwara: 32 on the 80s set and I can see it. Brief comment on the opening of the match and then I'll lead into more general comments. This starts with Fujiwara taking down Inoki over and over again with mares, getting him in a hold and then taking him down again over and over again and locking in another hold until Inoki can slip out. It's a great, bombastic, character-driven way to start the match, full of energy, and leading to just a huge pop as Inoki slips out and locks in a hold of his own.

I have two things I want to talk about here and they're interconnected.

  1. Inoki, even in 86, was a star because he understood the important of moments. Often times his matches lead to big, over the top, visual moments that pop the crowd huge. He can't go steadily for too long at this point. He was 43 years old or so and had been through a lot. He can't match the UWF guys on the mat, no matter how much he wishes he could and no matter how much it benefits him to have the illusion that he could. But, they can design sequences that build to a big escape or big comeback or big reversal that creates a more meaningful illusion than if he was able to really grind on the mat with them. He can build to one block and one leap as he hits the back brain kick. He can get behind Andre and hit him with one belly to back. And he is savvy enough and confident enough in his own mastery of the company to know how to give his opponent exactly enough that when he does these things it matters. A lot of that is on him and his understanding of his audience and his opponents and of wrestling, but so much of it was because...
  2. NJPW is not AJPW. For the sake of this comparison, remember that I looked at 89-90 AJPW, but it's mostly true earlier as well. The house style is athleticism and sport, pressure pushed up against the walls at almost all points. It's what would logically happen within the world they've created. There are openings and moments of transition and counters but it's about constant forward motion and whether or not the wrestler is up to task in enduring it and stopping it. NJPW simply isn't that. There are still trappings of sport, especially with the UWF guys in the mix, of course, but it's more theatrical. It's not just Inoki. There are more moments built to and these moments mean more than in AJPW where every moment feels like it's treated almost as important (which makes every moment important, but it also means that a spike piledriver is worth the same as a bulldog headlock or a powerslam). There's more of a manipulative attempt to pop the crowd. There's more overt and preconceived artifice. There's still not that level of complete narrative organization you get in American wrestling (especially in 1986, prime Tito) with shine>heat>comeback and the requisite transitions and cut offs, but it's sort of a middle ground between the WWF style and the AJPW style. Sometimes that gives you something better than either. Often times, it gives you something more muddled and less pure and less satisfying.

Here though, it was likely better. Because Fujiwara absolutely gets it as well, and he can back it up 100%. The match, after that opening, is full of momentum shifts and oneupmanship and big transitional moments and counters. A lot of exclamation points with a series of periods leading up to them. The finish is out of this world, with Inoki finally coming back and hitting the back brain kick only for Fujiwara's hard head to completely shut it down and for him to milk a moment of his own as he stares back at Inoki defiantly. Incredibly iconic. The writing is on the wall there and Inoki is able to get a German immediately thereafter, with Fujiwara knowing he is unable to kick out and instead trying to work at Inoki's interlocked fingers, but to no avail. Just a hell of an encounter that made certain things really click for me about the promotion and style as a whole.

 

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ohtani's jacket Experienced

ohtani's jacket

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22 hours ago, EnviousStupid said:

Something that's always stuck with me about Inoki's legacy as a beloved national icon is the slap. I'm sure we've all seen clips of Inoki slapping dozens of wrestlers, staff, and fans alike, all waiting in line to be touched by such a figure, but is there any other modern culture that treats a slap across the face as a blessing? Mexico? Europe? Even in Japan, who else is able to have that kind of act recognized with such reverence from the public?

That started in 1990 when he was a member of the Diet. He was giving a lecture at a university prep school and was involved in some kind of stunt where a prep school student punched Inoki in the abdomen as hard as he could. The student was a Shorinji Kempo practitioner and must have hit Inoki pretty hard because the slap was a reflex action. The student immediately bowed and thanked Inoki for the slap. It was caught on camera and was broadcast nationally. After that, students preparing for the University of Tokyo entrance exam asked to be slapped and they all passed. That's how the Fighting Spirit slap became a thing. 

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Jmare007 Experienced

Jmare007

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18 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said:

That started in 1990 when he was a member of the Diet. He was giving a lecture at a university prep school and was involved in some kind of stunt where a prep school student punched Inoki in the abdomen as hard as he could. The student was a Shorinji Kempo practitioner and must have hit Inoki pretty hard because the slap was a reflex action. The student immediately bowed and thanked Inoki for the slap. It was caught on camera and was broadcast nationally. After that, students preparing for the University of Tokyo entrance exam asked to be slapped and they all passed. That's how the Fighting Spirit slap became a thing. 

That's incredible.

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leo Rookie

leo

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On 10/2/2022 at 9:17 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

That started in 1990 when he was a member of the Diet. He was giving a lecture at a university prep school and was involved in some kind of stunt where a prep school student punched Inoki in the abdomen as hard as he could. The student was a Shorinji Kempo practitioner and must have hit Inoki pretty hard because the slap was a reflex action. The student immediately bowed and thanked Inoki for the slap. It was caught on camera and was broadcast nationally. After that, students preparing for the University of Tokyo entrance exam asked to be slapped and they all passed. That's how the Fighting Spirit slap became a thing. 

If I may add, that the Waseda prep school student was possibly inspired by the classic slap TV Asahi announcer Masahiro Sasaki received before Inoki’s match alongside Sakaguchi vs Hashimoto & Chōno 3 months earlier, and wanted to provoke Inoki to react in a similar way. To be fair, I think it was deserved in Sasaki’s case.

 

Sasaki: If, supposing you were to lose, is it fair to say that it wouldn’t be just luck of the moment? (suggesting Inoki & Sakaguchi are over the hill)

Inoki: What kind of idiot would consider the prospect of losing before a match? (slap) …get the hell out of here!

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