There is a very very popular professional wrestler called Antonio Inoki in Japan. Some wrestling fans may know this name because he is known to the world as a man who had a match with Muhammad Ali ( see photo). That was an irregular match between wrestling and boxing. The result was DRAW, so many got disappointed with it at the end.
But apart from this story, Antonio Inoki was absolutely a charisma of Japanese post war generation. Everybody saw a never-give-up spirit in himself and his super wrestling technique caught our eyes each time.
He had many great matches with many great wrestlers including top American wrestlers. That could be the reason why Antonio Inoki is selected to join the Hall of Fame of WWE. Of course he is still attractive person in Japan, but wrestling is an imported game from the USA for Japan. So I suppose Inoki is now pleased with the news from America.
He today attended the Hall of Fame ceremony in America and over 70,000 American wrestling fans celebrated his career.
Antonio Inoki became a politician soon after he quit, and now he is working as a producer of many marshal events.
Now Japanese pro-wrestling is not popular compared to the time of Antonio Inoki. There are some reasons for that, but probably the main reason is that there is no more charismatic wrestlers in Japan.
Next video is a very good match with Bill Robinson more than 30 years ago.
