I mean, that’s really all you can say to this photo, right? Unfortunately, this isn’t a Tumblr so I kind of have to find another 300 words or so in order to justify making this a complete post.
It never really occurred to me until today that, because he’s Japanese, “Antonio” quite clearly isn’t Inoki’s first name. It’s actually “Kanji”, the “Antonio” is a tribute to dead 60s wrestler Antonino Rocca. No short-form piece on Inoki is really complete without mentioning the story of how, back in the 1990s, he purchased a deserted island in the middle of nowhere from the Cuban government under the belief that hidden treasure was buried on it. He promptly renamed the place “Inoki Friendship Island” and, to the best of my knowledge, he has yet to find Castro’s doubloon stash on the land mass.
This picture, for reference’s sake, comes from one of the traditional New Year’s Eve MMA cards from Japan, Dream Genki Desu Ka. Again, to reiterate, this was an evening of MMA. After a worked match between Josh Barnett and Hideki Suzuki, Inoki was carried from the entrance ramp to the ring tied to a cross. Upon reaching the ring, he was let down from the cross and picked up a bucket of paint. Inoki begins to paint some Japanese symbol in the ring while cutting a promo simultaneously, possibly to mark another one of his retirements. This is interrupted by a run-in committee of guys in turbans who start beating Inoki down with kendo sticks, apologise, raise his hand in victory and then give him a kendo stick before leaving the ring peacefully. There really isn’t any need to try and make any logic out of any point of that.
Dom Passantino
Susan Tully Blanchard
Samuel Pooley
January 5, 2012
And yet people are perplexed as to why I love wrestling.
EvilBazz
January 5, 2012
he’s promoted wrestling events in North Korea where the audience was forced into the arena at gun point, he’s ran a rival show against a charity show for his own profit, he’s bought an island of Castro cos he told him there was gold on it, he’s been linked with the Yakuza, The mans a fucking cunt worthy of a Jimmy Snuka level cunt award.