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| Antonio Inoki |
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| Real Name: Kanji Inoki Stage Name: Moeru Toukon (Fighting Spirit That Burns) Date of Birth: Feburary 20th, 1943 Home Town: Yokohama, Japan Height: 190cm Weight: 95kg Brief Bio: Scouted in 1960 by Rikidozan, who was in Brazil for the Pro Wrestling World Championship, and returns to Japan. Joins the Japan Professional Wrestling Association (JWA) as a professional wrestler in April of the same year. In 1975 Inoki Defeats William Rusuka (Netherlands), the former judo gold medalist, and goes on to fight Muhammad Ali, the world heavyweight boxing champion.. Although the match ended in a draw, it was broadcast globally by satellite and gave the Inoki name exposure throughout the world. In 1979, Inoki was involved in a very controversial title switch involving Bob Backlund and the WWF Heavyweight title. On November 30, 1979 in Tokushima, Japan, Backlund was pinned by Inoki for the WWF title. The next day, the two wrestlers had a rematch, and this time Backlund regained the title. However, the WWF President Hisashi Shinma declared the match a "no-contest" because of interference from Tiger Jeet Signh. Shinma awarded the title back to Inoki, who refused to accept the championship. A match between Backlund and "Big, Bad" Bobby Duncum on December 12, 1979 in New York City took place to decide the winner of the "held up" WWF title, with Backlund winning. Ironically, American fans never knew of the controversy in Japan, and thought the Backlund/Duncum match was just a regular monthly title defense for Backlund. The WWF has never acknowledged the title switch, and to this day does not count Inoki as a former WWF Heavyweight champion After his retirement in 1998, Inoki started the Universal Fighting-arts Organization to keep the tradition of fighting-arts that New Japan Pro-Wrestling seems to have lost. The above biography was compiled using information from the following websites. http://www.inokiism.com/ http://www.wrestlingmuseum.com/pages/bios/antonioinoki.html http://www.puroresu.com/wrestlers/inoki/ |
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