Antonio Inoki, the Japanese wrestling star and the WWE Hall of Famer, who once faced off against Pakistan’s ace wrestlers Akram, Jhara and world boxing champion Muhammad Ali, has died at the age of 79.
Extremely popular in Pakistan Inoki was challenged by 46-year-old Akram aka “Akki” in 1976 and over 50,000 spectators showed up at the National Stadium, Karachi to watch the match.
Fans were expecting that their national hero would beat the Japanese great, however, due to the difference of fighting style and lack of knowledge about then modern techniques the result was quite evident.
Akram’s lack of understanding of professional wrestling and the miscommunication between the two competitors, the fight turned from a work into a shoot midway through the match. Pakistani wrestler bit Inoki on his arm, which led to Inoki responding to this unprofessional attitude by poking his adversary in the eye.
In an interview Inoki termed the bout as fight for survival and revealed that he still have 1976 battle scars on his wrist.
“I still have marks on my wrist that Akki gave me when he wrenched at it with his teeth.
I had to poke my fingers in his eyes to get him away.” The Japanese maestro said he was never happy about defeating Akki.
The bout saw an abrupt finish when Inoki locked Akki in the double wrist lock but broke his arm due to Akram refusing to tap out. The match ended via referee stoppage when this injury seemingly occurred. According to referee Takahashi, this finish was not scripted and was fought for real when the match fell apart.
Three years later, due to being heavily impressed by the country’s culture, Inoki returned to Pakistan to get the bad taste of the last match out of his mouth. However, this time he was not booked to fight some legend of the country but was proposed a bout against a rising star in the form of Zubair Jhara Pehalwan.
Zubair had only been wrestling for three years and was a mere nineteen. As he was the nephew of Akram Pahalwan, this ended up setting what seemed like a perfect revenge story. And to no one’s surprise, the hype of this bout had the entire country in its grasp.
The event occurred in a sold-out Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore with over thirty thousand fans.
This time the match went to its complete twenty-five-minute time limit, but it was pretty evident to the fans in attendance that Jhara had out-powered Inoki through and through. The judges scored the fight a draw, but in an unusual move, Inoki forfeited in favor of the youngster.
The Japanese legend raised Jhara’s hand as the crowd rushed into the ring to celebrate with their local hero. Experts conjecture that Inoki received quite the payday from putting the youngster over in such a manner.
Inoki and Zubair Jhara would become close friends after their monumental match.
In 2012, Antonio Inoki returned to Pakistan to hold a couple of wrestling shows under the banner of his new promotion Inoki Genome Federation. The promotion held two shows which were main evented by the talented Hideki Suzuki.
In 2014, Inoki announced that he would be taking Zubair Jhara’s nephew Haroon Abid under his wing. Pakistan is mourning the loss of legendary Japanese wrestler: Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif also expressed his condolences to the wrestler’s family and the Japanese nation. He also shared a throwback image of himself with Antonio Inoki in Lahore.
“Sad to learn about the passing of legendary Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki. I have a vivid memory of meeting him at a stadium in Lahore 10 years ago. He mesmerized a whole generation with his rare wrestling prowess. My condolences are with his family and Japanese people,” Shahbaz Sharif tweeted.
In his most-famous match, Inoki fought boxing legend Muhammad Ali in a rare wrestler vs boxer match in June 26, 1976 – a contest that paved the way for the advent of Mixed Martial Arts, which would explode in popularity decades later.
WWE is saddened of the passing of WWE Hall of Famer : WWE offers it’s heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and fans of the squared circle legend and the wrestling world as a whole.
Born in Yokohama, Japan in 1943, Inoki grew into a natural in-ring competitor. The incredible squared circle figure found his greatest success in New Japan Pro Wrestling, a promotion he founded in 1972. Over the course of the next two decades, Inoki built NJPW into the most successful wrestling company in Asia.
Inoki was also a tremendous ambassador for professional wrestling, bringing major events to places like Russia and China. And in 2010, WWE did the same by welcoming Antonio Inoki into the WWE Hall of Fame Class.
