Antonio Inoki #2

Lately I've been exploring Antonio Inoki's body-of-work from the 1970s to try and understand how he relates to the growing emergence of a 'shoot-style'. Is there a notable shift in his approach to performing post-Gotch? Or, again, does Inoki change up his style during the period of his pseudo-MMA series with the likes of Ali and co.? The reviews that have, and will, be posted here are attempts to document my thoughts and gradually construct an interpretation of what is generally meant by 'Inoki-ism'...

Antonio Inoki vs. Kintarō Ōki - NJPW 10.10.1974


Inoki/Ōki isn't really a match that aids my project. It's more of a brawl than anything else leaving realistic catch-inspired wrestling behind. The strikes Inoki deploys don't seem indicative of any specific martial art either. He's just throwing punches. Ōki does something to piss off Inoki before the match (refusing to take off his robe? talking trash? I couldn't really tell...) and that creates tension between the two. On a side note: Ōki's robe has a mushroom cloud on the back with cityscape either side... Hiroshima bombing? Am I too readily linking explosion motifs in Japan to that terrible event? Judge for yourself:


Anyway: Ōki has some subtle heel antics going on - grabbing fists full of Inoki's hair, small jabs, keeping the referee planted between him and Inoki - and this isn't amusing Antonio. At one point we see Inoki grind his forearm into Ōki's face. They aren't friends. The match has some bombs before Ōki's headbutts take centre-stage. They seem to be an ongoing concern during the match as the commentators keep saying 'headbutts'. Also the crowd gets excited when Ōki starts whipping them out, so it must've been a significant plot point. Inoki eats a lot of them before daring Ōki to keep going, busting Inoki's forehead in the process. Then Ōki is blown away with a quick bomb-sequence. The holds and slams throughout have clean execution, with very little instances of struggle in either.

Fun match, but not particularly helpful. Inoki's MMA fascination begins in 1976 so this is still a little too early to make any grand claims. Interestingly Kintarō Ōki and Antonio Inoki were supposedly a part of the same rookie trio in the Japanese Wrestling Association in the late '50s. And both were trained under Rikidōzan. That may be an added dimension to the match-up but, as I can't comprehend Japanese, I can't really tell for sure.