Early career (1960–1971) Inoki met
Rikidōzan at the age of 17 in Brazil and went back to Japan for the
Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA) as his
disciple. He trained in the JWA
dojo under the renowned
Karl Gotch, complementing further his training under
amateur wrestler Isao Yoshiwara and
kosen judoka Kiyotaka Otsubo. One of his dojo classmates was
Giant Baba. After Rikidozan's
murder, Inoki worked in Baba's shadow until he left for an excursion to the
United States in 1964. After a long excursion of wrestling in the United States, Inoki found a new home in
Tokyo Pro Wrestling in 1966. While there, Inoki became their biggest star. His first major feud in Japan was against
Johnny Valentine,
NWA United States Champion in
Toronto. Inoki defeated Valentine on 19 December 1966 in Osaka to claim a version of the title. The company folded in January 1967, due to turmoil behind the scenes, and Inoki abandoned the title. Returning to JWA in late 1967, Inoki was made Baba's partner and the two dominated the tag team ranks as the "B-I Cannon", winning the
NWA International Tag Team Championship belts four times. On 16 May 1969, during the 11th
World Big League, Inoki stopped Giant Baba's fourth consecutive victory and won his first tournament. In July 1969, when NET (currently
TV Asahi) started broadcasting Japanese professional wrestling, Inoki was the
ace of NET's wrestling broadcasts, as Baba's matches were monopolized by
Nippon TV under the agreement between the JWA and Nippon TV. On 2 December 1969, he challenged
Dory Funk Jr. for the
NWA World Heavyweight Championship, and on 26 March 1971, won the
NWA United National Championship from
John Tolos, establishing the title in Japan.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (1972–2005) in June 1975 Fired from JWA in late 1971 for planning a
takeover of the promotion, Inoki founded
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in 1972. His first match as a New Japan wrestler was against
Karl Gotch. In 1975 he faced
Lou Thesz, with Inoki taking a vicious Greco-Roman backdrop within the first seconds of the match. In 1976, Inoki fought with
Pakistani
Akram Pahalwan in a special rules match. The match apparently turned into a
shoot, with an uncooperative Akram
biting Inoki in the arm and Inoki retaliating with an
eye poke. At the end, Inoki won the bout with a
double wrist lock, injuring Pahalwan's arm after the latter refused to submit. According to referee
Mr. Takahashi, this finish was not scripted and was fought for real after the match's original flow became undone. On 8 December 1977, Inoki was involved in a match against former
strongman turned professional wrestler Antonio Barichievich better known as
The Great Antonio. Barichievich inexplicably began no-selling Inoki's attacks and then stiffing Inoki; Inoki responded by shooting on Barichievich, retaliating with a series
palm strikes, grounding him with a
single leg takedown and following with up repeated
kicks, and then stomping his head repeatedly as he lay on the mat before the match was stopped. In June 1979, Inoki wrestled Akram's countryman
Zubair Jhara Pahalwan, this time in a regular match, and lost the fight in the fifth round. In 2014, 22 years after Zubair Jhara's death, he announced he would take Jhara's nephew Haroon Abid under his guardianship. 's (bottom) head during a match in 1982 On 30 November 1979, Inoki defeated
WWF Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund in
Tokushima, Japan, to win the championship. Backlund then won a rematch on 6 December. However, WWF president
Hisashi Shinma declared the re-match a no contest due to interference from
Tiger Jeet Singh, and Inoki remained champion. Inoki refused the title on the same day, and it was declared vacant. Backlund later defeated
Bobby Duncum in a
Texas Death match to regain the title on 12 December. Inoki's reign is not recognized by WWE in its WWF/WWE title history and Backlund's first reign is viewed as uninterrupted from 1978 to 1983. In 1995, Inoki and the North Korean government came together to hold a
two-day wrestling festival for peace in
Pyongyang, North Korea. The event drew 165,000 and 190,000 fans respectively to
Rungnado May Day Stadium. The main event saw the only match between Inoki and
Ric Flair, with Inoki coming out on top. After his retirement in 1998, Inoki founded a new wrestling promotion, the Universal Fighting-Arts Organization (UFO). Inoki would later participate in four exhibition matches after his retirement. On 11 March 2000, at a Rikidōzan memorial event, Inoki was defeated by Japanese actor and singer
Hideaki Takizawa; later that year during a New Year's Eve event, he wrestled Brazilian mixed martial artist
Renzo Gracie to a time limit draw. On 31 December 2001, he teamed with
The Great Sasuke to defeat
Giant Silva and Red & White Mask; two years later, on 31 December 2003, Inoki wrestled the final match of his career, facing
Tatsumi Fujinami as part of Fujinami's retirement ceremony. In 2005,
Yuke's, a Japanese video company, purchased Inoki's controlling 51.5% stock in New Japan.
Post NJPW years (2005–2022) In 2007, Inoki founded a new promotion called
Inoki Genome Federation (IGF). On 1 February 2010,
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) announced on its Japanese website that Inoki would be inducted into the
WWE Hall of Fame. Inoki was presented with a Hall of Fame certificate by WWE's Ed Wells. In 2017, Inoki created a new company, ISM. ISM held its first event on 24 June of that year. On 23 March 2018, Inoki left IGF. In October 2019, Inoki appeared at a
Pro Wrestling Zero1 event at the
Yasukuni Shrine, which is controversial for
its relation to World War II. In August 2022, Inoki established the Inoki Genki Factory to serve as his official management company. It was later reported that the Inoki Genki Factory was looking into the idea of hosting professional wrestling and mixed martial arts events. ==Political career==