TOKYO, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Antonio Inoki, a Japanese skilled wrestling star turned politician, broadly recognized for his match with Muhammad Ali and ties to North Korea, has died aged 79, after years of battling a uncommon illness, the corporate he based stated on Saturday.
“New Japan Professional-Wrestling is deeply saddened on the passing of our founder, Antonio Inoki,” the corporate he began in 1972 posted on Twitter. “His achievements, each in skilled wrestling and the worldwide neighborhood are with out parallel and can by no means be forgotten.”
Inoki turned one of many greatest names on Japan’s pro-wrestling’s circuit within the Sixties. His fame went international in 1976 when he had a blended martial arts match with boxing legend Muhammad Ali, billed as “the bout of the century”.
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The lantern-jawed, 1.9-metre (6-foot-three-inch) performer entered politics, successful a seat within the higher home of Japan’s parliament in 1989. He made headlines the following yr going to Iraq through the Gulf Conflict and intervening on behalf of Japanese hostages, who have been subsequently launched.
Tributes to Inoki poured in throughout social media. Atsushi Onita, one other professional wrestler turned politician, tweeted: “An period has come to an finish.”
“Thanks, Inoki-san. The supreme father of professional wrestling,” he wrote.
Triple H, the present chief content material officer of World Wrestling Leisure Inc (WWE.N) and a former grappler, referred to as Inoki “some of the essential figures within the historical past of our enterprise, and a person who embodied the time period ‘combating spirit.'”
Inoki developed shut ties with North Korea as a result of his mentor, early pro-wrestling celebrity Rikidozan, hailed from North Korea however might by no means go residence after the peninsula was divided by struggle.
He made quite a few visits to Pyongyang as a lawmaker and met high-ranking officers, saying Tokyo might play a job in mediating with its nuclear-armed neighbour.
In 1995, he organised a two-day “Collision in Korea” wrestling extravaganza earlier than greater than 100,000 spectators in Pyongyang’s Might Day Stadium. Inoki defeated Ric Aptitude in the principle occasion along with his signature “enzuigiri,” a leaping kick to the again of the top.
On his YouTube channel, referred to as “Antonio Inoki’s Final Preventing Spirit,” he was proven going out and in of the hospital in the previous couple of years, elevating a clenched fist as he went for remedy of systemic amyloidosis, a uncommon ailment involving a buildup of a protein referred to as amyloid within the organs.
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Reporting by Ju-min Park in Seoul and Rocky Swift in Tokyo; Modifying by William Mallard
Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
