The trouble is that when the performers involved are both huge and insane, one accident can escalate play-fighting into the real thing pretty quickly. Like ...

As we've mentioned previously, professional wrestling is much harder than it looks . Sure, the moves may be choreographed and the results predetermined, but like any job that entails two half-naked giants throwing furniture at each other, there are always going to be some accidents.

5 Antonio Inoki vs. The Great Antonio

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On December 8, 1977, famous Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki fought a much bigger, hairier guy also named Antonio. He was a Croatian-Canadian who called himself the Great Antonio because apparently the defining features of greatness are hobo facial hair and D-cup breasts.



By that definition, Taft was America's greatest president.

He built a career as a strongman pulling city buses and airplanes across the tarmac, but he hadn't done much professional wrestling. Without knowing much about the guy, Inoki still agreed to a match, likely thinking, "How hard can it be to out-wrestle a fat guy in a rolled-down April O'Neil jumpsuit?"

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Before the match, they agreed that the advantage would swing between the fighters for awhile, but Inoki would ultimately come out on top. It was, after all, in Japan, and the home crowd wanted to see Inoki destroy this sloppy Western villain. The Great Antonio was more than willing to play the antagonist in the bout -- he was so eager, in fact, that he antagonized Inoki into actually beating the piss out of him.

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Antonio Inoki, seen here dressed as Che Guevara for some reason.

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When It Got Real

While strength, dexterity and a fancy finishing move are all important to professional wrestling, the primary ingredient is acting -- you have to know how to throw yourself across the ring even though your opponent only nudged you. But about two minutes into the match, the Great Antonio made it very clear that he wasn't going to be doing any of that.

In fact, you can almost see the moment when he realizes, "Wait a minute, only one of us has 'The Great' in front of his name. I should be winning." So when Inoki threw a kick at him, instead of "selling" the move (that is, stumbling backward as if he'd been hit with a real blow), he just stood there. In other words, he basically just told the crowd, "See? All of this is fake."