I’ll preface this by saying that I’m only covering the ones on NJPW World, which sadly isn’t all of them.

Antonio Inoki is of course the face of early NJPW and the one who founded the company back in 1972. Much like Undertaker’s unbeatable streak of 21 wins at Wrestlemania, Inoki’s 10 G1/World League/ect wins will likely never be matched with the 2nd place being 5 wins for Masahiro Chono.

Short of someone taking over NJPW booking and really wanting to elevate themselves, no one will ever get 10 again or even 5 which seems like plenty. To be fair, wrestling was smaller in the 1970′s and 1980′s when Inoki won all of these and didn’t win 10 in a row, these 10 wins are over a 14 year period.



Antonio Inoki vs Seiji Sakaguchi 1974′s Inaugural World League (The video includes all 3 of the tiebreaker bracket matches, this particular match starts at about 15 minutes in)

(Card with Guide)

Tournament Format

Format for the first ever World League was interesting, 2 groups of 8, 1 Japanese and the other Gaijin(foreigners). The first round would see 8 Gaijin vs 8 Japanese guys in singles matches that awarded points, with the 4 on each side who had the most points advancing to another bracket.

The winner of that bracket was to be crowned winner, but they had a 3 way tie : Antonio Inoki, Seiji Sakaguchi and Killer Karl Krupp. Who had a tie breaker bracket.

I chose to have Antonio Inoki vs Seiji Sakaguchi be the representative of this tie breaker bracket as it was the longest match and certainly the best of the 3.

How is it?

Good, though it might be like watching a movie in Russian for some. It’s a good peek into the catch wrestling roots of NJPW. Inoki and many of his peers from this era learned of catch wrestling from Frank Gotch. Inoki would call his style “Strong Style”, which of course is still used to label Japanese wrestling.

Seiji Sakaguchi is one of Inoki’s peers both having wrestled in the NJPW/AJPW precursor JWA which of course was founded by The founding father of Japanese Pro Wrestling Rikidozan. Seiji Sakaguchi was never as high on the totem pole as Inoki(not many were), still he had a decent career in NJPW and would win this tournament himself twice in his career.

This match is probably the lowest rated for me as the finish is screwy and kinda makes the previous 20 minutes feel like a waste and the villain Killer Karl Krupp didn’t age particularly well and both his matches in this tiebreaker bracket aren’t exactly thrilling.

My Highlight of the match :

Antonio Inoki vs Andre the Giant 1978′s MSG League Finals

(Card with guide)

Tournament Format

9 man round robin tournament with the 2 top point scorers going onto a final round vs one another. Andre destroyed in scoring having 37 points to Inoki’s 29.

How was it?

It’s up there amongst my favorite from this series of G1′s. If I told you a guy from Europe who is going to target the super over Japanese baby faces limbs with expert precision, you’d probably assume ZSJ vs Okada.

Nope, Andre vs Inoki nearly 40 years ago. It may seem like hyperbole, but I think I can say with certainty that this is the best Andre the Giant match I’ve ever seen. I loved every second of it and cannot believe the big guys work rate here. One of the most surprising things I’ve seen since I started this blog. Which granted has only been 2 months, but I think it’ll stay at the top of the list for a long while.

The ending again is a little wonky, but at least it’s not a screwy finish followed by a 5 minute squash.

My highlight of the match

(Card with Guide)

Tournament Format

Not exactly sure, wikipedia lists the the end of the IWGP League as the 14th of June, but Hulk Hogan wasn’t in that. So think this was a 12 man round robin, instead of having a final, the final was for the IWGP title which Hulk Hogan was holding at the time. Like now how the winner faces the IWGP champ at WK.

How was it?

Good, one of the first things I think many smarky wrestling fans learn as a fun fact is that Hulk Hogan had a decent work rate in NJPW. Which is true, Hulkster here still has his leg drop here, but will mix in suplexes and armbars too.

This is a really run match and is basically the wrestling equivalent of Batman vs Punisher or Superman vs The Hulk, two icons matching up in the ring. The false finish after false finish makes the ending fall a little flat. One of the nice things from this entry onward on the list : the finishes stop being so screwy. Though the less than stellar finishes of these first three matches might lessen them slightly, I think all three are great Inoki bouts.

My highlight of the match

(Card with guide)

Tournament Format

2 Blocks of 7 a piece, the two top point winners of each block going on to a semi-final round then the winners of each of those doing a final. Inoki went over Andre in the semi-finals while Dick Murdoch went over Akira Maeda.



How’s the match?

Oh it’s a blast, Inoki is at his most babyface here. With Dick taunting him loudly throughout the match and Inoki being cheered loudly from the very start people are chanting, ‘INOKI! INOKI! INOKI!’ which also happened in the Andre match causing frustration for both these Gaiji finalists.

This match is the longest out of this group and even the longest accounting for the ones that aren’t on NJPW World. It gives it an epic feel clocking in at just over 30 minutes. These two throw everything at one another. This is also a great show of how Inoki and NJPW’s style evolved over the years. While Dick works Inoki’s arm and there is plenty of submission holds, the mixing in of grappling helps vary the offense and keep this bout from feeling too long.

My highlight of the match

Antonio Inoki vs Masa Saito 1987′s International Wrestling Grand Prix Final

(card with guide)

Tournament Format

2, 7 men block the point winners of each going on to take each other on in the finals, the winner being crowned IWGP Champion.

How’s the match?

Hard hitting and rather brutal, the two men at the time had a heated rivalry going on. Which most famously had them have a brutal war vs one another called ‘Ganryujima Island Death‘ which was a 2 hour+ match with each another on an island, April 10th 1987 before this match took place in the Summer.

So by this time both men hated each other and Masa Saito shows it throughout the match. Perhaps the best spot imo had to be when Saito just cleanly clotheslines Inoki right off the apron. A great pairing of the two and a great final for Inoki.

My highlight of the match

Finals I couldn’t find : Killer Karl Krupp vs Antonio Inoki finals of the 1975 World League, Stan Hansen vs Antonio Inoki which were the 1979/1980/1981 MSG Finals, Antonio Inoki vs Hulk Hogan 1983 MSG Finals(Which Inoki didn’t win), and Antonio Inoki vs Riki Choshu, they tied in points for the league 6 a piece. I think they probably fought to determine who won, but I cannot find it on NJPW World, though Inoki did get the right to fight Fujinami for the title which is on NJPW World.

My personal ranking for the ones listed here :

1. Dick Murdoch ‘86

2. Andre The Giant ‘78

3. Masa Saito ‘87

4. Hulk Hogan ‘84

5. Seiji Sakaguchi ‘74