What’s the story?
We have learned from an old video on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that has surfaced on Reddit that ‘The Beast Incarnate’ Brock Lesnar once wrestled the legendary Antonio Inoki for 1 ½ hours and did not know who he really was.
In case you didn’t know...
Much like Mr. Lesnar, just in case you have no idea who Antonio Inoki is, here is a lesson from Sportskeeda Wrestling. Inoki is the founder of the promotion New Japan Pro Wrestling, a company he controlled until the year 2005.
As a professional wrestler, he main-evented the highest attended wrestling event in history, against Ric Flair in North Korea which drew a record-breaking 190,000 fans to watch the proceedings. He is also considered the forefather of MMA, as he took on Muhammad Ali in an MMA contest in the year 1976. For all his accolades, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in the year 2010.
The heart of the matter
When Dave Meltzer from Wrestling Observer interviewed Lesnar, in this clip which has resurfaced on Reddit, Lesnar said the following about Antonio Inoki, when Meltzer mentioned that Lesnar was exactly the kind of athlete that Inoki would like:
“I didn’t know who Inoki was when Brad (Rheingans from NJPW)...I’d been training with Brad for probably three weeks, out at Brad’s house. I didn't even know that they had this meeting set up for me.”
Lesnar goes on to reveal more about the encounter, “I had no clue who Atonio Inoki was and Brad put me in the ring with him and we started shooting on each other. I had no idea who he was.”
Lesnar went on to talk about how he wrestled Inoki for one and half hours straight, and tried some pinfall and submission combinations during the entire incident. Talk about a clash of the legends without one even realising it!
What’s next?
Brock Lesnar faces Samoa Joe this weekend, at the Great Balls of Fire pay-per-view. Thankfully, we believe that he remembers his opponent Samoa Joe’s name, at least for now.
Author’s take
Brock Lesnar has been accused of not caring enough about professional wrestling at times, and this startling incident certainly leads us to believe that this is the case. Just goes to prove that, sometimes the biggest draws are not necessarily the biggest fans.
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