The Rivalry That Launched Inoki-ism (Part Three) By Jim Rohan on Jan 23, 2021, 7:36pm EST +
While New Japan President Tatsumi Fujinami announced plans for Hashimoto against Ogawa at the Tokyo Dome show in April, Inoki had other ideas. He asked the fans if they wanted to see Hashimoto and Ogawa as a tag team for the Rikidozan Memorial show in March, to which the fans cheered. Inoki called them both to the ring. Ogawa tried to shake hands with Hashimoto but was refused, Hashimoto then expressing that he did not want to team with Ogawa before leaving. Inoki persisted, however, and next day announced Hashimoto & Ogawa vs. Takada & Tenryu as a match for the show. Later that day, Takada said that he had a knee injury and had never agreed to the match anyway. Hashimoto maintained he didn t want to team with Ogawa and Fujinami agreed, saying they didn t want the two to team before the big show. The back and forth continued, Ogawa now stating he would only do the match if Hash
The Rivalry That Launched Inoki-ism (Part One) By Jim Rohan on Jan 15, 2021, 7:32pm EST 3
There is one feud in particular that leads us into the Inoki-ism era and that is the rivalry between Shinya Hashimoto and Naoya Ogawa. Hashimoto, alongside Masahiro Chono and Keiji Muto, formed The Three Musketeers whilst on excursion in 1988. The trio returned to New Japan shortly thereafter and quickly began to climb up the rankings in their home promotion. With an amateur background in judo and karate, Hashimoto introduced a martial artist gimmick wherein he utilised shoot striking techniques in his pro-wrestling matches. This lead to Hashimoto taking part in worked mixed martial arts-like bouts in New Japan called ‘Different Style Fights’ – shoot-style pro-wrestling being popular in Japan at the time with rival promotion Union of Wrestling Forces International (more on UWFI here). His style led to success – he first won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in 1993 and by