>>14897501The higher ups were pissed because Rikidozan cut them out of their share of the box office. It was one of those things where it was absolutely ordered by the higher ups, but they disavowed and blamed it on low level thugs to save face because having the biggest celebrity in Japan at the time get assassinated by an illegal criminal syndicate because he refused to give the devil his due was not a good look.
And if you think the expression "biggest celebrity" is an overstatement the Rikidozan/Lou Thesz match was viewed by 87% of all televisions in Japan when it aired. Six years later the Rikidozan/Destroyer match set the record for the largest television audience in Japanese history, a record that he not been broken to this day. 70 million people tuned in to watch Rikidozan defeat The Destroyer.
https://x.com/davemeltzerWON/status/1572992041277333504 