>>14382688The over-hate of Inoki in the western smarks community was because he was the rival of AJPW, the smarks' favorite bingo hall, so the smarks are taught in their cult to view him as the anti-Christ. Inoki understood that wrestling would be seen as gay as soon as Pride & UFC got established, but he failed at trying to turn NJPW into a MMA adjacent promotion. You could understand his gamble through how high the pay off would be if it had succeeded. Tanahashi literally just bend his ass to the West without thinking about how to turn it over, about how to be innovative and hopefully succeed.
