>>18379634So there was this Korean drunk dude in Japan after World War 2, and the Americans wouldn't let the japs win at any real sports and were like trying to outlaw their national religion and shit and the japs were all bummed out and old ladies were starving in the street and shit, so they decided to make the drunk korean dude into a wrestler and pretend he was Japanese and pay Americans to job to him to lift national morale. Career was cut short because he got drunk and picked a fight with a Yakuza and got stabbed. Doctor told him he'd be fine but that with his stomach stitched back together he needed to eat light and not drink for a few weeks. He drank and ate himself to death by the end of the week. The crowds that formed when he died were only rivaled in size by crowds for The Emperor and The Olympics, nothing else has ever been even close.
While Rikidozan is not the most famous wrestler world wide, he was more famous in Japan at the time than any wrestler has ever been before or since in any country. Japanese sports equivalent of Babe Ruth to America.
