RIP to rapper Coolio, best known for the song Gangster's Paradise, who passed today at age 59. Cardiac arrest is believed to be the cause of death, bit it has not been confirmed.

-M

RIP to Japanese pro wrestling and cultural icon Antonio Inoki. Inoki began wrestling for the Japanese Wrestling Association, in 1960, along with rival Shohei "Giant" Baba. After the death of JWA star Rikidozan, Baba became the top star and Inoki continued in his shadow. After an attempted power grab, Inoki was fired, in 1971 and, with backing from one of the tv networks, founded New Japan Pro Wrestling, Japan's largest pro wrestling promotion, today. Bab also broke away to form All-Japan Pro Wrestling, which was the dominant promotion, up to the 1990s, thanks to its affiliation with the National Wrestling Alliance and Dory & Terry Funk, who booked American stars to wrestle there. Inoki made an alliance with Vince McMahon Sr and featured WWWF (later WWF) stars and even had a Japan-only title switch with Bob Backlund, in 1979.

Inoki is most famous, here, for his infamous boxer vs wrestler match against Muhammad Ali...



Allegedly, the fight was supposed to be a work, with Ali paid $6 million to participate. The supposed ending was to have Ali "accidentally" knock out the referee and then check to see that he is okay, while Inoki hits him from behind with his enzugiri kick (a jumping kick to the back of the head) and the referee would recover and count Ali out, giving him a face saving loss, due to concern over the ref. The story goes that Ali's management agreed to this, but Ali didn't like the idea of losing and didn't trust Inoki and the Japanese backers to keep their side of things and would try to make him look bad. Inoki had fought a series of worked bouts against boxers and martial artists for several years and defended a World Martial Arts Championship, in New Japan. Ali allegedly refused to do a worked fight and rules were negotiated, prohibiting Inoki from tackling, grappling with or throwing Ali and he could only kick if one knee was on the ground. Gene LeBell, a stuntman, judo champion and pro wrestler (his family promoted wrestling in Los Angeles, at the Olympic Auditorium, as well as boxing at the Olympic), who also had experience in early legit MMA fights (against boxer Milo Savage) was made referee and the fight was held in Tokyo, in 1976, shown on closed circuit tv in the US, along with a fight from New York, with Andre the Giant against Chuck Wepner (the boxer who inspired Rocky). The match was a fiasco, with Inoki mostly staying on the mat and throwing kicks at Ali's legs, while Ali could not punch Inoki on the mat. Ali also appeared on ABC's Wide World of Sport, prior to the match, in exhibition matches against AWA undercard wrestlers Kenny "Sodbuster" Jay and Buddy Wolfe, while Howard Cosell refused to sell the matches as legit,





The whole fight is available on Youtube, but it is hardly worth sitting through.

Inoki also had a big rivalry with Hulk Hogan, competing for the IWGP Tournament championship, back in 1983, when Hogan was wrestling in the AWA. Hogan then went over to the WWF to become their star, as Vince McMahon Jr expanded his father's promotion beyond its Northeastern geographic region. Inoki continued to dominate New Japan, until the 1990s, when he started pushing younger stars, like Keiji "The Great Muta" Mutoh, Kensuke Sasaki and Shinya Hashimoto. Inoki promoted a two-day wrestling event in North Korea, in 1995, in conjunction with WCW and the North Korean government, which saw Inoki defeat Ric Flair before an audience of over 160,000 (basically corralled by the government) spectators, who had never seen pro wrestling before. Inoki appeared on Vice TV's Dark Side of the Ring, in its most recent season, discussing the event.

Inoki was elected to the House of Councillors, the lower legislative house in Japan, in 1989, and used his position, in 1990, to meet with Saddam Hussein and broker the release of Japanese nationals, being held hostage, in the build-up to the Gulf War. He succeeded in getting the release of 36 people and used to publicity to gain re-election, in 1992. He was embroiled in corruption scandals, in 1994 and lost re-election in 1995. He later returned to government, after winning a seat in the Japanese Diet, the upper house, in 2013 and again made trips to North Korea, which angered the Japanese government and led to a suspension, for 30 days, from the Diet.

Inoki appeared, as himself, in several manga, including Baki The Grappler and Tiger Mask, as well as the Tiger Mask animated series. In 1981, Inoki purchased the rights to use the Tiger Mask name for wrestler Satoru Sayama, who became a huge star, in legendary and groundbreaking matches with Dynamite Kid, Marc "Rollerball" Rocco, Villano 3 and Japanese rival Kuniaki Kobayashi.

He appeared, again as himself, in the movie Bad News Bears Go To Japan, where Tony Curtis becomes the coach to the little league team, as they face the Japanese champs. As part of the publicity appearances, the team and Curtis get involved in Inoki's wrestling match and Curtis (doubled by wrestler Hector Guerrero, brother of Chavo and Eddie Guerrero) gets pulled into things. Gene LeBell appears as the manager for Inoki's opponent.

Inoki retired from wrestling in 1997, defeating UFC champion Don Frye in his last worked fight, then reduced his role in New Japan, eventually selling his controlling interest, in 2005.

Inoki was born Kanji Inoki, in a wealthy Yokohama family, in 1943. The post-war years impacted the family finances and Inoki, his brothers, mother and grandfather emigrated to Brazil, in 1957 (his father died when Inoki was 5). He was a track star in Brazil and was recruited to become a wrestler by Japanese star and icon, Rikidozan, and trained alongside Shohei "Giant" Baba, who came from professional baseball. Rikidozan was knifed by a yakuza member, in a nightclub, in 1963 and died of blood poisoning. baba became the star of the Japanese Wrestling Association, with Inoki in his shadow. Inoki left to tour America and returned to short-lived rival promotion Tokyo Pro Wrestling, then returned to the JWA, a year later. He was baba's tag-team partner and still ached to be the star. he attempted a power grab, in 1971 and was fired. he found backing with one of the tv networks and created New Japan Pro Wrestling, in 1972, while Baba and rikidozan's two sons split away from the JWA to form All-Japan Pro Wrestling. The two organizations were the largest promotions in Japan, until the 1990s. All-Japan fell in prominence, after the death of Baba and the defection of most of its roster to form Pro Wrestling Noah. New Japan remained strong and is now the top promotion in Japan and the biggest rival, in terms of popularity around the world, to the WWE.

Well, they are correct in tat he remains dead.

Also passing away is Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Charles Fuller, who wrote A Soldier's Play, about the murder of a black sergeant, in Louisiana, during World War II, when the Army was segregated (later made into the film, A Soldier's Story).