Okada wants to try and surpass Antonio Inoki in the category of helping expand NJPW globally.
As the release date of the Antonio Inoki movie was inching closer, talents and representatives of New Japan Pro-Wrestling were doing press to promote the film.
Seven-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada went on a press run and he talked to Number Web. The primary focus of their conversation was the late Inoki and Okada recalled advice he got from him. Inoki told Okada to not try too hard to flatter the audience.
Taking in that advice, Okada now feels that wrestlers who do that never get accepted by the crowd. He used Tetsuya Naito as an example, citing when he joined Los Ingobernables de Japon, he stopped trying to please people and in turn, gained more fans.
In this conversation, (Antonio) Inoki says, ‘I, myself, do not intend to deny the current state of professional wrestling at all,’ but added, ‘One thing I want to say is don’t flatter the audience.’
I personally feel that it is no good to flatter the audience. Wrestlers who flatter the audience are not accepted by the fans. I think that was the case with Tetsuya Naito in the past (laughs). But after he became a member of Los Ingos, he started to do whatever he wanted without flattering people, and on the contrary, he began to attract a lot of fans. If you are trying to flatter the audience, the audience will see right through you.
Okada would go on to state that he wants to surpass Antonio Inoki. He knows people will say that’s impossible, but he thinks the only way to do it is to make wrestling more exciting. Okada thinks he does not have ‘that much time’ left as an active wrestler, so he would like to try his best to surpass Inoki as far as helping expand NJPW globally.
I know people might say, ‘It’s impossible to surpass Mr. Inoki,’ but I think the only way to do it is to make pro wrestling more exciting. First of all, I would like to bring the attendance back to the level where it was at the time of Mr. Inoki’s Tokyo Dome, and then I would like to promote pro wrestling in a different way, since there are now video distribution services on the internet and so on.
In the past, Mr. Inoki also focused on overseas strategies and tried to bring New Japan wrestling to the world, but times have changed and there are many New Japan fans overseas through the internet, so I would like to exceed what Mr. Inoki did in this way. I don’t think I have that much time left in my career, so I want to do my best.
Prior to Inoki’s passing in October 2022, NJPW planned for him to appear live at Wrestle Kingdom 17. He had reached an agreement to become the company’s Honorary Chairman for life. That was going to be revealed at NJPW’s 10/10/22 show.
