WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.259 Welcome in. It's so great to have you with us 00:00:03.259 --> 00:00:06.129 today for another Custom -tailored deep dive. 00:00:06.429 --> 00:00:08.310 Yeah, we've got a really fascinating one lined 00:00:08.310 --> 00:00:10.669 up today. We really do. You know, looking over 00:00:10.669 --> 00:00:12.609 the notes for what we are getting into today, 00:00:12.730 --> 00:00:15.550 I really have to hand it to you. You have a real 00:00:15.550 --> 00:00:17.969 talent for finding the most fascinating hidden 00:00:17.969 --> 00:00:20.609 corners of history. It's true. The source material 00:00:20.609 --> 00:00:23.550 you sent over is just gold. Totally. Today we 00:00:23.550 --> 00:00:25.589 are looking at a slice of sports entertainment 00:00:25.589 --> 00:00:29.149 that is so incredibly bizarre, it almost feels 00:00:29.149 --> 00:00:31.370 like, well, like a surrealist work of fiction. 00:00:31.609 --> 00:00:34.420 Right. But it is entirely real. Completely real. 00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:37.859 We are diving deep into the very first top prize 00:00:37.859 --> 00:00:41.380 of New Japan Pro Wrestling, or NJPW. Which is 00:00:41.380 --> 00:00:44.039 huge. Huge. We are talking about a title officially 00:00:44.039 --> 00:00:45.859 known as the World Heavyweight Championship, 00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:48.539 but much more commonly referred to by wrestling 00:00:48.539 --> 00:00:51.759 historians as the Real World Championship. It 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:54.740 is a truly remarkable piece of history. Especially 00:00:54.740 --> 00:00:58.189 when you step back and consider... the sheer 00:00:58.189 --> 00:01:01.030 scale and the global phenomena that New Japan 00:01:01.030 --> 00:01:03.070 Pro Wrestling is today. Right, they're massive 00:01:03.070 --> 00:01:06.450 now. Exactly. We are essentially looking at the... 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:09.859 absolute ground floor of a massive organization. 00:01:10.359 --> 00:01:13.019 And what makes this so captivating for us to 00:01:13.019 --> 00:01:16.319 explore today is just how incredibly chaotic, 00:01:16.659 --> 00:01:19.379 almost improvised, that ground floor really was. 00:01:19.540 --> 00:01:21.299 Improvised is the perfect word. I mean, chaotic 00:01:21.299 --> 00:01:23.359 almost feels like an understatement when you 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:25.359 look at the timeline. Oh, absolutely. I want 00:01:25.359 --> 00:01:28.260 to hook you right away with just how absurd this 00:01:28.260 --> 00:01:30.939 championship's run was. So the real world championship 00:01:30.939 --> 00:01:34.579 existed for less than a single calendar year. 00:01:34.799 --> 00:01:38.950 Less than a year. Back in 1972, across its entire 00:01:38.950 --> 00:01:42.030 existence, it only ever had two champions. Just 00:01:42.030 --> 00:01:44.569 two. It only saw one, exactly one successful 00:01:44.569 --> 00:01:46.950 title defense. Which is wild. And wait, it gets 00:01:46.950 --> 00:01:49.700 better. The physical championship belt itself, 00:01:49.939 --> 00:01:52.819 it was a recycled piece of hardware from a completely 00:01:52.819 --> 00:01:55.500 different, completely unaffiliated wrestling 00:01:55.500 --> 00:01:58.000 promotion. Which is a staggering detail when 00:01:58.000 --> 00:01:59.900 you think about the underlying business of professional 00:01:59.900 --> 00:02:02.120 wrestling. Yeah, how does that even work? Well, 00:02:02.140 --> 00:02:04.000 in this industry, championships are the ultimate 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:06.659 symbols of an organization's legitimacy. Right. 00:02:06.739 --> 00:02:09.500 They are the narrative engine. So discovering 00:02:09.500 --> 00:02:11.219 that one of the most respected promotions on 00:02:11.219 --> 00:02:13.680 the planet started their lineage with a hand 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:16.219 -me -down belt. A literal hand -me -down. Exactly. 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:19.599 It really challenges our assumptions about how 00:02:19.599 --> 00:02:22.620 successful enterprises begin. So our mission 00:02:22.620 --> 00:02:26.159 today is to extract the ultimate aha moments 00:02:26.159 --> 00:02:29.360 from this obscure, almost forgotten slice of 00:02:29.360 --> 00:02:31.759 history. Let's do it. We want to figure out how 00:02:31.759 --> 00:02:35.460 such a messy startup style experiment actually 00:02:35.460 --> 00:02:39.539 fits into the grand legacy of a major wrestling 00:02:39.539 --> 00:02:41.879 promotion. A great mission. Okay, let's unpack 00:02:41.879 --> 00:02:43.979 this foundation first because we need to go back 00:02:43.979 --> 00:02:46.319 to the very beginning. Right, so we are situating 00:02:46.319 --> 00:02:50.860 ourselves in the year 1972. 1972. And JPW is... 00:02:50.919 --> 00:02:53.280 newly established. As a brand new entity trying 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:56.939 to draw crowds and secure television time, they 00:02:56.939 --> 00:02:58.560 obviously need a top heavyweight championship 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:00.780 to build their events around. Naturally, you 00:03:00.780 --> 00:03:02.659 need a prize. You need a pinnacle of success 00:03:02.659 --> 00:03:04.939 for your roster to chase and for the fans to 00:03:04.939 --> 00:03:07.360 care about. But instead of commissioning a grand, 00:03:07.560 --> 00:03:11.439 expensive, new championship belt to signify a 00:03:11.439 --> 00:03:13.219 fresh start and a clear vision. Which is what 00:03:13.219 --> 00:03:16.569 you'd expect. Exactly. NJPW takes a completely 00:03:16.569 --> 00:03:20.169 unorthodox route. They simply bill a wrestler 00:03:20.169 --> 00:03:23.110 named Carl Gotch as their inaugural champion. 00:03:23.210 --> 00:03:25.030 Hold on. They just declared him the champion. 00:03:25.169 --> 00:03:28.289 Just declared it. No inaugural tournament. No 00:03:28.289 --> 00:03:30.770 epic crowning moment to kickstart the company's 00:03:30.770 --> 00:03:33.250 legacy. Nothing like that. And if we look at 00:03:33.250 --> 00:03:35.770 the physical manifestation of that title, what's 00:03:35.770 --> 00:03:38.590 fascinating here is that. NJPW didn't actually 00:03:38.590 --> 00:03:40.889 mint a new belt. He didn't make a belt at all. 00:03:40.990 --> 00:03:43.729 No. To represent this newly minted real world 00:03:43.729 --> 00:03:46.870 championship, they used an existing belt, or 00:03:46.870 --> 00:03:49.409 perhaps a replica of it, from the American Wrestling 00:03:49.409 --> 00:03:52.229 Alliance's AWA World Heavyweight Championship 00:03:52.229 --> 00:03:56.310 out of Ohio. Out of Ohio. Yes. And there's a 00:03:56.310 --> 00:03:59.210 very specific, crucial distinction to make here. 00:03:59.310 --> 00:04:01.689 This should not be confused with the much more 00:04:01.689 --> 00:04:04.729 famous AWA World Heavyweight Championship promoted 00:04:04.729 --> 00:04:06.770 by Vern Gagne up in Minnesota. Right, right. 00:04:07.069 --> 00:04:09.009 The Minnesota one is the famous one. Those are 00:04:09.009 --> 00:04:10.789 two entirely separate entities. This was the 00:04:10.789 --> 00:04:14.069 Ohio one. Wait, Ohio? For a national Japanese 00:04:14.069 --> 00:04:16.350 promotion? Yep. How did they think the audience 00:04:16.350 --> 00:04:18.750 wouldn't notice they were just recycling an American 00:04:18.750 --> 00:04:22.170 regional belt? Was information just that siloed 00:04:22.170 --> 00:04:24.970 in 1972? You really have to consider the era 00:04:24.970 --> 00:04:27.089 and the geographical disconnect. Information 00:04:27.089 --> 00:04:29.129 wasn't exactly globalized. I guess there was 00:04:29.129 --> 00:04:31.629 no internet to just look it up. Exactly. But 00:04:31.629 --> 00:04:34.470 there was a historical justification they used 00:04:34.470 --> 00:04:37.500 to try and make it work. Oh. Carl Gotch actually 00:04:37.500 --> 00:04:40.879 legitimately held that specific AWA Ohio championship 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:44.600 years prior. Really? Yes. He held it from September 00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:49.420 11th, 1962 to September 7th, 1964. So almost 00:04:49.420 --> 00:04:52.939 a decade earlier. Precisely. So by taking a physical 00:04:52.939 --> 00:04:55.350 belt from his past. and presenting it as the 00:04:55.350 --> 00:04:58.129 top prize of this new Japanese promotion in 1972, 00:04:58.589 --> 00:05:02.110 NJPW was bizarrely retrofitting past glory from 00:05:02.110 --> 00:05:04.829 an entirely different continent to legitimize 00:05:04.829 --> 00:05:06.750 their brand new company in the present. It's 00:05:06.750 --> 00:05:09.269 just such a wild leap of logic. It really is. 00:05:09.350 --> 00:05:11.029 When you think about it in everyday terms, it 00:05:11.029 --> 00:05:13.329 is exactly like deciding to start a brand new 00:05:13.329 --> 00:05:15.290 company out of your garage, immediately declaring 00:05:15.290 --> 00:05:17.980 yourself employee of the month. And to prove 00:05:17.980 --> 00:05:21.060 it, you just bring in an old, dusty bowling trophy 00:05:21.060 --> 00:05:23.899 you won at your last job 10 years ago and put 00:05:23.899 --> 00:05:26.139 it on your desk. That is a perfect way to visualize 00:05:26.139 --> 00:05:28.220 it. Look, I have a trophy, therefore this is 00:05:28.220 --> 00:05:31.019 a prestigious award. It highlights the deeply 00:05:31.019 --> 00:05:33.439 improvisational nature of building something 00:05:33.439 --> 00:05:38.279 from nothing. In 1972, NJPW didn't have the time, 00:05:38.279 --> 00:05:41.220 or perhaps the financial resources, to build 00:05:41.220 --> 00:05:43.980 a legacy organically over years of storytelling. 00:05:44.259 --> 00:05:46.879 They needed instant credibility. Exactly. Carl 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:49.420 Gotch had international respect, so they borrowed 00:05:49.420 --> 00:05:52.560 a piece of his resume and a defunct Ohio wrestling 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:55.459 territory's hardware to create an illusion of 00:05:55.459 --> 00:05:57.759 prestige. But building an illusion is one thing, 00:05:57.759 --> 00:06:00.519 maintaining it is another, because the timeline 00:06:00.519 --> 00:06:02.860 of Gotch's reign makes absolutely no sense for 00:06:02.860 --> 00:06:04.540 the wrestling business. No sense at all. Carl 00:06:04.540 --> 00:06:06.839 Gotch is recognized as the inaugural champion 00:06:06.839 --> 00:06:09.399 with his reign supposedly beginning no earlier 00:06:09.399 --> 00:06:12.920 than January 13th, 1972. Right. And then nothing 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:14.970 happens. He just holds it. You just hold it. 00:06:15.069 --> 00:06:17.689 For months. All the way from January until October, 00:06:17.850 --> 00:06:20.290 there's not a single successful title defense 00:06:20.290 --> 00:06:23.269 on record for this supposedly prestigious top 00:06:23.269 --> 00:06:26.689 prize. Which is commercial suicide in the territory 00:06:26.689 --> 00:06:29.629 days. Completely. For a brand new promotion trying 00:06:29.629 --> 00:06:33.449 to sell tickets in 1972 Tokyo, freezing your 00:06:33.449 --> 00:06:36.829 world title picture for nine months by keeping 00:06:36.829 --> 00:06:40.009 it on gotch without a single defense goes against 00:06:40.009 --> 00:06:41.949 every instinct of the industry. Because you need 00:06:41.949 --> 00:06:44.060 the matches. You rely on titles. Vital defenses 00:06:44.060 --> 00:06:46.920 to generate friction, to drive the box office, 00:06:47.079 --> 00:06:49.420 to give the fans a reason to buy a ticket to 00:06:49.420 --> 00:06:52.120 the next show. Exactly. A champion walking around 00:06:52.120 --> 00:06:53.899 with a prop but never putting it on the line 00:06:53.899 --> 00:06:55.920 is just a guy in a fancy jacket. That's all it 00:06:55.920 --> 00:06:57.439 is. He's just walking around with this borrowed 00:06:57.439 --> 00:07:00.379 trophy for nine months. But here's where it gets 00:07:00.379 --> 00:07:03.620 really interesting. We finally hit October 1972, 00:07:03.959 --> 00:07:06.500 and the gears finally start turning. The new 00:07:06.500 --> 00:07:09.319 Golden Series. Yes, NJPW is running an event 00:07:09.319 --> 00:07:11.980 called the New Golden Series. The date is October 00:07:11.980 --> 00:07:15.980 4th, 1972, and the location is Tokyo. On this 00:07:15.980 --> 00:07:18.759 night, Carl Gotch finally loses the championship. 00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:22.160 Finally. A wrestler named Antonio Inoki defeats 00:07:22.160 --> 00:07:24.480 Gotch to win the real world championship. And 00:07:24.480 --> 00:07:26.939 the specific mechanics of how Inoki won that 00:07:26.939 --> 00:07:30.040 match are incredibly telling about the backstage 00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:33.000 politics and the delicate balancing of egos at 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:35.060 the time. Oh, totally. Because it wasn't a clean 00:07:35.060 --> 00:07:38.480 win, was it? No. Antonio Inoki didn't win by 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:41.040 a decisive pinfall or a submission in the center 00:07:41.040 --> 00:07:44.279 of the ring. He won the championship via countout. 00:07:44.589 --> 00:07:47.810 A count -out for a world title change? That is 00:07:47.810 --> 00:07:51.250 incredibly rare. Extremely rare. Usually a count 00:07:51.250 --> 00:07:53.709 -out or disqualification means the title doesn't 00:07:53.709 --> 00:07:56.149 change hands precisely because it feels like 00:07:56.149 --> 00:07:58.810 a cheap finish. Why would they book their grand 00:07:58.810 --> 00:08:01.709 title change with such a murky conclusion? It 00:08:01.709 --> 00:08:03.910 is all about protecting the aura of the talent. 00:08:04.649 --> 00:08:06.829 Carl Gotch was viewed with immense reverence. 00:08:07.149 --> 00:08:09.230 Having him lose cleanly might have been seen 00:08:09.230 --> 00:08:12.009 as damaging to his mystique. Or Gotch just didn't 00:08:12.009 --> 00:08:14.959 want to lose cleanly. Exactly. Perhaps Gotch 00:08:14.959 --> 00:08:17.480 himself was protective of his image. A count 00:08:17.480 --> 00:08:19.480 -out allows the title to change hands, giving 00:08:19.480 --> 00:08:21.699 Enoki the championship, while giving Gotch an 00:08:21.699 --> 00:08:24.600 out. So he wasn't technically overpowered. Right, 00:08:24.660 --> 00:08:26.639 he was just caught outside the ring. And adding 00:08:26.639 --> 00:08:29.180 to the spectacle, and really trying to lend credibility 00:08:29.180 --> 00:08:32.440 to this murky finish, the special guest referee 00:08:32.440 --> 00:08:36.759 for this match was the legendary Luthez. Bringing 00:08:36.759 --> 00:08:39.340 in Luthez as a referee is such a fascinating 00:08:39.340 --> 00:08:41.360 band -aid. It's a great trick. It's almost as 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:43.740 if the promotion knew a count -out title change 00:08:43.740 --> 00:08:46.320 would feel cheap, so they draft in one of the 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:48.399 most respected names in the history of the sport 00:08:48.399 --> 00:08:51.419 to stand in the ring and validate it. Yep. Look, 00:08:51.559 --> 00:08:53.860 Luthez raised his hand, so it counts. Precisely. 00:08:53.860 --> 00:08:56.500 They are using external prestige to prop up their 00:08:56.500 --> 00:08:59.039 own internal booking. It's so smart, honestly. 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:02.519 It is. But the madness doesn't stop at the finish 00:09:02.519 --> 00:09:05.779 of the match. So Antonio Noki is now the champion. 00:09:06.440 --> 00:09:08.799 He is only the second person to ever hold this 00:09:08.799 --> 00:09:10.980 title. Right. Yet according to the timeline, 00:09:11.240 --> 00:09:14.399 his reign is the stuff of absolute trivia legend. 00:09:15.740 --> 00:09:18.019 Inoki holds the record for the shortest reign 00:09:18.019 --> 00:09:19.899 in the history of the real world championship. 00:09:20.379 --> 00:09:24.389 He held the title for a mere six days. Six? Days. 00:09:24.389 --> 00:09:26.870 You spend nine months building to a title change, 00:09:27.169 --> 00:09:30.009 you execute it with a convoluted count -out finish 00:09:30.009 --> 00:09:33.850 involving Luthez, and you pull the plug in less 00:09:33.850 --> 00:09:36.190 than a week. Less than a week. But despite having 00:09:36.190 --> 00:09:39.210 this blink -and -you -miss -it reign, Inoki achieves 00:09:39.210 --> 00:09:41.190 something no one else in the history of this 00:09:41.190 --> 00:09:43.830 championship ever did. What's that? He is the 00:09:43.830 --> 00:09:46.830 only person to ever successfully defend it. It 00:09:46.830 --> 00:09:49.789 is a massive historical irony. The guy with the 00:09:49.789 --> 00:09:52.330 six -day reign is the only one who actually treated 00:09:52.330 --> 00:09:54.210 it like an active championship. Because remember, 00:09:54.409 --> 00:09:56.549 Gotch held the title from January to October 00:09:56.549 --> 00:10:00.570 with zero defenses. Zero. Inoki wins it on October 00:10:00.570 --> 00:10:04.090 4th. Just five days later, on day 12 of the new 00:10:04.090 --> 00:10:06.710 Golden Series, which falls on October 9th, 1972, 00:10:07.210 --> 00:10:09.970 Inoki puts the real world championship on the 00:10:09.970 --> 00:10:12.009 line. He actually defends it. He defends it. 00:10:12.090 --> 00:10:14.710 And who does he secure this lone historical defense 00:10:14.710 --> 00:10:17.389 against? A wrestler with the incredible moniker 00:10:17.389 --> 00:10:21.279 of... Red Pimpernel. Red Pimpernel. You really 00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:22.960 have to pause on a name like that. You really 00:10:22.960 --> 00:10:26.360 do. Red Pimpernel. It stands out sharply because 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:29.600 it contrasts so violently with the serious sport 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:33.000 -like presentation we associate with terms like 00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:35.740 real world championship. Right. It doesn't sound 00:10:35.740 --> 00:10:37.919 very sporting. It reminds us of the carnival 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:40.840 roots and the theatricality that has always been 00:10:40.840 --> 00:10:43.389 embedded in the industry. You have this title 00:10:43.389 --> 00:10:46.190 desperately trying to establish legitimate sporting 00:10:46.190 --> 00:10:49.230 prestige, and its only validated defense is against 00:10:49.230 --> 00:10:51.830 a guy named Red Pimpernel. It feels like a fever 00:10:51.830 --> 00:10:54.169 dream. It is the single data point of success 00:10:54.169 --> 00:10:56.710 for the entire championship. Just that one match. 00:10:56.889 --> 00:10:59.389 So Inoki survives the challenge of the Red Pimpernel 00:10:59.389 --> 00:11:02.460 on October 9th. But his momentum hits a brick 00:11:02.460 --> 00:11:04.980 wall immediately. The very next day. The very 00:11:04.980 --> 00:11:08.139 next day, October 10th, 1972, the new Golden 00:11:08.139 --> 00:11:11.600 Series rolls into Osaka. And the unthinkable 00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:14.639 happens. Carl Gotch defeats Antonio Inoki to 00:11:14.639 --> 00:11:17.220 win the title right back. Making Gotch the inaugural 00:11:17.220 --> 00:11:19.919 champion, the wrestler with the most reigns at 00:11:19.919 --> 00:11:22.240 a grand total of two, and ultimately the final 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:24.730 champion. Gotch gets his second reign. But if 00:11:24.730 --> 00:11:27.049 we connect this to the bigger picture, this is 00:11:27.049 --> 00:11:29.090 where the story shifts from being a quirky piece 00:11:29.090 --> 00:11:31.590 of trivia into a bizarre study in organizational 00:11:31.590 --> 00:11:34.450 behavior. Oh, without a doubt. Because what happens 00:11:34.450 --> 00:11:37.990 after that October 10th match in Osaka is the 00:11:37.990 --> 00:11:40.850 most baffling part of this entire timeline. The 00:11:40.850 --> 00:11:43.629 real world championship was deactivated immediately. 00:11:44.269 --> 00:11:48.350 October 10th, 1972 is listed as the date it was 00:11:48.350 --> 00:11:51.610 abandoned. Abandoned is the key word there. The 00:11:51.610 --> 00:11:53.990 documentation is entirely unequivocal on this 00:11:53.990 --> 00:11:56.269 point. It states the championship was abandoned 00:11:56.269 --> 00:11:59.429 without any formal announcement. Just gone. Let 00:11:59.429 --> 00:12:02.350 that sink in. There was no grand retirement ceremony 00:12:02.350 --> 00:12:05.250 in the ring. There was no storyline reason given 00:12:05.250 --> 00:12:07.649 to the ticket buying public. There was no unification 00:12:07.649 --> 00:12:10.029 match with another belt to transfer the lineage. 00:12:10.289 --> 00:12:13.240 They went to Osaka. Gotch won the belt back from 00:12:13.240 --> 00:12:15.740 Inoki and then the title just vanished into the 00:12:15.740 --> 00:12:17.899 ether. Yeah. They packed up the recycled Ohio 00:12:17.899 --> 00:12:20.779 AWA belt and never spoke of it again as their 00:12:20.779 --> 00:12:23.460 top prize. To just ghost your own world championship. 00:12:23.679 --> 00:12:25.659 I mean, could it have been a political issue 00:12:25.659 --> 00:12:28.200 backstage? You mentioned Gotch and Inoki had 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:30.980 massive egos and highly protected auras. Is it 00:12:30.980 --> 00:12:32.840 possible the belt was dropped because they simply 00:12:32.840 --> 00:12:34.759 couldn't agree on who should look stronger long 00:12:34.759 --> 00:12:37.360 term? That's a strong possibility. Yeah. Or did 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:39.480 the audience just completely reject the Ohio 00:12:39.480 --> 00:12:42.299 belt once they realized what it was? Both are 00:12:42.299 --> 00:12:45.720 incredibly strong theories. And frankly, in the 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:48.179 volatile world of 1970s wrestling promotions, 00:12:48.480 --> 00:12:52.059 it was likely a combination of factors. The audience 00:12:52.059 --> 00:12:54.399 might not have bought into the recycled prestige. 00:12:54.480 --> 00:12:57.299 Yeah. The locker room politics between Gotch 00:12:57.299 --> 00:13:00.019 and Inoki might have made booking the title a 00:13:00.019 --> 00:13:02.980 complete nightmare. But fundamentally. It speaks 00:13:02.980 --> 00:13:06.000 volumes about the chaotic trial and error nature 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:08.759 of startup ventures. Absolutely. Whether you 00:13:08.759 --> 00:13:11.139 are selling wrestling tickets or software, when 00:13:11.139 --> 00:13:13.340 you are building something from scratch, you 00:13:13.340 --> 00:13:15.860 don't always have the luxury of perfectly planned 00:13:15.860 --> 00:13:18.700 long -term exit strategies for your experiments. 00:13:18.899 --> 00:13:21.220 And the real world championship was clearly an 00:13:21.220 --> 00:13:23.840 experiment. A deeply flawed one. They tried something 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:26.820 borrowing Carl Gotch's old credibility to bypass 00:13:26.820 --> 00:13:28.840 the hard work of building their own. And for 00:13:28.840 --> 00:13:31.440 whatever internal reason, it collapsed. It just 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:33.700 didn't work. But here is the organizational takeaway. 00:13:33.960 --> 00:13:36.720 When something isn't working, you don't throw 00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:38.740 a parade to announce you are pivoting. You just 00:13:38.740 --> 00:13:41.240 pivot. Right. You quietly drop the minimum viable 00:13:41.240 --> 00:13:43.940 product that failed, you absorb the financial 00:13:43.940 --> 00:13:46.620 or narrative loss, and you move your resources 00:13:46.620 --> 00:13:49.080 to the next iteration. When you step back from 00:13:49.080 --> 00:13:51.220 the timeline, so what does this all mean for 00:13:51.220 --> 00:13:53.899 the company's trajectory? Well, they dropped 00:13:53.899 --> 00:13:56.360 the real world championship on October 10th. 00:13:56.559 --> 00:13:59.139 But they are still a wrestling promotion operating 00:13:59.139 --> 00:14:02.259 in Japan. Which means they fundamentally still 00:14:02.259 --> 00:14:05.759 need a top prize. What came next? Did they just 00:14:05.759 --> 00:14:08.340 invent another title out of thin air? They pivoted 00:14:08.340 --> 00:14:10.360 to something with a bit more structural integrity. 00:14:10.700 --> 00:14:14.740 The top spot in NJPW did not stay vacant. The 00:14:14.740 --> 00:14:16.639 progression shows that the real world championship 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:19.759 was directly succeeded by the NWF heavyweight 00:14:19.759 --> 00:14:22.519 championship. Okay. That became the new focal 00:14:22.519 --> 00:14:25.139 point for the promotion. NWF Heavyweight Championship. 00:14:25.399 --> 00:14:26.820 That already sounds like a much more formal, 00:14:26.860 --> 00:14:29.259 established name. So they traded up from the 00:14:29.259 --> 00:14:31.759 borrowed Ohio belt to a new focal point. Trading 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:33.899 up makes sense. But this raises an important 00:14:33.899 --> 00:14:36.559 question regarding how we view legacy. How do 00:14:36.559 --> 00:14:39.940 we reconcile this incredibly messy, single defense, 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:42.700 unceremoniously dumped championship with the 00:14:42.700 --> 00:14:45.940 pristine, highly revered image of New Japan pro 00:14:45.940 --> 00:14:48.080 wrestling today? Because it's so different now. 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:50.059 Because when you look at the totality of their 00:14:50.059 --> 00:14:54.129 history, the contrast is simply staggering. It 00:14:54.129 --> 00:14:57.389 really is night and day. Today, you look at their 00:14:57.389 --> 00:15:00.629 meticulously structured tier system. You have 00:15:00.629 --> 00:15:04.309 the IWGP heavyweight and the IWGP global heavyweight 00:15:04.309 --> 00:15:07.710 titles serving as clear, undisputed pinnacles. 00:15:08.049 --> 00:15:09.769 Unquestionable. You have the never open weight 00:15:09.769 --> 00:15:12.830 division. You have established formal partnerships 00:15:12.830 --> 00:15:15.610 with massive global promotions like All Elite 00:15:15.610 --> 00:15:19.269 Wrestling. It is an intricate, highly polished, 00:15:19.490 --> 00:15:22.549 globally respected machine where lineages are 00:15:22.549 --> 00:15:25.320 treated with... The utmost reverence. Precisely. 00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:27.860 The modern iteration of the company tracks every 00:15:27.860 --> 00:15:30.240 single day of a title reign, every single defense 00:15:30.240 --> 00:15:32.919 with absolute precision. And I think this is 00:15:32.919 --> 00:15:34.879 the core takeaway for you as you absorb this 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:37.059 deep dive. What's that? When you look at any 00:15:37.059 --> 00:15:40.639 massive, successful, highly complex organization, 00:15:40.980 --> 00:15:43.559 it is so easy to fall into the trap of assuming 00:15:43.559 --> 00:15:46.059 they emerged fully formed. We look at the polish 00:15:46.059 --> 00:15:47.860 of the present and assume the past was equally 00:15:47.860 --> 00:15:49.840 meticulous. We assume they always knew exactly 00:15:49.840 --> 00:15:52.919 what they were doing. Exactly. But history tells 00:15:52.919 --> 00:15:56.019 a much grittier story. This obscure wrestling 00:15:56.019 --> 00:15:58.860 title proves that even organizations with incredibly 00:15:58.860 --> 00:16:02.710 prestigious, complex modern histories often started 00:16:02.710 --> 00:16:04.950 with duct tape solutions. Hand -me -downs and 00:16:04.950 --> 00:16:07.230 duct tape. They started with bartered trophies, 00:16:07.309 --> 00:16:10.210 improvised timelines, count -out finishes to 00:16:10.210 --> 00:16:12.950 protect fragile egos, and abandoned experiments 00:16:12.950 --> 00:16:15.149 that they simply swept under the reg without 00:16:15.149 --> 00:16:17.549 a word. It honestly makes success feel a lot 00:16:17.549 --> 00:16:19.470 more attainable. You don't have to have a flawless 00:16:19.470 --> 00:16:21.570 blueprint on day one. Sometimes you just have 00:16:21.570 --> 00:16:23.850 to give Carl Gotch a belt from Ohio, see if the 00:16:23.850 --> 00:16:25.669 crowd buys it, and figure the rest out as you 00:16:25.669 --> 00:16:28.440 go. It completely demystifies the process of 00:16:28.440 --> 00:16:33.299 building a legacy. In 1972, NJPW was just trying 00:16:33.299 --> 00:16:36.340 to survive the calendar year. The polished, internationally 00:16:36.340 --> 00:16:39.279 respected legacy came much, much later, built 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:41.559 on the ashes of abandoned ideas like the Real 00:16:41.559 --> 00:16:43.159 World Championship. All right, let's quickly 00:16:43.159 --> 00:16:45.120 recap this whirlwind history to make sure we've 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:47.639 got all these amazing facts locked in. Sounds 00:16:47.639 --> 00:16:49.720 good. The Real World Championship, established 00:16:49.720 --> 00:16:54.679 in 1972, it featured exactly two men, Carl Gotch 00:16:54.679 --> 00:16:57.669 and Antonio Inoki. It saw a grand total of three 00:16:57.669 --> 00:17:00.929 reigns. Three short reigns. It utilized one borrowed 00:17:00.929 --> 00:17:04.269 belt from the AWA in Ohio. It witnessed exactly 00:17:04.269 --> 00:17:07.670 one successful title defense, courtesy of Antonio 00:17:07.670 --> 00:17:10.650 Noqui battling the famously named Red Pimpernel. 00:17:10.769 --> 00:17:13.390 Never forget Red Pimpernel. Never. And finally, 00:17:13.509 --> 00:17:17.369 on October 10, 1972, it disappeared in Osaka 00:17:17.369 --> 00:17:20.210 without a single formal announcement, completely 00:17:20.210 --> 00:17:23.269 erased to make way for the future. It is a perfect 00:17:23.269 --> 00:17:26.450 micro -history of organizational chaos. But as 00:17:26.450 --> 00:17:28.450 we wrap up this analysis, I want to leave you 00:17:28.450 --> 00:17:31.210 with a final lingering thought to mull over. 00:17:31.410 --> 00:17:33.569 Lay it on us. We talked extensively about how 00:17:33.569 --> 00:17:36.109 NJPW simply dropped the title without a word, 00:17:36.230 --> 00:17:38.970 opting for silence over explanation. Here is 00:17:38.970 --> 00:17:41.619 the question to consider. When an organization 00:17:41.619 --> 00:17:44.240 simply abandons its top prize without a single 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:46.880 word of explanation, do they successfully erase 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:49.200 a mistake from their history, or do they accidentally 00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:51.380 create a legendary mystery that people will be 00:17:51.380 --> 00:17:54.259 dissecting decades later? By trying to make us 00:17:54.259 --> 00:17:56.319 forget, do they actually guarantee that we would 00:17:56.319 --> 00:17:58.740 remember? That is a fantastic question to chew 00:17:58.740 --> 00:18:01.460 on. Sometimes the things an organization tries 00:18:01.460 --> 00:18:04.220 hardest to hide become the very things people 00:18:04.220 --> 00:18:07.259 are most fascinated by. I know I am certainly 00:18:07.259 --> 00:18:10.000 fascinated by it. Thank you so much for bringing 00:18:10.000 --> 00:18:12.299 us such a uniquely incredible source today. It 00:18:12.299 --> 00:18:15.000 was my pleasure. This has been an absolute blast 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:17.480 to unpack with you. We hope this deep dive gave 00:18:17.480 --> 00:18:19.480 you the exact insights you were looking for, 00:18:19.579 --> 00:18:21.839 pulling back the curtain on how messy history 00:18:21.839 --> 00:18:24.940 can really be. Until next time, keep exploring 00:18:24.940 --> 00:18:27.079 those weird corners of history, and we will be 00:18:27.079 --> 00:18:29.420 right here waiting to dive into the next one 00:18:29.420 --> 00:18:29.740 with you.