NJPW

Joseph and Colette Discuss Antonio Inoki vs. André the Giant

BIG EGG's monthlong look at NJPW kicks off in the biggest possible fashion, literally, with Andre the Giant and Antonio Inoki.

Colette Arrand

03 Oct 2026 • 8 min read

NJPW

New Japan month kicks off with a look at New Japan Pro Wrestling founder Antonio Inoki. This isn't the first time we've covered Inoki, and I doubt it'll be our last, but as BIG EGG crawls its way towards 100 joint examinations of the great sport of professional wrestling, I figured it was worth pointing to those other pieces — he's one of a handful of wrestlers who we've revisited this often without the benefit of a month themed around him.

Joseph on Inoki:

Colette on Inoki:

There's something about this fella that's compelling, I suppose. A combination of ego and talent and raw charisma that is about a "professional wrestling" as professional wrestling gets. As Joseph mentions below, this whole month is something of a referendum on his spirit. Based on this match, it's gonna be a good time.

Up Next: Through much of the 80s, "The Dragon" Tatsumi Fujinami would chase his own dragon: Riki Choshu. Now, with an IWGP Title in its infancy on the line, he has the chance to finally get a long awaited win over the man! Can he put away the man whose violence served as a catalyst of decades of wrestling to come?

Colette Arrand
So, I tend to think that people are perhaps a little too insistent upon young André the Giant as being the "real" version of him that you need to see, which is, I think, a disservice to how creative and intelligent he was in playing through an unimaginable amount of pain in his late career. Like, I remember when CM Punk posted a YouTube link to an Andre/Stan Hansen match what must have been a decade ago and so many people's takeaway was "woah, I didn't know he was a good worker." That being said, any time I go back and watch footage of him from before the WWF's national expansion (which he was a key to), I am gobsmacked by just how much of a superathlete he was. Here against Inoki he's probably at or near his athletic peak. He's fast, he's nimble, and he's extraordinarily expressive, a folk tale hero/villain come to life, depending on what the circumstances required. He's a perfect Inoki opponent, much like he was a perfect Hogan opponent, only for entirely different reasons. I know this is NJPW Ace month here at the EGG, but I want to start with your impressions of André because he's so special here.

Joseph Montecillo
It's interesting that you bring up the dynamic against both Inoki and Hogan because that's exactly where Andre really thrived. Andre, being an incredibly massive draw anywhere he went, was the perfect obstacle for basically any hometown hero. Yeah, you'd want to see Andre, but wouldn't you especially want to see Your Guy figure out Andre. In that sense, he's an absolute delight here. It's especially great that he's never too overtly heel here, though he's highly capable of doing that whole shtick too as we see in his late 80s work with Hogan and the like. It's really a wonder to see him move about and playing this absolute behemoth against The Man.