Welcome to the Busted Open podcast. This is the Busted Open podcast. You can listen to the full show Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon Eastern on serious XM Fight Nation Channel 156.

Yeah, welcome in pro wrestling fans here on a Saturday. It's time for the weekend edition podcast edition of Busted Open radio on your weekend host Ryan McKinnell got the one and only Tommy Dreamer along for the ride as well.

And on today's episode, we do a little bit of a pivot because over the last 24 hours, the wrestling world lost an absolute legend, a pioneer, a champion, a politician, a statesman, a true legend of the game and Antonio Anoki passing away last night at the age of 79.

Myself and Dreamer take a deep dive into the career of Antonio Anoki his legacy that was left and what it means for the future of a professional wrestling. You do not want to miss this and speaking of the business of professional wrestling.

We closed down the third year of Busted Open on the weekend bringing you weekly winner for the best show that was in the week of professional wrestling.

And we're also joined by our guy, Sophie, who gives the final totals and tallies of weekly winner for this year. And we tell you who is the yearly winner for weekly winners. So sit back, relax and click play. It's myself and Tommy Dreamer here on a Saturday.

Let's get it going.

Antonio Anoki deserves every accolade ever given to the man. This is, you know, for the wrestling community a massive massive loss because of what he started and that would be new Japan pro wrestling.

And I mean, we're going to go into a deep dive of what this man did. But I mean, as a performer, he was in Japan as big as Hulk Hogan in the 80s. He was also, we didn't know he was the promoter. So he's also Vince McMahon in the 80s. I mean, this guy did it all. He was, you know, one of the founders of he was the founder of New Japan pro wrestling.

WWE last night actually acknowledging him as a former WWE champion. It was one of those many Phantom title changes that was never recognized.

And they said it wasn't a recognized switch, but I think for the history books now we, we should change them because the titles have dropped, but it was very, very, he lived an amazing life, man. And that's what we do on this show.

We celebrate his life and his career. The business of pro wrestling forever changed because of the existence of Antonio and Oki both, you know, in Japan and across the pond, right? And then also here in America that influence is almost

a measurable. And then when you talk about influence being a measurable and you talk about a reach across sports for me, Tommy, as I wear both hats on this channel, mixed martial arts and professional wrestling. I obviously dabble in both realms and I respect both businesses immensely.

There is a strong thought out there are strong feeling or a school of thought I should say that if Antonio and Oki doesn't exist, the idea and the sport of mixed martial arts probably gets set back 20, 30, 40, 50 years.

It might not be the mixed martial arts that we know today, because back in the 70s and 1976 to be exact, Antonio and Oki fought Muhammad Ali. Now there's books on this. There's documentaries on this. You can go to YouTube. You can see documentaries.

This is one of the most influential fights. And it was a fight Tommy dreamer in the history of fighting because obviously you had prime Muhammad Ali and then on the flip side, you had this man, this myth, this sort of legend already brewing in 1976 and Antonio and Oki who wanted to show the world that professional wrestling was the most dangerous art.

This is an ass kicker's art and this business of pro wrestling is bad and it's filled with bad people and dangerous people and people that can handle themselves in actual fights and it kind of created the dialogue of mixed martial arts Tommy and what style is most dominant.

Yeah, there was always the who's tough for a wrestler or boxer and he added to that myth. And everyone says after that, Muhammad Ali was never the same because he just kept on the famous crab style.

Kickin' at his legs. Right. And if Mike Jean Lebel, who we just lost as well, if he's the godfather of MMA, Antonio and Oki is the father of MMA because he like that match heavily promoted on pay per view, heavily promoted locally on wrestling. And then we also get into like when you said a fight, there was no, you know, Muhammad Ali had done stuff in wrestling before.

For other boxers have done stuff before. But they came into our world and like where finishes were negotiate. Now you have people in corners in case stuff goes down like real fights and for hey, if he's going to try this is the most, you know, the prime athlete in their prime, like fighting each other from two different worlds.

That would be who's tougher, the boxer or the wrestler. And this came out the finish was, eh, but it was the first. It was a first of and then you'll see more and more. I mean, Antonio Noki kind of started a company after that, you know, but he also instilled what a lot of people and I saw this amazing clip fighting spirit.

And he did this thing where he lined all these fans up, all these people up and just started slapping them. And it was so they could, he could give them in still the fighting spirit in them. I mean, think standing online, probably paying money to get slapped in your face by Antonio Noki and he just, he just next guy, I mean, it was, it's an insane thing to see.

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