Antonio Inoki’s last match is a matter of debate, with many people failing to agree which match actually counts as his last-ever bout.

The WWE Hall of Famer passed away in 2022 at the age of just 79. The Japanese legend was long retired, wrestling his last match in 2003 before taking up a full-time role as a wrestling promoter and a politician.

He ran New Japan Pro Wrestling until 2005, before starting up the Inoki Genome Federation in 2007, although he struggled to find success with the latter.

However, before these endeavours, Antonio Inoki still had to put his wrestling career to bed. He had wrestled in Japan since the 1960s, rising through the ranks of the JWA Dojo while being trained by Rikidozan and Karl Gotch alongside his friend and partner Giant Baba.

The two became the biggest stars in Japan, but after uncovering immense fraud in the promotion decided to stage a coup to take over the company, leading to both of them being fired.

After this, they each formed their own pro-wrestling companies. Giant Baba created All-Japan Pro Wrestling, while Antonio Inoki was the found of New Japan Pro Wrestling. Both men wrestled for their respective companies until they retired, with Giant Baba’s last match taking place in 1998.

Meanwhile, Antonio Inoki ended his full-time wrestling career at an event promoted in his honour. This was called the “NJPW The Final Inoki Tournament”, and was the show where his last match was supposed to take place.

In the main event of the show, Antonio Inoki defeated Don Frye in just four minutes, making him pass out in an Octopus Stretch in a match that nearly got Don Frye killed.

While this was supposed to signal the end of Antonio Inoki’s career, he continued to wrestle in exhibition matches over the next few years. Taking on pop stars like Hideaki Takizawa and MMA fighters like Don Frye and Renzo Gracie, he continued to promote fighting and wrestling into his 60s.

Antonio Inoki wrestled his last proper match on New Year’s Eve 2001, at one of his “Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye” events. These stadium shows combined the worlds of kickboxing, MMA and occasionally professional wrestling, to create a festival of fighting that fans of professional wrestling and martial arts could enjoy.

Inoki was 60 years old in his last match, which came five-years after his official retirement match in New Japan Pro Wrestling. That was his 1998 clash with Don Frye which had the MMA legend fearing for his life as he fled Japan following the clash.

However, he came out of retirement for a grappling exhibition match with Renzo Gracie in 2001, showcasing the art of mixed-martial arts that had become a force in Japan, with promotions like PRIDE and K1 overtaking wrestling in popularity.

Wanting to combine the best of both worlds, Inoki created “Inoki-ism” and began to bleed MMA into pro-wrestling (with disastrous results). This match showcased this, as Inoki and Gracie grappled each other around the ring for one three-minute round, showcasing what Inoki-ism could become in professional wrestling.

While this would be Inoki’s last official match, he had one more in-ring performance in front of his devoted fanbase. One more bout against Tatsumi Fujinami awaited him at his long-time rival’s retirement show, but it was one step too far.

While the 62-year-old legend was long retired, he put on a good technical performance against his long-time friend but was choked out by Fujinami to end this impromptu match and end his career for good.

While this is not technically his last match as the bell never rang and there was no referee, it would be remiss to not include it when talking about Antonio Inoki’s last match.

He may have not planned to wrestle the bout and it didn’t really count, it was a match in all but name. It was similar in style to what happened after Keiji Muto’s last match when he wrestled Masahiro Chono in am impromptu face-off with his career rival.

While this was meant to also be Tatsumi Fujinami’s final match, he came out of retirement soon after and even wrestled in the Antonio Inoki Memorial six-man tag team match at Wrestle Kingdom 17, in 2023.

You can watch Antonio Inoki’s last match by clicking the video below.