This is from Dave Ditch's puroresu colum at the pulse. Very interesting to think Machida was originally planned to be the Ace for New Japan. Explains why Inoki signed him as well. He was always so keen to try and get the New Japan guys over in MMA and then over in New Japan.
Yeah. In the Wrestling Observer a few weeks ago Dave Meltzer had a good piece on Machida and his background. In fact I suspect that's where the guy you quoted got his information from.
Yes cos he does quote meltzer on some other things. Always can rely on meltzer to provide the good info.
You can always rely on Meltzer to make it look like everything is related to pro acting. He sure as hell doesn't write anything historically accurate. Machida fought on mma events in Japan that were produced by a professional actor of action sports theater. If Affliction Entertainment signs a fighter, does that mean that fighter is intended to be in the clothing industry. What a joke, people. Please grow up.
His 1st fight in Japan was on a New Japan pro-wrestling show. Inoki signed him and just like Fujita I would not of been suprised one bit of Inoki wanted to use him in puroresu. Anyone who knows Inoki and knows what New Japan was like at the time can see why this could of been the case. Also when it comes to Japan I would take meltzer over the majority of other MMA journalists.
Ah - so it wasn't the "spirit slap" that Inoki gave to Machida after his MMA debut. I've always been a fan of Inoki for his promotion of wrestling as the world's strongest martial art. He has always tried to walk that line between promoting himself as a mixed martial arts pioneer and a sports entertainer.
