For Flipvember I'm gonna exclusively watch early-ROH undercard matches. Special K, Da Hit Squad, Teddy Hart & Jack Evans, the Scramble Cages, The SAT, etc. FLIPPPPZZZ!
Isn't that how Inoki did that Muhammad Ali fight? Nobody knew what the fuck happened and the crowd got pissed off.
The Ali one was weird, as he'd already had experience in wrestling (he wrestled Monsoon for the WWF) NJPW assumed he was all on board - then, once he got over to Japan, the press were treating it as such a huge deal and Inoki's people kept full kayfabe, even in private, so Ali's people started getting worried. They insisted on rule changes that heavily favoured Ali, Inoki became paranoid he was going to be made to look a fool and the result was Ali getting his shins kicked so badly he developed blood clots that led to the end of his career.
For the most part, Inoki's martial arts matches sent the crowd home happy - they just wanted to see Inoki win, especially against "legit" foreigners.