 | |
| Acronym | IGF |
| Type | Private |
| Founded | February 2007 |
| Founder(s) | Antonio Inoki |
| Owner(s) | Simon Inoki |
| Defunct | January 9, 2019 |
| Style | Mixed martial art, Professional wrestling, Shoot wrestling |
| Headquarters | Japan |
| Website | Official Japanese Website |
Inoki Genome Federation (IGF) was a promotion in Japan founded by Antonio Inoki in 2007.
Overview[]
History[]
Antonio Inoki left New Japan Pro Wrestling, a promotion he founded in 1972, to start the IGF. Inoki carried over to IGF his National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) accreditation, making IGF the official Japanese territory of the NWA.
The first IGF show was held on June 29, 2007 at the Sumo Hall in Tokyo. The card was completely changed at the last minute, resulting in the 8,426 fans in attendance not knowing who or what they were going to see outside of the main event of Kurt Angle vs. Brock Lesnar.
Shinichi Suzukawa was scheduled to face Bob Sapp in an IGF special rules Heavyweight bout on December 31, 2010, at K-1 Dynamite!! 2010. The fight was to be held under MMA rules, but the fighters wouldn't be wearing gloves. Closed-fist strikes would have been allowed, but palm strikes wouldn't have been permitted. The event was to air on HDNet in North America. However, the fight was canceled due to a last-minute contract dispute but the Japanese audience in attendance were told by the promoter involved in the contract dispute that Sapp “had lost his will to fight.” In 2011 the company gave a gift to Kim Jong Il, leader of North Korea. In August 2014, IGF held two shows in Pyongyang, North Korea. On December 29, 2014, IGF announced a deal with PPTV to bring its programming to Chinese audiences.
On October 28, 2016, IGF announced new brand called NEW that stands for NEXT EXCITING WRESTLING and to hold big shows every month or but the goal of NEW is to focus on regional and smaller venues that never get to witness the larger scale IGF events. The shows will not be focused on Antonio Inoki’s name recognition hence why they have renamed the group. Though everyone involved will still work have the chance to work the larger scale IGF shows if able and their event was on April 5, 2017. On June 2, 2017 IGF Director Simon Kelly Inoki announced that Antonio Inoki is not directly involved with the brand.
On June 20, Inoki declared that IGF does not stand any longer exists in its former form and attended in which featured other shareholders of IGF announced that main branch has officially been put on a hiatus on June 14, but if he was not Inoki himself he attended a report saying that he received an incomprehensible response if was not accepted. But Inoki announced on May 25, 2017 to launch his new brand the Inoki ISM to be held on July 24 which had success. On July 26 NEW ceased their operations following three months due to ongoing disputes and issues between Antonio Inoki and Simon Inoki. Which led to Simon and many others from the management team to quit IGF the other includes Keisuke Okuda, Akira Joh, Mitsuyoshi Nakai and Shinya Aoki. However, Okuda, Joh and Nakai would return to IGF except Aoki started to compete at ONE Championship and Rizin Fighting Federation. In March 22, 2018 Simon Inoki would denied any future connection with management, business, and entertainment with Antonio Inoki and would found his new promotion Toho Eiyuden based in Shanghai, China and later Simon announced that promotion would close its doors on January 9, 2019. After the IGF's closure, Assist Co., Ltd., the promotion's parent company, would start to open a chain of bakeries, leading to both Kendo Kashin and Simon Inoki to humorously state "IGF has become a bakery shop".
In August 2022, Antonio Inoki revived the IGF, then standing for the Inoki Genki Factory, to serve as his official management company. On October 1, at age 79, Inoki died from systemic transthyretin amyloidosis. On December 28, the Inoki Genki Factory held their first show, Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye x Ganryujima, a memorial event honoring Inoki organized in collaboration with Samurai Warriors Ganryujima and NJPW.
Alumni[]
- Atsushi Sawada
- Black Tiger V
- Crusher Kawaguchi
- Kazuyuki Fujita
- Minowaman
- Montanha Silva
- Naoya Ogawa
- Shinichi Suzukawa
- Guests
Championships[]
| Championship | Final champion | Reign | Date won | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IGF Championship | 
|
Oli Thompson | 1 | December 31, 2015 |
IGF World GP 2015[]
Quarterfinals took place on April 11, 2015 at IGF 3
Semi-finals took place on August 29, 2015 at IGF 4
The Final took place on December 31, 2015 at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2015.
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Final | ||||||||||||
| Yosef Ali Mohammad | TKO | |||||||||||||
| Dion Starling | Rd 1 | |||||||||||||
| Yosef Ali Mohammad | TKO | |||||||||||||
| Fernando Rodrigues Jr. | Rd 1 | |||||||||||||
| Fernando Rodrigues Jr. | TKO | |||||||||||||
| Antony Rea | Rd 1 | |||||||||||||
| Fernando Rodrigues Jr. | TKO | |||||||||||||
| Oli Thompson | Rd 1 | |||||||||||||
| Chris Barnett | TKO | |||||||||||||
| Emil Zahariev | Rd 2 | |||||||||||||
| Chris Barnett | Dec | |||||||||||||
| Oli Thompson | Rd 2 | |||||||||||||
| Oli Thompson | Dec | |||||||||||||
| Ikuhisa Minowa | Rd 2 | |||||||||||||