Sacheen Littlefeather obit

Sacheen Littlefeather, Who Delivered Marlon Brando’s Oscar Rejection Speech, Dies at 75

The Academy formally apologized to the Native American activist and former actress in June after she was blacklisted for representing the actor at the 1973 Academy Awards.

 

She was not on the list.

Sacheen Littlefeather (Apache/Yaqui/Ariz.), the Native American actress and activist who took to the stage at the 1973 Academy Awards to reveal that Marlon Brando would not accept his Oscar for The Godfather, has died. She was 75.

Littlefeather died at noon Sunday at her home in the Northern California city of Novato surrounded by her loved ones, according to a statement sent out by her caretaker. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which reconciled with Littlefeather in June and hosted a celebration in her honor just two weeks ago, revealed the news on social media Sunday night.

Littlefeather disclosed in March 2018 that she had been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, and it had metastasized in recent years.

Brando had decided to boycott the March 1973 Oscars in protest of how Native Americans were portrayed onscreen as well as to pay tribute to the ongoing occupation at Wounded Knee, in which 200 members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) faced off against thousands of U.S. marshals and other federal agents in the South Dakota town.

After presenters Liv Ullmann and Roger Moore listed the nominees for best actor and Ullmann called out Brando’s name as the winner, the telecast cut to Littlefeather, then 26 and wearing a traditional Apache dress, walking to the stage from her seat at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion as the announcer explained, “Accepting the award for Marlon Brando and The Godfather, Miss Sacheen Littlefeather.”

Littlefeather, however, held up her right hand to decline the statuette proffered by Moore as she reached the podium and told the Chandler audience and the 85 million viewers watching at home that Brando “very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award.”

Speaking in measured tones but off-the-cuff — Brando, who told her not to touch the trophy, had given her a typed eight-page speech, but telecast producer Howard Koch informed her she had no more than 60 seconds — she continued, “And the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry … and on television in movie reruns, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee.”

The New York Times published Brando’s entire speech three days later.

Littlefeather’s remarks were met in the building by a smattering of boos as well as applause, but public sentiment in the immediate aftermath of her appearance was largely negative. Some media outlets questioned her Native heritage (her father was Apache and Yaqui and her mother was white) and claimed she rented her costume for the ceremony, while conservative celebrities including John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Charlton Heston — three actors who had starred in many a Western — reportedly criticized Brando and Littlefeather’s actions.

As she was becoming an indelible part of Oscar lore, Wayne “was in the wings, ready to have me taken off stage,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 2016. “He had to be restrained by six security guards.” That may not have been the case, an investigation showed.

Regardless, nearly 50 years later, the Academy issued her an apology.

“The abuse you endured because of this statement was unwarranted and unjustified,” then-AMPAS president David Rubin wrote to her in a letter dated June 18. “The emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable. For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged. For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.”

“I was stunned. I never thought I’d live to see the day I would be hearing this, experiencing this,” Littlefeather told The Hollywood Reporter. “When I was at the podium in 1973, I stood there alone.”

Born Marie Louise Cruz on Nov. 14, 1946, in the coastal California city of Salinas, Littlefeather was primarily raised by her mother’s parents. She began exploring her Native identity at California State University in Hayward and participated in the Native occupation to attempt to reclaim Alcatraz Island in 1969, and it was her fellow activist friends who renamed her.

Shortly thereafter, Littlefeather received a full scholarship to study acting at San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater. “Dancing and acting was an escape from reality,” she told The Native American Times in 2010.

She got some work in radio and TV ads (including as Miss Vampire USA for a Dark Shadows soap opera promotion) but found it a struggle to land substantive parts in Hollywood: “Americans liked the blonde Sandra Dee look … I got speaking parts in Italian films because they liked the exotic.”

In 1972, she participated in a planned Playboy shoot called “Ten Little Indians” that was scrapped before publication when the occupation at Wounded Knee began in February 1973. But after Littlefeather’s Oscar appearance, Playboy printed her photos as a standalone feature, further discrediting her in some people’s eyes.

She had met Brando for the first time a few years earlier when she was in Washington giving a presentation to the FCC on race and minorities.

“In the ’70s, you had AIM and the Indian Civil Rights Movement and that was the part that I was in,” she said. “I was a spokesperson, so to speak, for the stereotype of Native Americans in film and in television. All I was saying was, ‘We don’t want Chuck Connors playing Geronimo.'”

When she mentioned to Brando that she didn’t have an evening dress for the Oscars, “Marlon told me to wear my buckskin,” she said in the 2018 documentary Sacheen: Breaking the Silence.

Three months after the Oscars, Brando appeared on The Dick Cavett Show and said that he “was embarrassed for Sacheen. She wasn’t able to say what she intended to say, and I was distressed that people booed and whistled and stomped even though perhaps it was directed at myself. They should have at least had the courtesy to listen to her.”

Although Brando’s stunt had the intended effect of renewing attention on Wounded Knee, Littlefeather said it put her life at risk and killed her acting career, claiming that she lost guild memberships and was banned from the industry. (In addition, the Academy subsequently prohibited winners from sending proxies to accept — or reject — awards on their behalf.)

“I was blacklisted — or, you could say, ‘redlisted,'” Littlefeather said in her documentary. “Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett and others didn’t want me on their shows. … The doors were closed tight, never to reopen.”

Littlefeather managed to appear in a handful of films (The Trial of Billy Jack, Johnny Firecloud and Winterhawk among them) before she quit acting for good and earned a degree in holistic health from Antioch University with a minor in Native American medicine. Her work in wellness included writing a health column for the Kiowa tribe newspaper in Oklahoma, teaching in the traditional Indian medicine program at St. Mary’s Hospital in Tucson, Arizona, and working with Mother Teresa on behalf of AIDS patients in the Bay Area. She would go on to serve as a founding board member of the American Indian AIDS Institute of San Francisco.

Littlefeather also continued her involvement in the arts, co-founding the nonprofit National American Indian Performing Arts Registry in the early ’80s, advising on multiple PBS programs and continuing to be an advocate for Native American inclusion in Hollywood (she appeared in the 2009 documentary Reel Injun).

“I was the first woman of color to ever make a political statement in the history of the Academy Awards,” Littlefeather said in Sacheen, and at the time, Coretta Scott King and Cesar Chavez were among the few who publicly praised her Oscar speech.

But over the decades, her onstage advocacy proved to be a precursor for the conversation about diversity in Hollywood that continues today, and Jada Pinkett Smith cited her as an inspiration for her own boycott of the 2016 Academy Awards (the #OscarsSoWhite ceremony).

The two exchanged emails at the time, with Smith writing, “Thank you for being one of the brave and courageous to help pave the way for those of us who need a reminder of the importance to simply be true.”

Littlefeather will be buried next to her husband, Charles Koshiway (Otoe/Sac&Fox), in Red Rock, Oklahoma. Koshiway died of blood cancer in November 2021. The two met 32 years ago at a pow wow at the University of California at Davis.

“The night before we met, I had a dream that I was introduced to this good-looking Indian man, and he tipped his white Stetson cowboy hat and talked in this very soft Oklahoma accent: ‘How’re yew?'” she told THR in August. “The next day, my roommate and I drove up to the UC Davis pow wow and underneath this white Stetson cowboy hat was this very handsome Indian man, and the first thing he did was tip his hat, look in my eyes and say, ‘How’re yew?’ That’s all it took. The man of my dreams.”

Upon receiving the Academy’s apology, Littlefeather said of her late husband, “His spirit is still here with me, and I know that what he wanted for me was always justice and reconciliation.” And two weeks before her death, when she took to an Academy stage for the second time in her life, at the museum’s celebration in her honor, she knew her own passing was imminent: “I’m crossing over soon to the spirit world. And you know, I’m not afraid to die. Because we come from a we/us/our society. We don’t come from a me/I/myself society. And we learn to give away from a very young age. When we are honored, we give.”

 

A Catholic Requiem Mass for her will be held this month at St. Rita Church in Fairfax, California, with a reception to follow. Littlefeather requested that donations be made to the American Indian Child Resource Center of Oakland.

In her final public appearance, she spoke again on behalf of all Native peoples: “I am here accepting this apology, not only for me alone but as acknowledgment, knowing that it was not only for me, but for all of our nations that also need to hear and deserve this apology tonight. Look at our people. Look at each other and be proud that we stand as survivors, all of us. Please, when I’m gone, always be reminded that whenever you stand for your truth, you will be keeping my voice, and the voices of our nations, and our people, alive.”

 

Actress (7 credits)

 1978 Shoot the Sun Down

Navajo Woman

 1975 Winterhawk

Pale Flower

 1975 Johnny Firecloud

Nenya

 1974 Freebie and the Bean

Minor Role (uncredited)

 1974 The Trial of Billy Jack

Patsy Littlejohn

 1973 The Laughing Policeman

Undetermined Minor Role (uncredited)

 1973 Counselor at Crime

Maggie

 

Self (7 credits)

 2019 Sacheen (Documentary short)

 2014 The Invisible Peak (Documentary short)

Self

 2010 Red Carpet Report (TV Series short)

Self

- LA Skins Fest 2011 (2010) ... Self

 2009 Reel Injun (Documentary)

Self (as Sacheen Cruz Littlefeather)

 2007 Brando (TV Movie documentary)

Self

 2005 Biography (TV Series documentary)

Self

- Marlon Brando: The Agony of Genius (2005) ... Self

 1973 The 45th Annual Academy Awards (TV Special)

Self - Refusing Best Actor Award for Marlon Brando

Hide Hide Archive footage (5 credits)

 2022 Movie Night Extravaganza (TV Series)

Self

- Viva Zapata! (2022) ... Self

 2019 Hollywood's Stories (TV Series documentary)

Self

- Minorities Rebellion in Hollywood (2019) ... Self

 2015 Listen to Me Marlon (Documentary)

Self (uncredited)

 2014 And the Oscar Goes to... (TV Movie documentary)

Self

 2011 Stars of the Silver Screen (TV Series)

Self

- Marlon Brando (2011) ... Self

Mary McCaslin obit

Folksinger Mary McCaslin Has Died (December 22, 1946 – October 2, 2022)

 

She was not on the list.

The folksinger and songwriter Mary McCaslin died over the weekend at the age of 76. She had long suffered from Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), a rare brain disorder.

McCaslin was born in 1946 in Beechgrove, Indiana. She was adopted and her parents moved the family to Redondo Beach, California, when McCaslin was just six years old.

McCaslin grew up with a great interest in music and began playing guitar as a teenager, making her debut onstage when she was 18. She soon began performing in the storied folk scene at the Los Angeles Troubadour club, where she became connected with a record producer. She recorded her first album in 1969 and released ten studio albums, plus two best-of collections, culminating with 2006’s Better Late Than Never.

McCaslin was known for her simple but poetic songwriting, characteristic folk vocals, and open guitar tunings. Her music was beloved by fans and fellow musicians alike. Indeed, several contemporary artists recorded McCaslin’s songs, so to pay tribute to her memory we’ve collected some in the list below, beginning with a favorite from McCaslin herself.

Her musical development was influenced by the western ballads of Marty Robbins, the guitar playing of Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell, the singing and banjo playing of Hedy West, and the vocal inflections of the Beatles and the Bee Gees. Writing of McCaslin's Way Out West LP, Robert Christgau said in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), "Without self-dramatization—she favors plain melodies and commonplace imagery and her singing is gamely unhistrionic—this woman explores Joni Mitchell's territory with equal intelligence, more charm, and no drums."

Her songs have been recorded by Tom Russell, Bill Staines, Gretchen Peters, David Bromberg, Kate Wolf, Stan Rogers, and Còig. The Grand Canyon Railroad used her song "Last Cannonball" for its promotional television ad.

McCaslin met singer-songwriter Jim Ringer in 1972, and began performing with him. They married in 1978, and as a duo released the album The Bramble & the Rose. They moved to San Bernardino, California. McCaslin separated from him in 1989.[2] Ringer died in 1992 after a long illness, and McCaslin provided the liner notes for a retrospective album of his songs: The Best of Jim Ringer.

McCaslin was busy with family matters for most of the 1980s, finally releasing a new album, Broken Promises, in 1994. She suffered from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurological condition that can cause problems with balance, movement, vision, speech and swallowing. She died from PSP in Hemet, California on October 2, 2022, at the age of 75.

Jim Sweeney obit

Longtime Jets O-Lineman Jim Sweeney Dies at 60; 'I Just Loved to Play the Game'

Former Teammate Marty Lyons: 'Jim Was a Typical Pittsburgh Guy. He Was Tough'

 

He was not on the list.

Jim Sweeney, one of the most durable offensive linemen ever to line up for the New York Jets, died Saturday at the age of 60.

Stretching from Dec. 9, 1984, to Christmas Eve 10 years later, Sweeney started 158 consecutive games for the Green & White.

"I wanted to play in as many games as possible and I understood that there aren't a whole bunch of opportunities," he told Jim Gehman in a story that appeared on newyorkjets.com in 2018. "I just loved to play the game. It was what I was meant to do. So, if it was what I was meant to do, I didn't want to waste a little bit of God's talent because I don't want to show up at the pearly gates and have him say to me, 'Hey, you wasted my talents.' I wanted to make sure I utilized every gift he gave me. I figured play as long as you can, play as hard as you can, and play as often as you can."

"Jim was a typical Pittsburgh guy. He was tough," said Marty Lyons, the Jets' radio analyst who was Sweeney's teammate from 1984-89. "He was tough to practice against every day. You could count on him every single Sunday. He had a different personality as soon as he crossed over the lines, though. Hard-nosed, tough-football player, a loving caring friend off the field."

Frank Ramos, the Jets' longtime public relations director, had similar thoughts and emotions.

"Jim has to be one of the toughest players in Jets history," Ramos said. "He was really a good technical player, so tough, and he was a great leader. And he was a fun guy to be around, so well-liked by his teammates."

Sweeney, drafted in the second round (No. 37 overall) out of Pitt by the Jets in 1984, started two games as a rookie before taking over at left guard and starting 16 games, and then moving outside to left tackle in 1986-87. The versatile pro became the team's full-time center from 1988 to 1994.

"That was my natural position," he said of center. "All through grade school, high school and most of college, I was a center. I was just able to play other positions. I have to give a lot of credit to my father who said, 'The more you can do, the longer you'll stick around. When I was at Pitt, I played different positions. I had a pretty good coach, Joe Moore, who wanted players to play more than one position. He would rotate me in at guard, so that's where I first got my playing experience.

"We really didn't have a set position. It was always, what can you do? What could you do for the team? I learned that early, about team concept, that you're not just a positional player. You're an offensive lineman."

Sweeney played 16 years in the NFL, moving to Seattle in 1995 before finishing his career with a four-year run with the Steelers (1996-99). The heady lineman, who played all five OL positions and tight end on the college level with his hometown Pitt Panthers, coached collegiately at Duquesne (2000-02) and Albany (2014-21, assistant head coach in 2020-21). In addition, he coached at two high schools in the Pittsburgh suburbs — Peters Township (2003-06) and South Fayette (2007-10)..

"I had a lot of great coaches and each one had a little different personality on how they wanted you to understand what they were talking about. And humor was a big part of that," Sweeney said. "I loved them all, they all taught me lessons. I don't necessarily coach like they did. I take little bits and pieces of what they did, put them together and then put my own spin on it. I mean, you're not going to reinvent the game, but there are ways to get your point across differently.

"I want (my players) to love the game because it's a hard enough sport when you love it to do it because it is a tough sport. The physicality is a big factor and there are no dumb guys playing football. I coach them like they're in the NFL. I make sure they know more than one position. They know mentally and physically how to do different positions, and that's a lot for young men."

Sweeney died only hours before the Jets and the Steelers, the team he entered the NFL with and the team he concluded his remarkable career with, were to square off in his hometown. He is survived by his wife, Julie, and their five children: Shannon, Liam, Aislinn, Kilian and Teagan.

Lyons, in Pittsburgh for the Jets-Steelers game, noted the difficulty of hearing about the passing of not only Sweeney but Jets Pro Bowl tackle Marvin Powell within 15 minutes of each other Saturday night.

"It's shocking," Lyons said. "It's just sad to lose two teammates, two people who were quality individuals. It makes you realize how fragile life is. One day you're here and the next day you're gone."

But Sweeney left his mark on the Jets, the New York and Pittsburgh areas, and the NFL with his too-short stay.

"Guys like Marty Lyons and Joe Klecko took Sweeney under their wing," said Wesley Walker, the great Jets wideout and, like Lyons, a Ring of Honor member. "Quiet guy, just did his job. Always respectful, always nice. Lunchpail player, durable, followed directions. Did his job."

With the Jets, he played in ten games with two starts as a rookie in 1984. That year he was selected as a member of the Pro Football Writers of America NFL All-Rookie Team. In 1985, he started all 16 games at left guard. In 1986 and 1987, Sweeney was the starting left tackle. From 1988 to 1994, he started at center for the Jets. The Jets released Sweeney in March 1995.

Sweeney signed a three-year contract for $2.8 million with the Seattle Seahawks. In 1995, Sweeney started all 16 games at center. He played the final four seasons of his career with his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers from 1996 to 1999, this time mostly off the bench with one start each in 1997 and 1998.

From 2000 to 2002, Sweeney was the offensive line coach at Duquesne University under head coach Greg Gattuso. He later coached at the high school level in the Pittsburgh area, first with Peters Township High School in McMurray as offensive line coach from 2003 to 2006. He then served as offensive line coach for South Fayette High School from 2007 to 2010, where he was part of the 2010 Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League championship team.

In 2010, Sweeney worked for the Arizona Cardinals coaching the offensive line during training camp as a temporary fill-in for Russ Grimm. In 2011, he participated in the NFL and NCAA coaching internship program at Frostburg State University. He was offensive line consultant for the Pittsburgh Power of the Arena Football League in 2013.

On January 14, 2014, Sweeney became offensive line coach at SUNY Albany, in his second coaching job under Greg Gattuso. After the 2021 season, Albany opted not to renew Sweeney's contract.

Born in Pittsburgh in 1962, Sweeney attended Seton-La Salle in the South Hills before moving on to Pitt, where he played all along the offensive line and also at tight end as a two-year starter. He earned second-team All-American honors as senior in 1983.

“Jim was just a great guy, man,” former Steelers linebacker Levon Kirkland said during alumni weekend. “I love that he was big, and I mean strong. He had hands and I was like ‘wow’! I was always fascinated by Jim. I remember him at Pitt and all of that. And to have him on the team, we would talk a lot. He was one of my favorite people.”

 

Antonio Inoki obit

Antonio Inoki, famed combat sports trailblazer, dies at 79

 

He was not on the list.

Antonio Inoki, a combat sports trailblazer, influential politician and larger-than-life figure in his native Japan, died Friday at the age of 79. The announcement was made by New Japan Pro-Wrestling, the promotion he founded.

The cause of Inoki's death was not released, but he had fallen ill in recent years and was relegated to a wheelchair.

Inoki retired from politics in 2019. Though he touched many parts of Japanese culture in his lifetime and became one of the most famous people in the country, Inoki was most known for his work in combat sports as a pro wrestler, promoter and fighter -- most notably, his bout with Muhammad Ali.

Inoki was the most important professional wrestler in the history of Japan, selling out countless arenas and stadiums from the 1970s and on. He was also the first Japanese wrestler to win the WWF championship (though the reign is not currently recognized by WWE) and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2010.

On June 26, 1976, Inoki fought Ali in perhaps the highest-profile mixed-rules bout ever. Inoki had a background in amateur wrestling and judo and trained under catch wrestler Karl Gotch, developing a methodology of fighting he called "strong style." Ali, of course, was one of the top boxers in the world at the time and incredibly well-known globally.

Ali vs. Inoki was a direct ancestor to what we know now as mixed martial arts, which has become a global sport led by the UFC, founded in 1993. The bout was one of the most watched fights of its generation. In addition to the sold-out crowd of more than 14,000 at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, it aired on closed-circuit across the world.

Shea Stadium in New York aired the bout on its big screen and drew a crowd of 32,897 with an undercard of pro wrestling and mixed-rules matches. Ali vs. Inoki ended in a draw, but Inoki spent most of the 15-round contest on his back, kicking at Ali's legs and landing those kicks more than 100 times. Ali took far more damage in the bout than Inoki did and sustained injuries to his legs.

Boxing was by far the most popular combat sport at that time, especially in the United States, but Ali vs. Inoki put the idea into many heads that maybe boxing was not the best style to win a more fluid, all-encompassing fight, a debate that raged decades before Ali vs. Inoki and years after until the dawn of the UFC.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu pioneer Carlson Gracie once said Inoki was "one of the best fighters" he had seen. During the lead-up to his historic boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, UFC superstar Conor McGregor cited Ali vs. Inoki several times as an influence on him with regards to the crossover bout with Mayweather.

"Ali tried to reach down and punch and he ended up getting swept," McGregor said at a media scrum before his match with Mayweather. "Inoki ended up on top and the referee separated it straight away. If that moment in time was to let go for five more seconds, 10 more seconds, Inoki would have wrapped around his neck or his arm or a limb and the whole face of the combat world would have changed right there and then."

In a current combat sports landscape where it has become common for boxers to fight MMA fighters and pro wrestlers to fight YouTubers and so on and so forth, Ali vs. Inoki was far ahead of its time.

Inoki used his popularity gained from fighting Ali to become the most popular pro wrestler in the history of Japan. He founded New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 1972 and was the promotion's biggest star for more than a decade, having huge matches with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Dory Funk Jr., Big Van Vader and Bruiser Brody.

But it was also Inoki's vision to blend what became known as MMA and pro wrestling together. One of his students, Nobuhiko Takada, helped start the MMA promotion PRIDE Fighting Championships in 1997, which became very popular and was later purchased by the UFC. Inoki was at many Pride shows as part of its introduction ceremonies and did a parachuted skydive from an airplane into Tokyo National Stadium in front of more than 90,000 people at Pride Shockwave 2002.

"I have learned so much from Mr. Inoki," Rizin promoter and Pride founder Nobuyuki Sakakibara wrote in an Instagram post. "The 'Toukon' spirit has been inherited to RIZIN from PRIDE. I really wished he could step into the RIZIN ring. I am devastated. May his soul Rest In Peace."

In the 2000s, Inoki promoted several hybrid MMA and pro wrestling cards. Inoki, who spent many of his adolescent years in Brazil, took on MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Renzo Gracie in an exhibition match in front of more than 40,000 people in Osaka in 2000. Prior to that, Inoki's final official pro wrestling match came against current UFC Hall of Famer Don Frye in 1998 in front of 70,000 at the Tokyo Dome.

During that time period, Inoki opened up a training academy for MMA fighters and pro wrestlers in Los Angeles called Inoki Dojo. Former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida as well as Bryan Danielson and Shinsuke Nakamura, both now very popular pro wrestlers, were students there. Inoki managed and taught Machida early in the MMA great's career, as well.

"I owed him so much because for me everything started when nobody knows me and Inoki-san gave me a unique opportunity to be a professional athlete," Machida told ESPN. "There is one word in Japanese which is called 'guiri.' It means to recognize people who did something at the beginning where [someone] doesn't have opportunities whatsoever, and he did that for me.

"I really appreciated everything he did for world of fighting and what he represented as a human being and fighter. Thank you my godfather and RIP."

Aside from sports, Inoki was a major mover and shaker in the political world. He started his own political party, the Sports and Peace Party, and was elected into the Japanese House of Councillors in 1989. Inoki flew to Iraq in 1996 on a one-man diplomatic mission and negotiated with Saddam Hussein the release of 36 Japanese hostages.

He was also an elected politician in the Japanese government from 2013 to 2019, when he controversially advocated for continued diplomacy with North Korea. Inoki long had relations with North Korea. His original pro wrestling trainer, Rikidozan, was of North Korean descent.

Inoki helped put together a two-day pro wrestling festival in the country in 1995, which drew 150,000 on the first day and 190,000 on the second day. Inoki defeated Ric Flair in the main event, the only time the two legends wrestled each other.