Death Clutch - Brock Lesnar [49]
But when they threw me on the bus with everyone else, I looked over at Brad, who had seen it all in Japan. Even he didn’t know what was coming next, so we knew to be prepared for anything.
When we got to the airport, Simon Inoki comes up to me and says in this soft-spoken, respectful tone, “Mr. Lesnar, you should leave the title belt with me, because we want to polish it up for you and fix the rhinestones so that the belt looks very nice for when you come back to Japan!”
The Inokis had to know there was a chance I wasn’t coming back, so that meant there was a possibility they were going to ask me to turn over the title belt. I was one up on them, though, because I had the title belt buried all the way at the bottom of my suitcase … and you can just imagine what my grip on that suitcase must have been like. I was holding on for dear life, because they still hadn’t paid me, and I wanted to keep their title belt as an insurance policy. As long as I had possession of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt, I knew they would find a way to come up with the money they owed me.
As polite as Simon was to me, I was even more polite to him. I thanked him for the offer to take care of the belt for me, but told him that I was planning on polishing it myself back home, and that I was going to make the rhinestones look nice for the New Japan fans.
Always trying to stay one step ahead of everyone, the Inokis must have anticipated my response, because Simon had a couple of the New Japan wrestlers with him. It looked to me and Brad like they were going to try to strong-arm me for the title belt. They had the advantage because I was a foreigner on their home turf and didn’t speak the language, and if security jumped in they could say anything they wanted to. But, when those guys tried to intimidate us, Brad and I stared right back at them as we backed ten steps to the ticket counter, where I just let them know in no uncertain terms, “I’m taking the title with me!”
There was nothing they could do at that point unless they wanted to create a major incident in an international airport, so Brad and I checked in and got on the plane with the title belt still in my possession. I had heard New Japan was talking to TNA about a joint promotion, and it was easy to figure out that they were going to want me to come back and drop the title. That gave me a lot of negotiating leverage. I had something they wanted, and they had the money to pay me, so I used that to my advantage.
It wasn’t long before Simon Inoki called my lawyers and wanted to set up a big title match in Japan. I told my lawyers, “Here’s my price, give them the number and tell them to take it or leave it.” They tried to counter, so we didn’t have a deal.
As the months rolled by, Simon kept calling, but he wouldn’t meet my price. Eventually, over a year later, after I was well into training for my first MMA fight and had more or less put wrestling in my past (although the IWGP belt looked good hanging in my garage), my lawyers got a another call from Simon. The Inokis had cut ties with New Japan and were starting a new promotion called “IGF.” They needed a main event for their first show and they wanted it to be Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle for the IWGP title. Now they were willing to meet my price.
I agreed to do it, but, since Kurt was working for TNA, I made Simon confirm that both TNA and Kurt were committed to the match, and let them know that it could not take place until after my first MMA fight.
I enjoyed getting back in the ring with Kurt for one night and had no problem dropping the title to him.
When I did that match, I was sure that I would never have to lace up a pair of wrestling boots again . . . with just one exception. In the back of my mind, I knew that when I became a big enough commodity doing something else in life, there would always be a big payday waiting for me when I decided to