Lots of similarities between these two men. Both owned and operated their own promotions for decades and placed their championships on themselves, but in order for that to have worked, they had to have been moneymakers. And they were.
Verne Gagne was a 10 time AWA champion, and held the belt for nearly 13 years combined. Before the creation of the IWGP world title, Inoki owned the formally American based title of the National Wrestling Federation which he defended in Japan. He held the NWF championship 4 times for nearly 7 years combined. Inoki would only lose the championship when he was pumping some money back into the business.
Verne trained more future champions than anyone else in the industry. Stu Hart included. Inoki had his fair share of students as well, but not as many as Gagne. Verne had a more successful early career as well. He won the NWA United States title in 1953, and at the time it wasn't very prestigious. Over the course of 3 years he was able to raise the value of the championship until it was seen as almost equal to the NWA world title. Verne was one of wrestling biggest stars in the 50's. Inoki worked in Baba's shadow after the death of Rikidozan until the mid 70's when NJPW exploded in popularity, thanks to Inoki's feud with Tiger Jeet Singh.
Verne is still known to wrestling fans all over the world even though the AWA is long gone, and Gagne has passed. Inoki on the other hand is a cultural icon in Japan. Video's and photo's of the famed "Inoki Slap" can be seen online. It is considered good luck to have Antonio Inoki slap you in the face. Seriously. In them Inoki can be seen slapping ambassadors, politicians, pop stars, and Olympians. He's also a politician that has used pro wrestling has a peace keeping tool. He organized and ran cards in North Korea, China, and the Middle East years before it became commonplace.
I went into this match up with the desire to back Verne Gagne, but the location of the match has changed my mind. The winner likely gets to face Steve Austin next round, and Inoki has the opportunity to pull off a major upset.
Vote Inoki.