#great muta

[joearlikelikeswrestling]

[ponchaka]

The Great Muta

[puroresu-musings]

[1skittler1]

Sting vs. Great Muta WCW/NJPW Supershow 1991

[jasvvy]

[codchrist]

Becky Lynch with Great Muta

[droptoeholdyourhorses]

[josiahthegreat]

Such a fantastic and underrated mullet

[father-of-wrestling]

[minaelesia]

HUSTLE is the most enigmatic, yet brilliant wrestling promotion I've ever seen (not a lot, but it was something, alright). You have Nobuhiko Takada as some laser-shooting dictator, to The Great Muta impregnating some terrorist by doing his mist onto her crotch when she was trying to subdue him, to Genichiro Tenryu being incredibly stoic and mildly annoyed to everything around him.

You legit have some amazing wrestlers in here and cool matches, but it takes sports entertainment to an absurd level in the best way possible.

It also explains how Takada was the nicest trainer among Akira Maeda and Satoru Sayama from the UWF days, which isn't a high bar considering the latter two beat the fuck out of their students, but still much past it. This is wrestling at its most realistic, honorable, and serious form.

[grayblurcards]

Great Muta (WCW '99)

2025 Wrestling Authentic Signature

[joearlikelikeswrestling]

[ponchaka]

The Three Musketeers

Masahiro Chono, Keiji Muto and Shinya Hashimoto

[turflamicgaming420]

VPW2 Freem Edition Bas Rutten vs Stone Cold vs Goldberg vs Great Muta Cube Title match

[blacjaq1]

[romiswired]

Genichiro Tenryu vs. Great Muta (WAR Osaka Crush Night 1996)

The biggest lie of 21st-century wrestling is that spooky characters can't be awful and legitimately amazing at the same time.

The most important part of this match lies in the idea of such a non-sensical matchup being made in 1996. Under no premise you could imagine that a match involving Great Muta and Genichiro Tenryu could hit as hard as it does because there's a thing about pairing up great wrestlers: Sometimes it just doesn't work.

I remember chatting with a friend over this concept of "dream matches" and how pairing up great wrestlers in random matches doesn't always hit as hard because of the fact that wrestlers have different styles that have to harmonize with their opponent's to create what could be considered a "great match".

This match works as a litmus test, a "what if" type match that not only hits hard but works all too well. Because this is 1996 Muta we're talking about: The guy doesn't do shit and neither does he sell because he doesn't have to. How could that translate to 1996 Tenryu, who is known for being a bad, bad motherfucker?

If you don't see this match you imagine only one scenario: Tenryu becomes as savage as he can be and stands up to Muta. But against all odds, the opposite happens. And it works.

What's surprising about this match is that not only does it work well, but hits in every way imaginable. Here you have chickenshit heel Muta coming to Tenryu's turf and being an insufferable douchebag, while old and grumpy Tenryu has to stand a demonic brat (soon to be bald) wreaking havoc against his young boys and basically the integrity of his wrestling show.

The funniest part of this match is taking into consideration that Muta is fighting against the promoter, therefore he has the freedom to make his life a living hell because not only does he come as an outsider, but he's Great Muta, and even if he takes out a beer bottle and stabs Tenryu in the head several times (which is what happens, and that's so beast) he will still have the whole arena cheering for him because Japanese crowds in the 90s like their bad guys.

The crowd is insane in this one, but the same could be said for any match in 1990s Japanese wrestling. I like that even when seeing their promoter being all bloodied in the corner the fans would still cheer for Muta because he has some kind of "sauce" in this that many spooky gimmicks have tried to imitate but fail to do so.

With everything I said about this match, you would surely think this is the greatest match of all time, but it's not and that's okay because it doesn't have to. You have Muta stabbing Tenryu with a beer bottle and Tenryu giving sick powerbombs. What else do you need in a wrestling match?