Was the great muta all that great

[Guest dr deaf]

Just wondering, but was the great muta ever really that good a worker?  Nowadays everyone yells and curses him for being a tired old man dragging everyone down around him and no selling.

 

When he was younger though, how does his body of work hold up?  Is there anything worthwhile?  If not, where does all the worship come from?  Good marketing?

[Guest Sykotic2002]

It depends.  He could go when  he wanted to.  But sometimes he was just lazy and the match sucked.  Depended on his mood

[Guest Sykotic2002]

It depends.  He could go when  he wanted to.  But sometimes he was just lazy and the match sucked.  Depended on his mood.

[Guest]

I always liked him when I fist saw him in the nwa.  Shit I never saw before and most of his matches were great.  Also his gimmick was the shit.  Looking at it from now, I wouldn;t saw he was one of my favorites of all time, but I definitly liked his shit back in the day

 

--Rob

[Guest Pegasus Kid]

I'm more a fan of "Mutoh" rather than "Muta."  Mutoh's matches were on the technical side (for the mostpart) and more fun to watch for me.  Muta was all garbage and mist and tables and the stupid ramp lariat on every dome show.  GOD I HATED MUTA!  O... K, I should walk away before I get worked up.

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

The Great Muta was just a great gimmick. I'm serious when I say he's the only wrestler that has scared the crap out of me. I mean have you ever seen those weird fast flashing Muta music videos!? Freaky!

[Guest Coffin Surfer]

I think, like most kids growing up watching the NWA in the late 80s, Muta was my favoriate wrestler.  The reason mostly is because most wrestling fans had never seen anything like him before in America. He was a dark, evil character, doing moonsaults, tumbles, stiff karate kicks and spitting green mist.  He also had some fair to good matches too.  It is also rumored that in the NWA he was told to hold back as not to embaress the American wrestlers.  Rather that is lie to cover Muta's occasional laziness in the NWA or the truth is anyones guess.  

 

He did some good stuff in Japan as Keji Mutoh.  Mostly tag matches though. He was in a very good ***3/4(IMO)  four way match with his old partner and another broken up tag team.  I forget the acutal date and names but its worth a look to see how awesome Mutoh can be, when he wants to.

[Guest dreamer420]

Aren't his knees just fucked from years and years of moonsaults?

[Guest Loss4Words]

I put Mutoh in the same category as Randy Savage and Shawn Michaels, meaning that the potential was there to be great, but it was never reached because of either laziness, stubborness or too much selectiveness as to when he would work hard and when he wouldn't.

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

Jeez.....he's not that old. He's only like 39.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

Jeez.....he's not that old. He's only like 39.

He still has brittle knees and works like he's fifty, though.

[Guest]

Muta was all about the kick-ass Japanese enigmatic shit. Seriously, if you didn't at least respect him when you saw him, then you shouldn't watch wrestling. Now, yes, he has degenerated, but remember, he's been hitting moonsaults for the good side of 15 years. You tell ME if you can do that without messing up your knees.

[Guest Special K]

Muta is a nostalgic favorite of mine since he really opened my eyes when i first saw some of his matches in WCW. He was not the best ever but he WAS a darn good wrestler, who did the multiple personalities gimmick long before Foley, and I'll always mark for him.

 

    As to him being old, I totally understand. He LOOKS ancient. His face has really sagged over the years.

[Guest]

Aren't his knees just fucked from years and years of moonsaults?

How do moonsaults fuck your knees?

[Guest red_file]

How do moonsaults fuck your knees?

Depending on how you land a moonsault, the impact is absorbed by either the elbows, knees, or feet.  Most puro wrestlers who do moonsaults land heavily on their knees.  If a moonsault is in a wrestler's repertoire it's only a matter of time before they have serious knee problems.

[Guest Special K]

It warms the cockles of my heart to see support of Mutoh on this board though. People say he's not as good as the other greats like Kawada and Kobashi, but hell, who is?