Bas Rutten in New Japan

[Masked Man of Mystery]

I have an entrance theme on my computer that claims it is Bas Rutten's theme from New Japan. What exactly did he do there? Was he one of the worked shoot fight guys for Inoki?

[SinToxic]

He was part of the foreign army alongside Chyna, CRAP MUTA, Bob Sapp and Fujita. One match that I saw of his was a European catch rules match against Nishimura which ended in draw. One very terrible show (The Spiral) that was, surprisingly he was more misused than Barnett.

[Masked Man of Mystery]

Could you please expand upon that post? What is a European Catch rules match and what's this about Muta?

Sorry I originally thought you wrote European Cage match

Edited January 7, 2005 by Masked Man of Mystery

[Masked Man of Mystery]

By the way, I assume this was fairly recent, given the other names you mentioned. I assume the match was pretty awful, given that Bas isn't a trained wrestler and if this is recent he's pretty broken down. I know he keeps trying to come back to MMA but can't seem to.

[SinToxic]

GREAT MUTA that appeared in NJ was an American worker (forgot his name), he was brought in after Muto left for AJ. Got to pin Tenzan, got injured and was really bad. Recently Stamboli played the same fake Great Muta character in AJ.

 

Rutten's tour in Japan took place throughout 2002. He had prior training in the L.A. Dojo and seemed in good shape. All he really had to work on was selling and psychology, which isnt too impossible when you are Bas Rutten. He was untouchable on the mat and his palm strikes got over pretty big too.

He fought Kanemoto for the Junior title in a decent match, so you get the idea of what kinda push he was getting. If he was a bit bigger and younger they would never let him go.

[Guest Black Tiger]

I think the guy who played MUTA was named Trent something or other. He worked in NWA Wildside.

 

Bas Rutten's NJPW career stretched from June - October of 2002. He got to go over Nakanishi to build up an IWGP match against Nagata. Then had his famous European catch rules match with Nishimura (ten rounds of three minutes each). For seemingly no reason at all, he got a shot at Kanemoto's Jr. Title, and lost that (which got Koji over huge) and I don't think he's been seen since in NJPW.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

The only time I saw him on one of their shows he was playing a punching bag for Don Frye.