Keiji Muto
Keiji Muto (武藤 敬司, Mutō Keiji, born December 23, 1962) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and professional wrestling executive. He is known for his work as The Great Muta (ザ・グレート・ムタ, Za Gurēto Muta) in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) during the 1980s and 1990s, and from his runs in other Japanese, American, Puerto Rican, and Mexican promotions. He was the president of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) from 2002 to 2013 and representative director of Wrestle-1 (W-1) from 2013 to 2020.
| Keiji Muto | |
|---|---|
Muto in 2009 | |
| Born | December 23, 1962 Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi, Japan |
| Spouse(s) | Hisae Ashida (m. 1992) |
| Children | 2 |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Bach Mutoh The Black Ninja Great Mota The Great Muta Keiji Muto Kokushi Kokushi-Muso The Space Lone Wolf The Super Black Ninja The Super Ninja Takeda Shingen Viet Cong Ming The White Ninja |
| Billed height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) |
| Billed weight | 104.5 kg (230 lb) |
| Billed from | The Land of the Rising Sun |
| Trained by | Antonio Inoki Hiro Matsuda Kotetsu Yamamoto |
| Debut | October 5, 1984 |
| Retired | February 21, 2023 |
Considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, Muto is also one of the first Japanese wrestlers to gain an international fanbase. "The Great Muta" gimmick is one of the most influential in puroresu, emulated by many wrestlers, including Satoshi Kojima (as The Great Koji), Kazushi Miyamoto (as The Great Kazushi), Atsushi Onita (as The Great Nita), and Seiya Sanada (as The Great Sanada). Others copied or modified some of the moves that he popularized or innovated, such as the Shining Wizard, Moonsault, Muta Lock, and the Dragon screw leg whip. He took part in what was generally considered to be one of the bloodiest professional wrestling matches at the time against Hiroshi Hase, leading to the creation of the "Muta scale", which rates the bloodiness of matches relative to this one's 1.0 value.
Muto is one of the five wrestlers to win the three major championships of puroresu (AJPW's Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship, NJPW's IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and Pro Wrestling Noah's GHC Heavyweight Championship) with Kensuke Sasaki, Yoshihiro Takayama, Satoshi Kojima, and Yuji Nagata. He also held the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship, making him an overall nine-time world champion. He is also a 13-time world tag team champion: five AJPW World Tag Team Championships, six IWGP Tag Team Championships, one GHC Tag Team Championship, and one WCW World Tag Team Championship. In total, he has held 32 championships.
In 2013, Muto founded W-1, where he also wrestled semi-regularly. He made special appearances for the American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA, renamed Impact Wrestling in 2017) from 2014 to 2019, as part of a talent exchange with W-1. In June 2022, Muto announced that he would retire in 2023. His retirement match occurred on February 21, 2023, in the Tokyo Dome during Noah's Keiji Muto Grand Final Pro-Wrestling "Last-Love" event. In April 2023, Muto was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.