Keiji Mutoh

Keiji Muto (武藤 敬司) 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) 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 debuted on October 5, 1984, against Masahiro Chono.

In 1985, Muto was sent on his first learning excursion to the United States.

Primarily wrestling in Championship Wrestling from Florida as the "White Ninja", Muto teamed with Kendo Nagasaki.

During his first excursion, Muto became a one-time NWA Florida Heavyweight Champion and a one-time NWA Southeastern United States Junior Heavyweight Champion.

Muto returned to New Japan in 1986, where he was nicknamed "Space Lone Wolf", a space-age type character that was briefly revived in 2005 by Nosawa Rongai.

In March 1987, Muto won the IWGP Tag Team Championship with Shiro Koshinaka, before losing the titles to Akira Maeda and Nobuhiko Takada six days later.

In the summer of 1987, Muto took part in the NOW vs. NEW feud, in which he aligned himself with Antonio Inoki and his group, teaming with the likes of Inoki, Seiji Sakaguchi, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, and Kantaro Hoshino, and battling the likes of Tatsumi Fujinami, Riki Choshu, Akira Maeda, Kengo Kimura, and Super Strong Machine.

In January 1988, Muto went on another excursion, this time in Puerto Rico for the Capitol Sports Promotions (CSP) under his new ring name, "The Super Black Ninja".

He feuded with Miguel Perez Jr., with whom he lost a hair vs. hair match to that April.

It was in Puerto Rico he formed The Three Musketeers with Masahiro Chono and Shinya Hashimoto.

He wrestled only one match in New Japan during this period on July 29, before returning to Puerto Rico.

In the fall of 1988, Muto moved to the Dallas, Texas-based World Class Championship Wrestling, where he reunited with Kendo Nagasaki and had a very short lived feud with Kevin Von Erich before departing the organization in March 1989.

Muto's personality and ring skills shown in his early American matches earned him a high billing within the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).

Muto first appeared as "Great Mota" in the NWA's World Championship Wrestling territory on the March 18, 1989, edition of Saturday Night.

His manager Gary Hart introduced him as the son of The Great Kabuki, whom Gary Hart also had managed years earlier.

He defeated Cougar Jay in his debut match.

Muto's name would eventually be changed to "The Great Muta".

Muta would feud with stars like Lex Luger, Ric Flair, and Sting, from whom he would capture the WCW World Television Championship on September 3, 1989.

Muto eventually lost the championship to Arn Anderson on January 2, 1990, which aired on the January 12, 1990, edition of Power Hour, and some time after the Clash of the Champions X on February 6, Muto would return to New Japan, going between his real name and his Muta gimmick as he pleased.

Muto quickly rose in the ranks upon returning to New Japan in March 1990.

He made his in-ring return to NJPW on April 27 by teaming with Masahiro Chono to defeat Shinya Hashimoto and Masa Saito to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship, marking Muto's second reign with the title.

He and Chono would hold the titles for over six months, before finally losing them to Hiroshi Hase and Kensuke Sasaki on November 1.

During this time, Muto also entered the Kyushu Cup tournament on June 12, in which he defeated Chono to advance to the finals of the tournament, where he lost to Hashimoto.

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.

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.

Muto was an accomplished amateur wrestler and a judo black belt with experience in many national competitions prior to being trained by Hiro Matsuda in the New Japan Pro-Wrestling Dojo.