10 Things WWE Fans Need To Know About Jushin Liger

7. Heel Run & MMA

While Liger is mostly known as a babyface, he has not been a good guy for his whole career (like Ricky Steamboat or Rey Mysterio, for example). Following a brief foray into the heavyweight division in 2000 (all that extra weight did not serve Liger well and he trimmed down to return to the Juniors), Liger decided his character needed freshening up. So he became a heel. Liger had embraced his dark side once before, when he was unmasked and transformed into some sort of ultra-intense demon (known as Kishin Liger) in a memorable October 20th 1996 match with the Great Muta. But in 2001, Liger decided he wanted to be a heel on a full-time basis. He headed up the Control Terrorism Unit (CTU), comprised of NJPW's most villainous junior heavyweights. Suddenly, Liger was wearing a black bodysuit, he was choking and biting his opponents, requesting outside interference and using other illegal tactics. Although match quality dropped, Liger certainly got over as a heel and proved that he could continue to reinvent himself. A giant miss-step, however, was when Liger (with NJPW boss Antonio Inoki urging him on) stepped into the MMA ring for a match against experienced shooter Minoru Suzuki in March 2002. Liger barely lasted two minutes, trying a rather ridiculous Koppo (front flip) kick before being taken down to the ground and then forced to submit to a rear choke. Liger wisely 'retired' from MMA with a record of 0-1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGiIc50-SEc