10 Things You Didn't Know About The Great Muta
8. He's One Of The Biggest Draws In Wrestling History
Keiji Mutoh's drawing record is incredible even without being placed in context.
Throughout his 1990s peak, he headlined no less than seven cards that drew in excess of 50,000 fans, and pulled in what was then the puro record on October 9, 1995; there, at New Japan Vs. UWF-i, his main event win over Nobuhiko Takada drew an astonishing 67,000 punters. That was the biggest event in the history of Japanese professional wrestling at that point in time, and, in generating $6.1 million, was the second biggest gate in all of 21st century wrestling.
If much of that number was drawn by the incredible, elusive concept of inter-promotional warfare - and never has it felt so real and so tribal - Mutoh drew in 55,000 to the Tokyo Dome with a main event loss to Kensuke Sasaki in a venture, Final Power Hall, solely promoted by NJPW.
To this day, with the exception of Antonio Inoki's retirement show, Mutoh holds the drawing record incorporating all of Japanese wrestling history.
Placing this record in context renders it all the more impressive, since Japanese pro wrestling was white-hot in the '90s. FMW's Death match spectacles were a stadium-sized monster of a fad. AJPW ritually sold out Budokan hall with Mitsuharu Misawa on top. All Japan Women's Pro Wrestling was red-hot, too, and the UWF-i for a brief period was hot enough to draw 46,168 to an event (Takada Vs. Vader) under its own banner.
With competition never as fierce as it was back then, Mutoh reigned as box office king above them all.