10 Things You Didn't Know About The Great Muta
5. The Circumstances Behind His NJPW Departure
Keiji Mutoh was a New Japan guy in a scene (and indeed culture) premised on loyalty.
He was trained within its Dojo system, and, alongside Masahiro Chono and Shinya Hashimoto, was one of the Three Musketeers tasked with leading the company through the 1990s. He was effectively the heart of the league; combining the in-ring mastery and charisma of his two main peers, he represented the company in the tribalistic (and ultimately one-sided) war with the UWF-i worked shoot promotion. To underscore this, nWo Japan - which was never fated to last, admittedly - fell apart when the fans stopped jeering Muta when he took over as leader. They couldn't bring themselves to do it for long.
He made cameo appearances for All Japan Pro Wrestling as New Japan partnered with the decimated number two, but as a representative.
He left outright (beyond some sporadic appearances) in 2002 in protest of the 'Inokiism' philosophy that annihilated NJPW's business and credibility in the early 2000s. Founder Antonio Inoki took all too literal his vision of NJPW as a martial art.
Chasing the MMA boom, Inoki took the atrocious step of dispatching his wrestlers to MMA league PRIDE, in which they were annihilated, and booking legitimate (but clunky and tedious) MMA fighters to wrestle worked attractions in his own promotion. Mutoh was appalled by the direction, and left to star in (and become president of) AJPW.
He was in touch with the wrestling fandom two decades ago, at least.