NWO Twenty Years Later: Where Are They Now?
5. The Great Muta
Like Tenzan and Masa Chono, The Great Muta was one of the hottest talents to emerge from NJPW's famed dojo of the late '80s, and of the three, had by far the most experience co-operating in North America with WCW. As such, it was logical he would eventually be used on Turner television as a major component of the nWo's Japanese caucus.
Muta's turn to the dark side was a drawn out, long term process in his native Japan, as the perennial face battled with the moral conundrum and teased his tempters (essentially a Japanese Sting, though they had one of those too in the Fake Sting).
On Nitro on the other hand, he simply sprayed red mist in the face of manager Wally Yamaguchi during a tie against nWo Japan leader Masa Chono, accepted a t-shirt, and then stood around looking evil.
Muta - known for elaborate face-paint - opted to demonstrate his new-found nastiness by covering it black, and daubing it with the acronym 'nWo'. Inspired.
Muta enjoyed a fairly busy run in Atlanta, and was still working for the promotion long after the nWo had expired. One of the most popular stars in the history of puroesu, WCW closing its doors was entirely irrelevant to Muta.
Frequently starring for the country's major promotions NJPW and AJPW, Muta decided to script his own destiny after a bitter fallout with the latter company led to his firing. In July 2013, Wrestle-1 was born, as Muta invited many other recently fired AJPW stars to help the start up.
Like the other Japanese wrestlers on this list, Muta has kept himself in pretty good shape as he has fought the sands of time, and continues to wrestle in addition to booking and managing the AJPW breakway business.