The Great Muta joins the nWo - 5/26/97

[mudface17]

Larry Zybysko was horrible as a broadcaster

[mudface17]

Masa "My Hero" Chono

[EducatedRebellion101]

I loved Muta when I was growing up, and watched him countless times. However I do NOT remember any of this, I did not even know he went back to WCW after he left in the early 90's. How long was he back in WCW for ??? Obviously I don't think this lasted long, as they make him look like Vincent or some other nobody in the NWO.

[peterp21]

@EducatedRebellion101 It's one of the more forgotten NWO angles. Muta was still coming over rarely with Chono, Tenzan, et al, as part of the talent sharing deal. He wasn't treated like a jobber, but he usually was only there for a couple matches as an attraction. This was more significant in that it kicked off the NWO Japan angle. It was always weird to see Muta and Chono standing with the rest of the NWO during promos. I believe Hall and Bagwell used to team with NWO Japan in NJPW too.

[EducatedRebellion101]

HOLY SHIT !! I loved Muta when I was growing up, and watched him countless times. However I do NOT remember any of this, I did not even know he went back to WCW after he left in the early 90's. How long was he back in WCW for ??? Obviously I don't think this lasted long, as they make him look like Vincent or some other nobody in the NWO.

[paul21mclovin]

@EducatedRebellion101 he came back in the summer of 2000 also when he teamed with vampiro and the demon against sting

[yukimura7777sanada]

great muta in this era is the best

cheap painting makes him look more weird

no need shinning wizard



[hydroflame210]

@Trell7369 he died??

[ThunderwingMatrix]

Could WCW have pulled this off any more poorly? It should've been a big deal for the Great Muta to join the nWo, but they made him (and Masa Chono) look like the nWo's D-List!  No wonder WCW's out of business now.

[avoiderdragon]

Muta spat green mist for show, then red mist at Sonny Onoo. Awesome.

[paladindarknite]

i remember this, like yesterday!

[ShaolinDynasty]

This is cool to see an NJPW match on WCW...

[paulandj]

nwo was getting too big they should have formed an aliance to end the nwo, maybe bring in a couple suprise wrestlers to help there i just booked wcw a few more years to their existance from my bedroom how hard was that.

[Chuloloc]

Awesome. Muta joins the NWO. 

[ProWrestlingFan101]

The Great Muta was the best out of the WCW roster even for little while he was there lol.

[johnblueriggs]

Wish Chono could've used his NJPW entrance theme... but it was way too awesome WCW's catalogue music

[ballababy1999]

i always did like that entrance theme!

[Fleshdogg716]

I believe in Japanese Pro Wrestling. Thank to N.W.O. 

[peterathwal99]

this theme was pretty tight!

[djnomi4mix]

Pause at :28 looks like the rock

[shootbinary]

"You can't trust the Japanese; they have seven hearts!"

Oh Larry, your old man racism dates you more than your golf stories.

[PrimetimeD]

I was there when this happened. Awesome stuff. The Great Muta and Masa-my-hero-Chono

[Danfrombackhome]

MUTA FTW

[Pcfan11]

>Leader of original nWo having B-team music

rage.jpg

[JakeTheFakeReal]

5:42 so epic

[megamurg]

at 2:17

the ref hands muta

another poison mist pellet

[Sanchez417]

And if I'm not mistaken the ORIGINAL ECW invaded the WWF to cross promote

[KreepinOutThaKut]

once vince had already bought ecw they "invaded" wwf.....=BS

[wheelze]

I've been thinking about this for a while now. Do you think that the NWO wasn't the "brainchild" of WCW/Eric Bishoff. It was really "The Kliq"? I don't know, that's just my thinking.

[jland3622]

@wheelze The NWO was Bishoff's idea. The invasion angle in which the NWO used was done before in japan with All Japan and New Japan years earlier.

[JimmyJump31377]

@jland3622 no your wrong it got popular in wcw way before dx it started in japan

[jland3622]

WTF are you talking about?? The NWO was Eric Bishoff's idea. But the whole invasion angle has been done before wayyy before WCW did it. And learn to speak english correctly.

[Gateway0807]

the Kliq had nothing to do with an invasion you know nothing. WCW was the inventor of the invasion angle and the attitude era where it was more then about kids...

[HollywoodKendrick]

Late 1995- early 96 NJPW invaded WCW. nWo was formed in 1996 before DX was created.

[legendkiller602]

You could be right, cause the Kliq is Nash, Hall, Waltman(Syxx), Shawn Michaels and Triple H. And around the time nWo was formed, DX came around. Plus it is well known that all the 5 men i mentioned are really really close friends and plus HBK was in the WWE nWo so I think it may have been Bischoffs brainchild, but Nash may have formed it alot cause I heard Big Kev did alot of the creative thinking for the black and white

[KreepinOutThaKut]

Kev is the shit and no doubt had influence, but i always thought that wcw fell cause of the party mentality w/ bischoff and his being easily influenced by his talent. nwo was his idea supposedly, but was it really an idea passed on from nash or scott? who knows. great times

[creedstruth]

no one did more for the business then Kevin nash , Scott Hall , and Konan Basically the NWO Black & Red were the thinkers.

[MikeCinKC]

I agree, the nWo had waaaaay too many people in it.

By the way, i always wondered how Muta did that mist crap. It looks like spray paint coming from his mouth.

[ChiviChing]

I still ask myself why NWO liked to recruit way too many people on it. It became so annoying that every week, a different wrestler was joining NWO..

[Tigerfan2437]

But that's what made most people watch everyweek Just to see who the new member would be..

[jland3622]

@MikeCinKC Kool Aid....thats what he uses or some sometimes food coloring.

[HollywoodKendrick]

If you were wrestling wouldnt you join the nWo?

[KIMBOSLICE66666]

the problem with the NWO is it got to big so they where only the heels

[Threatz2009]

lmfao@ 5:41

[RDK619]

lol NWO had alot of guys in it! but man was i a big fan, i had everything NWO!!!

[bigcnwo]

n.W.o 4 life i did too lol

[captainredneck1983]

I admit, I was a big nWo fan. Not just because it had some of my favorite guys, but they reminded me of one of my favorite movies: "The Warriors." But I have to agree that it just got much too watered down. It was too unwieldy.

Hogan, Nash, Hall, Savage, Syxx. Chono and Muta would have been my "Dream Team" version of nWo. Seven is a good number.

[khanio1]

half of wcw joined nwo, thats what messed up wcw

[MANABUR]

why NWO Japan 's entrance song is difference ??

[NeptuneNetwork]

Because they were a seperate team. If you were buddies with Hogan, that was the only way you got in the Original nW

[haya441223]

the great muta= keiji muto is now president of all japan pro wrestling.

[biggjoshhardcore]

oh really? that's awesome!

[rvd83]

Seeing Muta join the nWo ment nothing because Muta was never allowed to b the legendary talent he is in Japan when he made trips to the US. I never understood why Muta agreed to come and do shows for WCW. The whole nWo thing got really horrible long before this since 2/3 of the WCW roster were nWo members & the rest were either too small on the talent chain to get enough TV time to bother with or were the "main eventers" that would get their asses kicked by the entire nWo at the end of most PPVs

[anfclwin05]

@rvd83 But in Japan it was a HUGE deal. Even nWo Japan had a better ending than its US counterpart.

[JuliusC1973]

@rvd83 I agree that WCW let too many wrestlers into the NWO. It got bogged down with so many members. NWO Japan was better than NWO US in my opinion. WCW could have actually had Konnan start an NWO Mexico and it would have been interesting to see how that would have worked.

[Ragehead91]

@JuliusC1973

Well, in 98 we had the Latino World Order for a short amount of time and it didn't amount to anything. But maybe that was due to Eddie's big car accident.

[JuliusC1973]

@Ragehead91 That could have had some potential if you had the LWO vs. NWO Wolf Pack vs. NWO Black and White.

[Ragehead91]

If they did it to finally end the nWo, then yes. By that point in time the nWo had been around for way too long. It should've ended on Starcade 97 with a clean win by Sting over Hogan.

[JuliusC1973]

@Ragehead91 I agree, Bischoff refused to accept that WCW had to move on to new ideas and to create new stars and move them up the ladder.

[Ragehead91]

@JuliusC1973

Bishoff and the WCW staff in generall were a bunch of big fools. Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Rey Misterio, you know, all the guys who would go on to become World Champ in WWE have been told that they'll never make it. Hell, Batista wanted to train in the Power Plan and he was told that he'll never make it by that stupid Sarge. The WCW roster was full of unused potential. Hell, I think the WCW Roster - all the jobbers from 97 to 99 was better than the WWF Roster.

[GamingPalooza]

@rvd83

HE WAS IN nWo JAPAN... not the US nWo... so when he went back to Japan he was still in the nWo and was still the legendary star he is!

[punxone]

@rvd83 actually muta joining the nwo meant a lot during that time cause it paved the way for the nwo expanding into japan and making a boat load of money for everyone involved. muta and chono picked up the IWGP tag belts and held them for about a year. they even spray painted that belts. scott norton got a huge push in japan and picked up the IWGP heavyweight belt.

[peterp21]

@rvd83 Muta, like Chono and Tenzan, used to make occasional trips to WCW because of the working deal NJPW had with WCW. Why was Muta not booked like a legend in WCW? Well, because he would only show up once or twice a year and was more a special attraction. Why book him in angles if he's only there for two weeks? Besides, the meaning of him joining NWO here was to start up the NWO Japan.  I actually think it was cool that you had a separate NWO contingent across the world.

[D2Kprime]

@rvd83: Muta OWNED in the NWA though. They billed him as being an nearly unstoppable. At least for a little while.

[Dnytemare]

MR BLACKJACK HIMSELF!!!

[Bentindo]

i always thought the great muta was a heel but he s not

[LigerbusaFPC]

Yes he is

[Bentindo]

was always a heel

[Dnytemare]

CHONO WAS NEVER ALWAYS A HEEL!

[Bentindo]

i was talkin about great muta was he always a heel

[bloatiespizzahut]

yes

[TonyChase]

No he wasnt. When he wrestles as Kokushi and he tags with Hakushi hes a face. Also early on he was a face also.

[HawkBasham]

Well technically that's not Muta, that's Kokushi.

[TonyChase]

No its Muta.He's Kokushi when he has the body paint & he wrestled as a part of BATT. In this vid hes Muta. But I hvae to correct my earlier comment as Kokushi he wrestles as a face and a heel.

[Kokushi666]

he only wrestled as kokushi a couple times agains jinsei shinzaki as part of their fued

[GlennFoley4]

The only time Japan wrestlers were showcased properly by the WCW was when they did that Wrestling Cup thing at StarCade one year. Sucked that you knew the US was going to win the battle but it was a great angle.

Its to bad more Japanese wrestlers were not brought over for some quality matches. Muta was great in NWA/WCW during his first run.

This segment was pointless because over 90% of the people in the crowd are like who the fuck are these guys?! As good as the NWO was it got old fast.

[JuliusC1973]

I love the supercards that the NWA/WCW did with New Japan Pro wrestling and All Japan Pro wrestling. If I could get copies of the Road Warriors, Ric Flair, the Russians, etc. matches over there, that would be great.

[TonyChase]

As per your last point, Bischoff killed the nWo. He added too many people. They didnt need Virgil, Ted Dibiase, Konnan, Bagwell, and others. In a "Heel Faction" all you need is : #1 A guy 2 go after the World Champ & Protect the belt when they got it. #2 Two guys to get the tag belts. & #3 a small guy to handle the cruiserweights @ that time. Look @ the Horsemen. they are the prime example. 4 guys 4 belts. U dont need 25 guys in a Faction. Thats why it got old. nWo Japan was the same way.

[Hulkamania4eva]

Eric was not the only man making decisions. You had Kevin Sullivan and others who were part of that process.

I agree with your view, but disagree that it was all Bischoff.

[LostRegalian]

They should've circled around each other and taunted one another for 45 minutes more. I'd love to see the commentators try to call that match!

[theraVen27]

that was hogan vs ....anyone during wcw

[motousami]

日本刀を持ってる（持たされてる？）蝶野がかわいいｗ

[HCErik]

Muta Vs Chono Would Have Been Match of The Year In WCW. If WCW Hadnt Dropped The Ball A Shit load of times

[JuliusC1973]

It probably would have been the best match by any wrestling promotion in North America that year.

[LigerbusaFPC]

Muta vs Chono? No.

[SYNDICADO]

I remember Mutas dad wrestling here in Texas in the 70's and 80's! The only man to break a bone on Andre the giant!

[danopageadditt]

Do you mean "The Great Kabuki. He was a great wrestler but he wasn't really The Great Muta's father. It was storyline.

[bluethundershark]

I think it was wrong to have Muta a heel, he was awesome though

[VINOCORLEONE24]

I think everybody was in the nwo at one point or another.

[albAX]

yeah so true and ridiculous

[fieldofstorms]

Larry Zybsko is so fuckin annoying. Muta's awesome.

[MartinGiacomo]

I swear as long as someone is playing the heel, Larry gets away with some racist and sexist crap in the commentary booth.

[iseeredpeoples]

2:31 "slowing the pace down"????????????

nothing happened to slow down

[aaggddjtmg]

ムタ最高

[Nik133]

Chono and Muta vs. The Steiner Brothers at Bash At The Beach 1997 was a pretty good match!

[Hawkee316]

Muta is the MAN

[Diehardharder]

This is why WCW Still rules

[MegaSpiderMan]

Japanese wrestlers RULE!

[pljohnson54]

Larry with the most racist comment. " You can't trust the Japanese they have 7 hearts"

[Rockwildon]

whatever does he mean

[TheoHuxtable07]

@pljohnson54 What does that even mean?

[JuliusC1973]

@pljohnson54 Larry Zybysko did not like anybody who could kick his butt and the Great Muta and Masahiro Chono would have given him a run for his money and sent him back to wrestling school.

[wtcvidman]

I wish they did bigger things with Muta when he joined WCW about 2 years after this (when he tagged with Vampiro). I wanted to see him take the reigns of the NWO and use his badass Muta rulebreaker style in Japan in the US and even bring in a Japan/NWO referee for his matches so he could get away with what he does in Japan without being DQ'd. The fans would have gone nuts for him if he did stuff like he did to Jinsei Shinzaki (Hakushi)--hanging him with his own belt--but to WCW stars. Too bad.

[AnferneeHardaway1]

What name is the song??

[fghghhg93]

i git it. message me if u have msn iw ill send it there

[bigj4lj]

muta could have been Huge but WCw did not let the man have his time in the spot light

[runebeo]

Nwo should stopped getting people after Scott Steiner joined, that was a great point, then they got flooded with too many members.

[mjlbears34]

The Great Muta - Most underrated wrestler of all time. A Hall of Famer!

[glenrich84]

muta used to be bad blood, before his nwo fad. then in wolf pak in japan, he kept the red paint and the name. play wcw v the world or wcw nwo world tour.

[ManiacMonkboon]

I second that FAIL. Now if you had said something along the lines of The Black Dragon (Many people don't remember that far back into his career), then you may have gotten a slight pass. Next you'll probably say he was in PMPW as a hidden Wrestler named Sparrow, Monk....

[glenrich84]

i dont need a pass from a person who says FAIL! who says that?

[DBZmegafan99]

Can someone tell me why Scott Norton, NWO Sting, Brian Adams, and Mr. Wallstreet were in NWO Japan?

[nwofox1982]

they had a deal with japan about exchanging talent

[jswags]

Can someone tell me why they were in NWO at all??

[TonyChase]

Lets see...... Norton they said was too stiff in the US, nWo Sting is Best friends with Chono and Chono is his kids Godfather, Adams was terrible & Mike Rotundo had nothing to do in the states.

[DBZmegafan99]

ok That makes sense

[exe2517]

as you say, it was totally pointless to put this angle in WCW Nitro when the angle of nWo Japan trying to recruit Keiji Mutoh and The Great Muta was the hottest angle in New Japan... besides, giving Chono and Muta (two former World Champions in WCW) simply doesn't fit for two members of the Tuokon San Yushi

[TonyChase]

Ummm.... Muta was World "TV" champion, and Chono was NWA International Champion. Neither was World Champion in WCW. Unless u mean they were just World champions. In that regard I agree.

[exe2517]

no, Chono is an official former NWA World Heavyweight Champion and Muta won the same title

so they were World Champions in WCW, prior to the the departure from the NWA

[nightwingv1]

this had absolutely no impact on u.s. wrestling. the fans didn't really care and nothing came out of this in the u.s. what the point was to do this, i don't know.

[CactusG26]

i guess this was done to turned Muta heel but in Japan... because after this he kept wrestling in Japan in black and white attires and the letters nWo painted in his face...

[Kwestshunmarq]

Why would this have an impact on US wrestling? That's just retarded. It was meant to impact wrestling in Japan. nWo Japan is the only part of the nWo that still exists.

[RantNRavinFection]

I had no clue even Muta joined nWo. that entrance music was pretty crappy though...I would've thought it was some generic jobber theme without the "n-n-new woorld orderr f-f-f-fo lyfe" sound bytes.

[1cyrax]

Ono is Awesome!

[SoWutUp85]

lol that music was for the nwo mid to low carders...like masahiro chono. Most others got the classic nwo theme. And then hogan had the nwo hendrix theme.

[DiamondJoeQuimby]

uh, if you know Hendrix then you'll realize that this theme has the main hook from Jimi's version of "Hey Joe."

do a youtube search under chono, check out a couple of his matches and then get back to us with where you think he ranks... while he's not a high-flier he is a good mat techncian and is just about the coolest wrestler ever to come out of New Japan.

i highly recommend Chono vs. Misawa.

[drunkensailor112]

lol what a bs. this song was the old nwo song. everyone used

[SoWutUp85]

and you're wrong :)

[JPThunder01]

In the US Muta and Chono at this point were pretty much jobbers. In Japan the situation was much different.

[Shazaan1]

In Japan Muta is a legend there.

[theraVen27]

unfortunately this is true.

look at what wcw did for the mexican wrestlers the luchadores.

why did they bury asian wrestlers?

who more often than not have far better in ring skills....

[heattttt]

nWo loves jimi hendrix

[Patrickhollywood]

this wuz even better than chono joining

[ashokasura]

was this theme a horrible rip off of hey joe by jimi hendrix? cause its friggin horrible lol

[seekerjet]

Muta has the most impressive looking custumes of all wrestlers. I mean...just look at the one he's wearing here. It's amazing! He looks like someone from Tekken or any other fighting video game.

[kyotanahashi]

oh my...imagine if Chono came out to his "Crash" theme...that would be a super mark-out moment for the die-hards

[yourgoingdown]

I wish they didn't use that shitty nWo B-team music. There big time players in Japan but they had them come out to crappy music. It'd be like Hogan Hall or Nash coming out to it.

[georgyfontaine28]

You must be talking about that that 70's porn music chono came out to. I was wondering what theme music that was.

[yourgoingdown]

Yeah thats the music Chono comes out to at the beginning of this vid. Only the shitty members like Vincent or early Buff Bagwell came out to it. The bigger members use the regular music.

[DiamondJoeQuimby]

Chono is bigger in Japan and to some fans here than every "bigger member" of the nwo, combined, Hogan included.

[yourgoingdown]

Yeah dude I like them I just didn't like the idea of the nWo B-team music being used for them. Hogan probably had them use it lol. The Wood strikes again.

[TonyChase]

AMEN BROTHER!!!!!!!!

[GregH249]

I remember watching this live on TV. During this show I felt that WCW was getting on track on competing against the WWF, WCW had the talent towards the end of 97, as well as higher ratings than WWF for a short period. The producers f*cked up WCW towards the end of 99, they didn't care anymore. The NWO is the best thing that happend to WCW, but it self destructed. LOL 5:45 is halarious.

[odihjiohzd]

I love the NWO....4-LIFE

[ARealHulkamaniac]

nWo Japan is not still around they disbanded when the Chono led Team 2000 beat the Great Muta led nWo some time in 2000. There is another stable in NJPW now though called Black thats kind of like the nWo but it has nothing to do with it besides having Chono in it.

[nwfutboler16]

Yep its till around

Since nWo is apart of NJPW

Technically its a totally diffent group apart from nWo in WCW/WWE

[kyotanahashi]

nWo Japan hasnt been around for nearly 9 years...

[nwfutboler16]

nWo Japan is still around....

I guess they havent got the memo yet

[Yungnap99]

Are you serious? They are still doin that?

[FlyswatterOne]

damn i remember this...i remember sunny ono too...man he was a pretty decent manager and funny looking. i think he had that going for him. his facial expressions.

[iamyoursaviour]

This seems to be an excellent example of how WCW didn't use people to their true potential.

[exe2517]

True that, almost a month ago they had a pretty decent match at Battle Formation in Tokyo Dome, with a great end, spreading doubts about Muta's true intentions with the nWo Gundam.

Does anybody know when nWo Japan "died"?

[thephantomplatypus]

yeah, nWo Japan was awesome, but i agree, they were never used to there full potential.

[ufcisgay]

muta had contract obligations to new japan you tit

[DiamondJoeQuimby]

totally, this could have been a kickass angle; instead, they wrapped it all up in one 5-min. segment... weak.

[killaxclassof09]

actually it was a angle in NJPW

[SplatLogic]

"You can't trust the Japanese they have seven hearts"

Zbysko FTW

[Ringmistress]

Hey, maybe that's why their wrestling smokes ours - more HEART

[Murray066]

muta is champion!

[DefLeppardVanHalen]

This was a rematch from their classic IWGP and NWA World title matches between 1992 and 1993.

[Mutoh3ll]

NWO Japan is awesome

[Supermercado]

If this had been main event shit then I would have been in heaven. Sure, there would have been about 15 other people watching but it still would have been sweet.

[DiamondJoeQuimby]

ha, too true...

[pats14fann01]

MUTA?! NWO?! Can't be!!!! You got to get more footage of Muta w/ nWo. How long did Muta stay with nWo?

[DefLeppardVanHalen]

Until when Chono decided to form Team 2000 with the majority of nWo Japan, excluding Muta.

[Holic]

Technically, he stayed until nWo Japan was disbanded. The Great Muta character, however, left in 1997 after a miscommunication with Chono in a tag match in Japan.

Keiji Mutoh did appear towards the end of that match and (unexpectedly) take Muta's place for the match, however, and the rest was history.