Keiji Mutoh

(武藤敬司)

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Born
1963 (61 years old)
Shiny National flag

Fujiyoshida, Yamanashi

Position
Wrestler

Status
Retired

Ethnicity
Asian

Team Number

Height
1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)

Weight
110 kg (243 lb)

Outfitter

Kit
Wage Year

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Archive

Full Body Render

Sport

Fighting

Team
_Retired Wrestling

2nd Team

League
_Defunct Fighting Teams

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No

Description

Keiji Muto (武藤敬司, Mutō Keiji, born December 23, 1962) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and professional wrestling executive. He is known for his work as The Great Muta (ザ・グレート・ムタ, Za Gurēto Muta) in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) during the 1980s and 1990s, and from his runs in other Japanese, American, Puerto Rican, and Mexican promotions. He was the president of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) from 2002 to 2013 and representative director of Wrestle-1 (W-1) from 2013 to 2020.

Considered one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, Muto is also one of the first Japanese wrestlers to gain an international fanbase. "The Great Muta" gimmick is one of the most influential in puroresu, emulated by many wrestlers, including Satoshi Kojima (as The Great Koji), Kazushi Miyamoto (as The Great Kazushi), Atsushi Onita (as The Great Nita), and Seiya Sanada (as The Great Sanada). Others copied or modified some of the moves that he popularized or innovated, such as the Shining Wizard, Moonsault, Muta Lock, and the Dragon screw leg whip. He took part in what was generally considered to be one of the bloodiest professional wrestling matches at the time against Hiroshi Hase, leading to the creation of the "Muta scale", which rates the bloodiness of matches relative to this one's 1.0 value.

Muto is one of the five wrestlers to win the three major championships of puroresu (AJPW's Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship, NJPW's IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and Pro Wrestling Noah's GHC Heavyweight Championship) with Kensuke Sasaki, Yoshihiro Takayama, Satoshi Kojima, and Yuji Nagata. He also held the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship, making him an overall nine-time world champion. He is also a 13-time world tag team champion: five AJPW World Tag Team Championships, six IWGP Tag Team Championships, one GHC Tag Team Championship, and one WCW World Tag Team Championship. In total, he has held 32 championships.

In 2013, Muto founded W-1, where he also wrestled semi-regularly. He made special appearances for the American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA, renamed Impact Wrestling in 2017) from 2014 to 2019, as part of a talent exchange with W-1. In June 2022, Muto announced that he would retire in 2023. His retirement match occurred on February 21, 2023, in the Tokyo Dome during Noah's Keiji Muto Grand Final Pro-Wrestling "Last-Love" event. In April 2023, Muto was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Trophies

GHC Heavyweight Champion 2021	IWGP Heavyweight Champion 2008	Triple Crown Heavyweight… 2008	Champion Carnival 2004
Champion Carnival 2002	Triple Crown Heavyweight… 2002	IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team… 2001	Triple Crown Heavyweight… 2001
IWGP Heavyweight Champion 1999	World Tag League 1999	World Tag League 1998	IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team… 1997
World Tag League 1997	G1 Climax 1995	IWGP Heavyweight Champion 1995	IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team… 1994
World Tag League 1994	NWA Worlds Heavyweight… 1993	World Tag League 1993	IWGP Heavyweight Champion 1992
IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team… 1991	IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team… 1990	WCW Television Champion 1989	IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team… 1987