Posted in: AEW, NJPW, Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: aew, AJPW, impact wrestling, Kenji Muto, njpw, The Great Muta, tna, wcw, wwe, wwe hall of fame

The Great Muta Confirmed as Next WWE Hall of Fame 2023 Inductee

Japanese wrestling legend & WCW superstar Keiji Muto, aka The Great Muta, is set to join the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2023.

Keiji Muto, also known as professional wrestling's The Great Muta, is the latest name to be announced for the 2023 WWE Hall of Fame, with his long-time opponent Ric Flair announcing the news on The Bump. It's a bit of a shocker because, to American audiences, he's the only remaining World Championship Wrestling superstar to have never worked for WWE. The closest Muto came was wrestling WWE's Shinsuke Nakamura at Pro Wrestling NOAH's show NOAH: The New Year event on January 1st during his farewell tour. His final match under the Muta persona was at the January 22 event titled The Great Muta Final "Bye-Bye," which reunited him with WCW icon Sting and Darby Allin (both currently under contract with All Elite Wrestling), winning in a six-man tag match against Hakushi, Akira, and Naomichi Marufiji. His final match in in-ring competition was on February 21st in a losing effort to IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito for NOAH's Keiji Muto Grand Final Pro-Wrestling "Last Love" held at the Tokyo Dome.

Keiji Muto's Career as The Great Muta

Even after WCW's folding in 2001, Muto's continued to make a few major American wrestling promotion appearances for WWE's rivals in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling/Impact Wrestling in 2014, 2015, and 2019 and for AEW in 2019 and 2022. His most recent appearance was at AEW Rampage: Grand Slam on September 23, 2022, saving Sting from The House of Black. As far as long shot inductions go, this was probably the top of the list for Paul "Triple H" Levesque since he worked his magic to bring back not only convincing WWE's harshest critics in former jaded employees in Bruno Sammartino and Jim "Ultimate Warrior" Helwig to accept inductions to the company's HOF but also changed the mind of WCW's most loyal and longest- tenured superstar in Sting to accepting a WWE contract in 2015 and subsequent induction. The only major WCW superstar yet to be inducted by WWE into their HOF is Larry "Lex Luger" Pfohl.

Muto's career began nearly 40 years ago in 1984 for New Japan Pro-Wrestling, bringing with him his experience as an amateur wrestler and judo black belt. Trained under Antonio Inoki, Hiro Matsuda, and Kotetsu Yamamoto, Muto made his debut against Masahiro Chono, who also spent time in WCW. Muto would travel the world, with several stints across Japan and the US, winning several titles for NJPW, NWA, and WCW. He's won nine titles for All Japan Pro Wrestling, a 12-time champion with NJPW, a three-time NWA champion, and a WCW Tag Team champion.

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