Issue 69B - 4/12/00 Selected matches from NJ The Great Muta Nobody Knows Muta's World Laserdisk Box Set

Hiroshi Hase vs. The Great Muta 9/14/90 Hiroshima Sun Plaza

This was an excellent match technically. By that I don't mean that it was Tamura vs. Han or Yoshida vs. Gami, but that everything they did was so well done. It wasn't a big spot match or a brutal slugfest, but the execution was pretty much perfect. Mainly this match is memorable for the blood. No one does a blade job like Hase. The problem was that there wasn't really anything to justify this amount of blood. It's kind of funny that Shoji Nakamaki (when he was in IWA Japan and somewhat cool) would get abused by guys using barbed wire and wind up with 5 drops of blood on his upper nose (at least their announcers didn't claim he was losing blood by the quart), but Hase just gets rammed into a post and he's covered in blood. I'm not disturbed by this amount of blood, but it should take some dirty deeds that are done dirt cheap to cause someone to bleed this much. The match was largely slow paced, but it flowed really well because they are so good at countering moves that the match was like one continuous sequence that was only broken up by some strikes or brawling out of the ring. That's hardly something you could say about later Muta, but this is before he transformed into Leizi Muta and became known for standing around doing nothing in between most every move. The downside of what they did here was there were too many rest holds in between the counters. In some cases, the counters made the rest holds entertaining, but too often they were in the same basic position for too long. Muta did a decent job of attacking the wound after Hase did the blade job from hell, eliciting a series of Hase chants. The blood really worked as far as getting the crowd into it more, as previously they were mainly pro-Muta, they began pulling for Hase once he was battered and bloodied. It helped that Hase really milked the blood loss for all it was worth when he was selling, which after he cut himself was the majority of the match. Hase tried to summon his energy for a comeback, but that just made him more of a punching bag because Muta was relentless in his attack. Hase finally came back with a backdrop when Muta went for his (standing) choke sleeper. He got near falls with a pinpoint diving knee drop and his northern lights suplex. Hase was staggered from his own blood loss, but did manage to deliver his patented uranage and go to the top rope. By all means Hase should have seen seen that Muta was going to spew mist when he jumped because Muta really telegraphs when he's about to do it, but he wound up being the only one in the building that didn't know it was coming, so he got it in the face. The match was ruined after Muta spewed because he "lost it" for no reason at all. All of a sudden he just threw referee Tiger Hattori out of the way, got a stretcher from under the ring, and used it on Hattori and then Hase. This resulted in a rare disqualification, but that didn't stop Muta from giving Hase his moonsault. I guess Muta was satisfied because he had put a big beating on Hase, but they could have justified a rematch without killing this one with a horrible American finish. Jerome: This was the first half of a pair of early 90's New Japan singles matches that have become legendary for their bloodletting. Future senator Hiroshi Hase was a former IWGP junior heavyweight champion turned heavyweight, and one of the best wrestlers ever to grace a New Japan ring. The Great Muta was a young prodigy fresh off a stay in the NWA; a very good worker with a funky ninja gimmick. The first part of the match was a pretty flawless display of holds and counterholds. Although it was perfectly executed, it didn't build to anything, much like the great Toyota vs. Kyoko Inoue matches where the work is stainless but the submissions don't do much beyond slowing down the opposition. The match was really centered on blood. After Muta threw his opponent face first on a ring post on the outside, Hase cut himself to the point his chest was covered in red fluid just a few seconds after the blading. From there, Muta destroyed him, attacking the wound with chops and actually beating the shit out of Hase. I'm not a big fan of Muta's offense, as these chops always looked pretty weak to me, but his execution was clean and Hase put it over very well. Hase tried a few comebacks, but Muta kicked him into the ground. Finally, Hase took the advantage after a great backdrop and then unleashed big move after big move, fighting against the blood loss in superb fashion. I can't say enough good about Hase's selling in this match. He was always staggering, on the verge of losing his equilibrium. It hardly could have been better. After his northern light suplex, he finally hit his uranage then climbed up to the top rope. I didn't like Muta getting up, seemingly no-selling the previous damage, ready to spew his green mist in the face of Hase. The crowd booed this action heavily, and the match should have continued from there with Muta trying to end things after his cheap comeback. Instead, this went to a stupid DQ after Muta pushed the ref away. The match was developing into something really great until that point, but this ending was the worst thing that could have happened. Very good match overall, but it should have been much more. Special thanks to: Jerome Denis 18:35