8 Greatest Karate Dudes in pro wrestling history

#1 The Great Muta

Keiji Mutoh was a black belt in judo before being trained in the world of pro wrestling by Hiro Matsuda - the same man who trained Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and Ron Simmons. He's held a number of different personas since his debut in 1984, but it's as The Great Muta that he's most widely known for. It's interesting to note that, in the video above, Muta was originally billed as the "Great Muto" in his NWA debut, but commentator Jim Ross mispronounced it as "Muta" and they just ran with it.

So, how cool was The Great Muta in the 1980s and 90s? Dude was cooler than Sting. Than Sting. That's how cool. And he still is.

He's probably in the top five of the most influential wrestlers to come from Japan. He's a former NWA World Heavyweight Champion. And he was involved in a match with Hiroshi Hase was that was bloody, that the blood content of all other matches are compared to it.

Yeah, that's what "the Muta Scale" means.

He invented the Shining Wizard knee strike and popularized the Moonsault. He popularized the use of face paint in wrestling as much as contemporaries like Sting and the Road Warriors did. He never technically wrestled for WWE during his career, although he did work for WCW during the Monday Night Wars, and was a prominent member of nWo Japan.

Granted, the fake Sting was also a prominent member of nWo Japan for a while, too, but its Japan so... I dunno. He's still cool, shut up.

Muta is still around these days, mostly working part-time in his own promotion, Wrestle-1. He's had some roles in movies in Japan, including a starring role in the Japanese thriller Yajuu Densetsu: Dragon Blue. He's also appeared alonside Genichiro Tenryu, Masahiro Chono, Riki Choshu and Tatsumi Fujinami as a gang member (all using their real names) in the PlayStation 4 game Yakuza Kiwami 2. He even has his own clothing line based on a gimmick he only used for, like, a year.

He's the Karate Dude that all other wrestling Karate Dudes aspire to be. He also belongs in the WWE Hall of Fame - how great would it be to see him accept in full face paint and then shoot a spray of green mist into the air to end his speech? So cool, you guys. That's how cool.

Here's Muta winning WCW's BattleBowl at Starrcade 1992:

Did we miss any other Karate Dudes? Share some of your favorites in the comments below.

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