(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: The Great Muta vs. Hiroshi Hase – NJPW, December 14, 1992

This match between the Great Muta and Hiroshi Hase was once called the bloodiest match in modern times. It spawned the Muta Scale, an informal measure of blood loss in wrestling matches that has come up many times in the decades since. This all came about by accident, yet it set a new standard, one to which all future matches would be compared.

But was there more to this match than just the amount of blood lost? Read on to find out.

Previously I was writing for a site called TJR Wrestling and now this series is coming to Blog of Doom. For now you can check out the series in its entirety here.

The story

Hase had been embroiled in an on-again-off-again feud with both Keiji Muto and his demon alter-ego the Great Muta since the fall of 1990. The two men traded singles and tag losses over several months until they started teaming together in late 1991. They teaming proved successful as they won the IWGP Tag Team Titles together but lost them about four months later to the team of Big Van Vader and Crusher Bam Bam Bigelow.

Around the same time, Muto was preparing for a big IWGP Heavyweight title shot and needed a big win. As such, in the weeks ahead of the 1993 January 4 Dome Show, he was to face Hase one-on-one. But instead of facing Hase as himself, he decided to Muta, the demon that lived within him, to come out instead.

There was plenty of hype going into this. They were tied with one win apiece in 1990 but Hase’s win was via disqualification. That match, from September 14, 1990, also had its fair share of blood, so people wondered if one or both men could exceed those expectations as well.

The match

This match originally took place on December 14, 1992. It was rated ****1/2 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer.

Muta spits green mist in the air but Hase strikes first with a dropkick, a lariat, and a running neckbreaker. Then he lands an uranage which sends Muta to the floor. Hase sends Muta into a barricade, sets up a table against the ring, and smashes Muta onto it. He tosses Muta into the ring and hits a diving elbow followed by some chops and a gutwrench gutbuster. He follows with a slingshot suplex and starts working Muta’s arm but Muta escapes with a martial arts combo. Hase shoots Muta off the ropes but Muta lands a shoulderblock, ducks down, and lands more kicks. Muta applies a half crab then switches to a deathlock and then finally his patented Muta Lock. Hase counters the facelock component by stretching Muta’s chin and then escapes by grabbing Muta’s nose.

Hase keeps attacking Muta’s nose (makes sense, that’ll make Muta’s eyes water making it harder for him to see), to the point that most of Muta’s face pain comes off. A swinging neckbreaker gets Hase a two-count so Muta bails to ringside. He skulks about lifting the ring apron as Hase gets a breather. Muta doesn’t find what he’s looking for so he returns to the ring where Hase drops him with a swinging suplex for another two-count. Muta avoids a second suplex and dumps Hase ringside. He sends Hase into the barricade and hits his handspring elbow, then lands a diving chop in the ring.

Back outside, Muta removes one layer of ringside mats and lands a bulldog onto the thinner layer below. In the ring, Muta lands his snapmare/flashing elbow combo but Hase retaliates with a headlock, only for Muta to crotch him on the top rope. Muta does that a second time on the thin steel guardrail, but Hase seems to land on his thigh instead of his groin. Muta goes for a diving attack in the ring when Hase magically fires up to cut him off and land a superplex. Hase lands a bridging German suplex but only manages a two-count. He starts fighting dirty as he rakes Muta’s eyes across the top rope but then he misses a dropkick.

Muta nonchalantly bails to ringside and throws a chair in the ring. Not a folding chair but a normal one, i.e. one with no give. Hase kicks the ref to keep the chair in use (why that’s not a DQ is beyond me) but that distraction allows Muta to crack Hase with it. Muta lands a rib breaker and teases a moonsault but Hase knocks him to the floor. Hase lands a running clothesline to keep Muta out of the ring which leads to Muta pulling out a ring spike and another chair. Hase sees the spike and throws the chair away to steal that new weapon away from Muta. Then he stabs Muta’s forehead and grinds the spike into it as much as he can.

The camera zooms in on Muta and my God, what a cut. Blood is literally streaming down to the ring in a continuous fountain. Within fifteen seconds there’s blood all over Muta’s face and arm and parts of the blue ring canvas are turning brown. Then Hase bites Muta for added drama and when the camera zooms on him he’s so bloody it looks like he was the one who bladed.

Hase attacks the wound with more punches and biting but then Muta fires up. He sends Hase into a corner but misses a handspring elbow. Hase follows with a piledriver and again goes after the wound. He drops Muta throat-first from his shoulders onto the top rope and then applies a sleeper. Muta’s hand falls twice but he fights on. By this point his face is literally a crimson mask; if it wasn’t for the blue markings you’d think he had somehow reapplied his face paint.

Hase lands some running kicks followed by a sharpshooter only for Muta to get a ropebreak. Muta remains standing after Hase’s next round of kicks and then he ducks another running kick and follows with five Backdrop suplexes. Muta sprints to the top rope and dives for a moonsault but Hase rolls away.

Both men struggle to their feet and then Hase lands another uranage for a two-count. Hase follows with a folding powerbomb but Muta kicks out again. Muta elbows out of another uranage attempt and lands a bridging dragon suplex for an even closer 2.5-count. The crowd chanting for Hase fires Muta up and he lands a second bridging dragon for yet another close two-count. Muta follows with a rib breaker and a successful diving moonsault. One, two, three! Muta wins and leaves the ring looking like a crime scene.

Winner after 23:04: The Great Muta

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x25eyla

Review

Most people remember this match for Muta’s horrific blade job and to be honest there isn’t that much else to it. While the wrestling before, during, and after that part of the match was crisp and smooth, it was also disjointed and didn’t go anywhere. It had a my-turn-your-turn pacing with both guys getting control out of nowhere and often in unearned sort of ways. Hase got dropped on his crotch and then bounced up almost right away to land a superplex. Muta took a high-angle uranage and a powerbomb in short order and fired up seconds later to begin his suplex barrage. Muta’s blood loss didn’t slow him down significantly or affect him beyond creating a shocking and horrifying visual.

It was like putting crimson paint job on the same style of match most people had already seen before. This wasn’t a bad match, just an underwhelming one that didn’t feel special beyond the blood that poured out of Muta’s forehead.

Comparing this match with other famous bladejob matches, this one is, again, visually impressive and shocking but doesn’t add much substance to the match itself. When Eddie Guerrero bladed in his match with JBL he slowed down, staggered, and struggled to make any sort of comeback thereafter. Reports of Eddie severing an artery only came out afterwards, but in the moment the blood made his struggle all the more believable.

Another example was with The Undertaker in his HIAC match with Brock Lesnar at No Mercy 2002. As soon as Undertaker started bleeding he lost his advantage, had to fight in a more uncontrollable way, and as a result, no longer found himself the favorite to win.

A third example is this singles match from All Japan between Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue from before they were partners. Taue got busted open (possibly the hard way) which was shocking because blading was all but banned in AJPW. Yet the sight of Taue pressing on after his face turned red (and especially after Kawada left his handprint on Taue’s bloody cheek) turned this into one of the most heated short matches in decades.

None of those added benefits of blood were found here. It was blood for blood’s sake, to the point that the blood overshadowed the action and didn’t really add much to it. Muta fired up a few times but the crowd was still behind Hase. You can argue that it made Muta a bit of a babyface yet one never got the impression that Muta the character was really affected by the blood either way or that Muto the wrestler was wrestling any differently from normal.

Final rating: ***1/4

This match has a cool visual but nothing else. There are much better matches involving Keiji Muto/The Great Muta and Hiroshi Hase out there that are more worthwhile. And for people that simply want to see a lot of blood, well, bloodier matches took place after this match elsewhere, to the point that it really lost any special status.

So aside from being the answer to a trivia question about wrestling history and being the source of an informal fan creation for judging wrestling match bloodiness, there isn’t all that much here to make you go out of your way to see it.

Thanks for reading.