The Great Muta

Scott,

Recently, I listened to a Jim Ross podcast from 2014, where he stated late in 1989 the booking team in WCW, including himself, wanted to turn The Great Muta babyface and put the World title on him, but Gary Hart protested turning Muta face, shooting down the proposed turn.

I have Gary Hart’s book and I know he was against a face turn, but how do you think Muta would have fared turning babyface and getting a run with the World Title?

​Oh, I think he would have knocked it out of the park as champion. People were dying to cheer him and he was pretty much guaranteed to have great matches as long as he was motivated. PLUS, and this is a big one, it would have solidified their relationship with New Japan early on and opened up more opportunities for talent exchange and such.

But yeah, Gary Hart really got into Muta’s head, apparently, and convinced him that a babyface turn would be bad for his career because people didn’t want to cheer an Asian babyface. Which is ridiculous because people were literally cheering him from the moment he debuted. Although again you run into the problem of WCW not having any strong heels to challenge the top babyface, aside from Luger. ​