I think some people prehaps remember Muta's short second run in WCW and are turned of by him. Muta is though I hate to admit it the 3rd biggest Japanese wrestler of all time, behind Baba and Misawa and while a have never been a huge fan of his, you have to certainly take into account the fact that he is far more technically sound than maybe 80% of the people in this tourny. Not only was he technically sound he was unique in that he could also adapt and was a great brawler, and some of his matches were fucking awsome and his 1989 run was brilliant.
Despite some good points though I just cannot bring myself to vote for Muta because since 1990 the quality of his matches has not been great. He can be forgiven for his early years because he was establishing himself (and stealing Kabuki's gimmick). When you compare Muta to the other top guys in the tournement i.e. Angle and HBK, or even to Misawa the guy just has not had enough quality matches to compete. And he is the most overated Japanese wrestler ever, most people only him outside Japan for his crappy WCW stuff. And I cannot forgive him for the crap he has put on since 1990. Muta would have been huge, past his prime, bit allbeit huge if he has stayed in the USA, but he didnt, that was his first mistake. I put the guy over Sting because this guy practically launched Stings main event career but the guy failed because of his own decisions he made and he cant get by in the tourny because of this.
People talk about how high the standard of wrestling in Japan is/was but these same people then class Muta as in there list of top wrestlers. Muta was a good wrestler technically WHEN HE WAS YOUNG but simply but he was a fucking average all around wrestler. Whatever people say the guy is not famous for his wrestling he is famous for spraying mist in peoples faces, and he didnt even invent that. The Great Muta gimmick was a comlete rip of one of Kabuki,when people today have a go at Machismo for stealing Randy savages gimmick and using it to make him famous, The Great Muta did the exact same thing only bigger, and nobody seems to care.
After 1990 even in Japan the guy resorted to gimmicking himself and been 'entertaining' to mask over his ever increasing flaws and injuries. And by doing so ruined his legend built up in his early years as Muto and very early years as Muta. The guy is not one of the best wrestlers not by a long shot, even as Muto, he may have been a good technically and even exciting to watch in his early years but when he has had 2 good years and 15+ bad ones and hes still called one of the best wrestlers ever is wrong. Outside of his rise in '88 and great matches with Sting in '89 he has been average. Unless you have seen only Mutas late 80's stuff and nothing before or since then there is no way Muta is better than Cage. If it was based soley on Muta's late 80's stuff I would vote for Muta but it isnt and I hope I havent been too harsh on Muta because he has had some great matches but people who class him as a legend are just wrong, he is a legend in name only maybe because he showed that Japanese stars could be sucessful in America.
In my opinion Cage is just great, without a doubt he should be TNA champion at the moment and no doubt would be if Angle wasn't there. The guy is simply the perfect cowardly heel, better than Jeff Jarrett or Ric Flair ever were at it and he is a brethe of fresh air from Randy Orton or Kurt Angle. People say Edge is better, you might be right but considering Edge is a favourite for this tourny surely Chrisitan cannot be considered that far behind him. Christian is the complete opposite of Muta Christian was in that horrible gimmick soo early in his career that a lot of new wrestlers find themselves in, the guniea pigs if you must and he and Edge came from that and won fans over with minimal help from WWE booking by putting on fantastic tag matches with the Hardys. He was buried a bit in WWE and was booked poorly (HHH was champion so was bound to happen I suppose) but unlike Muta who sunk pretty much into oblivion after his last wcw run Christian used his mic skiils to win over fans, and lets face it to win over fans in the WWE you have to be entertaining and Christian was that, its just a pity they didnt see it. You see him in TNA now and I dont care what people say about him always been a mid carder, Christian is main event material you can see it by the quality of the matches he's putting on in TNA. 9/10 of them are now good matches, a better ratio than anyone in WWE at the moment even Edge. His mic skills are as good as if not better than Edges, and when he gets booked right will be a great champion once he is booked right. His second title reign was sooo much better than the first and his third will be great in my opinion.
Christian always finds a way too win and soo what if he's against Muta the guy has beaten Angle who is a better wrestler than Muta even in his prime. Muta tries to mist Christian but it backfires and Christian picks up the win and keeps on rolling.
