Muta, Liger, Chono or Dragon in 90s WWF

[Madagascar Fred]

Which one of these 90s Japanese legends would you have loved seeing in WWF in their primes? Dragon popped up for about a year later on but flopped, everyone I listed had various level of success in WCW though, so they WERE surely able to get over in the US

Also you can choose another 90s Japanese star of your choosing

[Deleted]

Liger, because I see him being the least prone to having his character tampered with.

Chono was not colorful enough.

I don't see Muta working because Vince was too hands-on, and I think he would have made Muta cheesy and over the top.

[Deleted]

Muta was the closest to already fitting in. He had decent size, a marketable gimmick and could wrestle most any style.

[AdamAFL was sooooo wrong]

Chono. Him heeling it up would have been amazing.

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

I always think Liger could have been really cool during the New Generation era. When the WWF was so desperate they'd actually be willing to let him do his thing. Plus he actually wrestled Owen Hart and Randy Savage in Japan in pretty entertaining matches.

Muta being used well gets all my money though. Although as it has been pointed out the WWF could have also completely botched it.

[James Fabiano]

Get Mr. Fuji on speed dial, and cue the Orient Express theme music!

[Digital Witness]

For me its Muta. I'm not sure if Vince would know what to do with him, but Muta was a top shelf main event player that could get over anywhere.

I could see Muta being given the Yoko push to be completely honest.

[auph10imitated]

Just checking out Liger vs Savage, Savage uses his WWF version of Pomp & Circumstances despite being in WCW.

The Great Muta and Jushin Liger would have fit best with the 90's WWF characters, I think both would have been awesome. Fuji being in Muta as a top heel while Liger playing babyface

Muta wrestled Hogan in 1993 in Japan while he WWF Champion right, He would have been good as a top heel in 1993. Probably more entertaining than Yokozuna. Perfect opponent for Bret Hart, Undertaker, Randy Savage etc.

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

Mar 11, 2015 16:27:12 GMT -5 auph10imitated said:

Just checking out Liger vs Savage, Savage uses his WWF version of Pomp & Circumstances despite being in WCW.

The Great Muta and Jushin Liger would have fit best with the 90's WWF characters, I think both would have been awesome. Fuji being in Muta as a top heel while Liger playing babyface

Muta wrestled Hogan in 1993 in Japan while he WWF Champion right, He would have been good as a top heel in 1993. Probably more entertaining than Yokozuna. Perfect opponent for Bret Hart, Undertaker, Randy Savage etc.

There is actually a clip (probably still on YouTube) of what IIRC was a press conference for the Muta/Hogan match where Hogan puts over the IWGP title and calls the WWF title a toy!

Also, I agree with you about those Muta matches. Muta/Taker gets talked about a lot as a hypothetical, but Muta/Hart could have been amazing as well.

[DjZonk]

Ultimo Dragon could have been a huge Babyface during the Power Rangers boom.

Great Muta would be great fitting into any era frankly.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

I don't see any of them having a stellar run in the 90s WWF because of the batpoop crazy booking of the New Generation era, and the Russoness of the Attitude era. They'd likely follow the same path as Hakushi, come in, work some great matches with Bret and the 1-2-3 Kid then get lost in the shuffle and subjected to painful 'Americanisation' skits. If they arrived during the Attitude era, they wouldn't fair much better, Russo seems like the type who would be itching to get the mask off Liger and to make him more 'edgy', remember how he booked him in WCW? Heck, he booked Muta too and it was less than impressive.

Even in the Hulk Hogan era, WCW was a better fit for international talent, it's a crying shame we didn't get to see Hakushi or Taka Michinoku go up against the top tier cruiserweights.

[The Dark Order Inferno]

I would have gotten a perverse pleasure from seeing what would happen if the WWF had gotten a few of the the top Japanese stars in the 90s simply because of what would happen when they tried to promote a show in Japan like their attempts to make UK only PPVs in the late 90s.

Picture Shawn 'No jobbing' Michaels going up against a top Japanese talent having gotten out of losing a non title match or losing the IC belt to them on the day of the event because he feels it's more important he gives Razor his third IC reign, or being ridiculously disrespectful and flipping out on them on the middle of the ring like he did with Vader.

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

Mar 12, 2015 8:17:42 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

I don't see any of them having a stellar run in the 90s WWF because of the batpoop crazy booking of the New Generation era, and the Russoness of the Attitude era. They'd likely follow the same path as Hakushi, come in, work some great matches with Bret and the 1-2-3 Kid then get lost in the shuffle and subjected to painful 'Americanisation' skits. If they arrived during the Attitude era, they wouldn't fair much better, Russo seems like the type who would be itching to get the mask off Liger and to make him more 'edgy', remember how he booked him in WCW? Heck, he booked Muta too and it was less than impressive.

Even in the Hulk Hogan era, WCW was a better fit for international talent, it's a crying shame we didn't get to see Hakushi or Taka Michinoku go up against the top tier cruiserweights.

With fairness to Russo, Muta clearly didn't give a shit during his last WCW stint.

[Digital Witness]

Mar 11, 2015 16:27:12 GMT -5 auph10imitated said:

Just checking out Liger vs Savage, Savage uses his WWF version of Pomp & Circumstances despite being in WCW.

The Great Muta and Jushin Liger would have fit best with the 90's WWF characters, I think both would have been awesome. Fuji being in Muta as a top heel while Liger playing babyface

Muta wrestled Hogan in 1993 in Japan while he WWF Champion right, He would have been good as a top heel in 1993. Probably more entertaining than Yokozuna. Perfect opponent for Bret Hart, Undertaker, Randy Savage etc.

I'm of the impression that Pomp and Circumstance is public domain, so there probably wasn't an issue there.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

I picked Chono for his silent charisma, although Muta being a former WCW superstar would've made a bigger impact I must admit, and unfortunately both Liger and Dragon were just too small and didn't had the quality of cruiser weights WCW had

[The Dark Order Inferno]

Mar 12, 2015 10:00:31 GMT -5 KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! said:

With fairness to Russo, Muta clearly didn't give a shit during his last WCW stint.

Would you care if you were in a faction with the ICP?

[KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!!]

Mar 12, 2015 13:09:28 GMT -5 The Dark Order Inferno said:

Mar 12, 2015 10:00:31 GMT -5 KAMALARAMBO: BOOMSHAKALAKA!!! said:

With fairness to Russo, Muta clearly didn't give a shit during his last WCW stint.

Would you care if you were in a faction with the ICP?

lol, I'm not saying he didn't have some justification.

[auph10imitated]

Mar 12, 2015 11:51:07 GMT -5 Digital Witness said:

Mar 11, 2015 16:27:12 GMT -5 auph10imitated said:

Just checking out Liger vs Savage, Savage uses his WWF version of Pomp & Circumstances despite being in WCW.

The Great Muta and Jushin Liger would have fit best with the 90's WWF characters, I think both would have been awesome. Fuji being in Muta as a top heel while Liger playing babyface

Muta wrestled Hogan in 1993 in Japan while he WWF Champion right, He would have been good as a top heel in 1993. Probably more entertaining than Yokozuna. Perfect opponent for Bret Hart, Undertaker, Randy Savage etc.

I'm of the impression that Pomp and Circumstance is public domain, so there probably wasn't an issue there.

Yeah, I wouldnt expect there to be an issue but it just reminded me how WCW actually remixed it, and it was never the same

[AtomSmasher]

I watched GAB 89 the other night and Muta was just as good as i remember him being when I was 14.
Charismatic, athletic, with an exciting move-set.
Just what the WWF should have been looking for. There was so many potentially exciting match ups waiting.....

[Mozenrath]

I hesitate to say Dragon flopped all that much, since I don't think either party had many illusions about what he was there for. He wanted to perform and Madison Square Garden at least once, got to, and probably was content with that at that stage in his life and career.