Pro Wres love inside a can of whoop ass on Hollywood and Vine on this edition of Defrost Reviews Stuff 2: Electric Boogaloo Rewatching a Series A Go-Go, never used the full title in one of these before. Not only that, but DRS2EBRaSAGG is for the first time taking a look at a series that spans multiple continents. Not only that but it spans multiple personalities. This edition once again takes a look at Steve Austin, however he is not Stone Cold but rather Stunning, as he takes on Keiji Mutoh and his alter ego, although we are supposed to pretend otherwise, The Great Muta.

First we must make those who are unaware aware of the difference between Keiji Mutoh and The Great Muta. They are two entirely different animals and in kayfabe land not the same person. Hell in kayfabe land Muta is not even a person but a dragon demon or something. In real life of course The Great Muta is Keiji Mutoh with some paint, and these days a mask thing, on his face. Mutoh and Muta wrestle very different styles. In the time period being looked at here Mutoh was an athletic wrestler who could work on the mat and fly through the air, and he had many great wrestling matches. Great Muta wanted to stab your eyeball out with a screwdriver. After that he wanted to piledrive you through a table. Finally he wanted to gnaw on the ropes a little.

So those are differences. Mutoh was a beloved babyface and had some massive matches that sold out stadiums such as the Takada match mentioned in an earlier edition of DRS2EBRaSAGG. Great Muta was mostly used for special occasions in Japan and rarely in the main event of any major show. His most interesting period was when nWo Japan was feuding with the New Japan Army and Great Muta joined the nWo, but Keiji Mutoh didn’t. That confused the hell out of everyone. Great Muta’s biggest main event was probably his match in Jingu Stadium against Atsushi Onita. That show drew a little under 50,000 fans to see a No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Barricade Explosive Land Mine Death Match between The Great Muta and The Great Nita. Match sucked. Most of Muta’s matches were meh while Mutoh had great matches. Well not in this bunch, but usually.

Their first encounter comes during the second G1 Climax Tournament. The G1 is an annual tournament in New Japan, and is one of the highlights of the year. Most years the G1 final is the second biggest show of the year and a guaranteed sellout of Sumo Hall. Most years it is a round robin format with wins equal 2 points time limit draw equal 1 point and everything else 0 points. In 1992 when Keiji Mutoh wrestled Steve Austin it was a single elimination tournament and the winner would become the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion.

The title was vacated when Ric Flair went to the WWF. The second match happened since Mutoh happened to be in America. The third match takes place a mere 3 weeks after Keiji Mutoh regained the IWGP Championship defeating Shinya Hashimoto in the Fukuoka Dome. Well technichally it was the first time he won it. Remember the difference between Mutoh and Muta. It was Muta who was IWGP Heavyweight Champion previously. Muta was also WWF World Martial Arts Champion and NWA World Heavyweight Champion at that same time kinda sorta. That is a situation to be explained in a later DRS2EBRaSAGG review and not here so back to the matter at hand.

There was really no reason to explain the difference between Mutoh and Muta because all three matches are basically the same. The match with Muta is not a blood soaked brawl. There is no stabbing. No one is piledriven through anything. Muta doesn’t write DIE with Austin’s blood. Not even any mist. How can there be no mist in a Muta match? Most of all three matches take place on the mat to varying degrees of success. There are some epic failures when it comes to finishers though. Not sure if Mutoh in the first match or Austin in the second was more embarrassing. To us, the royal us, here at DRS2EBRaSAGG find their first match to be a curiosity more than anything.

Before his run in the WWF and his injuries mounted Steve Austin was a much different worker. He was more of a mat wrestler who as a heel cheated a lot. There is no cheating in the first match. Austin is kinda bland in the first match. There is a handshake to start, and Mutoh works over Austin’s leg to which Austin’s comeback consists of knee drops and a running big boot so you know so much for that. Austin with the drop toe hold floats over into a front facelock which is reversed into a wristlock. A lot generic wrestling stuff like that out of Austin in this one.

What’s most interesting about this match is how frantic Mutoh is it. There are a lot of spastic movements from him in this match. Even to the point where he botches his finisher worse than any botch of a finisher I have ever seen. His finisher the moonsault press, which he made famous in America as The Great Muta, requires him to go to the top rope and do a backflip. In this match Austin goes to the top and misses a frog splash of all things, which actually isn’t the most random top rope move he’d bust out in these matches, and that leaves him on the mat and prompts Mutoh to go to the top for the moonsault. Earlier in the match Mutoh had no problem going to the top for the move in a spot where he flipped all the way over and landed on his feet as Austin moved out of the way.

At the finish Mutoh goes up the ropes and trips and lays gut first over the top and then slowly slides off all the way down to the floor. It takes about 45 seconds from the trip to landing on the floor. So Mutoh comes back in hits a backbreaker and does his finish correctly to which Austin kicked out right after the three count. That was very odd.

The second and third matches are similar to the first in most way except how frantic Mutoh moves around. He looks far less like he was on a mixture of cocaine and Red Bull. There is still a lot of mat wrestling. In the second match that translates to side headlocks and rope assisted abdominal stretches. That also brings us to the second disaster of a finishing move attempt. At the time Austin had created a new finisher the Hollywood and Vine which was a wacky looking leg submission hold. Austin really had nothing going on as a finish until the Stone Cold Stunner. His other finisher, the Stun Gun, was really just a transition move. Though it was used well in these three match with Austin doing it to Mutoh on the guardrail outside the ring in the matches in Japan and Muta doing it Austin himself at Spring Stampede.

Anyway back to the clusterfuck that was the Hollywood and Vine. In the match, it ends up as this rolling leg twisting mish mash that looks terrible and botched and horrible. Which is still better than the actual finish of Muta being DQed for backdropping Austin over the top. I get New Japan not wanting Muta to job. I get WCW not wanting to put the title on a guy there for a one shot. That raises questions of why it was booked or why Muta didn’t just fucking mist him. I will say that the commentary was stellar. I mean Heenan is Heenan, but Tony Schiavone was so good putting over Muta and the importance of the US Title and what it would mean if Muta took it back to Japan.

Watching the third match you totally understand why Austin shaved his head. In this match you get the missed handspring elbow into the guardrail and the stun gun on the guardrail and the leg work Austin no sells. Although Austin is a more overt heel here than in the first match. Austin busts out some new offense like a gordbuster, but the second attempt does get reversed into a DDT. He also busts out the second random top rope move of his in these matches. The Calf Branding. The Calf Branding is a move where you stand on the top and grab your opponent by the head. You place your knee right behind your opponent’s head and bulldog him into the mat. Then Mutoh hit a super frankensteiner and a moonsault and won.

We believe in fairness here at DRS2EBRaSAGG. So seeing as this edition feature two New Japan matches to WCW’s one we thought it would only be fair to flip that around in the next edition. Plus we feature only one of the Hollywood Blonds and that’s not fair. Next Time: Brian Pillman vs Jushin Liger.