The Context

Here we have Arn Anderson on his podcast talking about the Great Muta in 1989. This is an interesting conversation since we just reviewed Clash IX, which set up Starrcade ‘89. Arn talked about Muta having a rep for being a little lazy or a little selfish at times, but when Conrad Thompson asked about losing three times at Starrcade, Arn said maybe he got it wrong. Arn says he’s unsure if Muta had heat or if the company was trying to wake him up or Gary Hart, but that it was extremely short-sighted if that wasn’t the case. Arn said he knew Muta was upset about dropping the TV title to himself, but still thought they had a very good match.

Analysis

The way that Muta lost was absolutely fucking ridiculous. They built up his undefeated streak on TV for so long, and his first pinfall loss was under two minutes to Ric Flair at Starrcade, followed by another pinfall loss to Sting. Even if he had heat, which Arn admits was a possibility, maximizing an undefeated streak that lasted eight months wasn’t remotely achieved by WCW. One of the glaring problems with the Starrcade round-robin tournaments was that both Doom and Muta were beaten like a drum on that show.

The Video