WWE Elite nWo The Great Muta review – Monday Night Wars (2025)

One of the fun highlights of the Monday Night Wars was The Great Muta joining up with the nWo. Muta was an awesome player in the 1989 NWA scene and any subsequent return were always cool. With the nWo being the hottest angle in wrestling in years, it was interesting seeing it spin off into nWo Japan led by Masahiro Chino and eventually The Great Muta.

The backstory of nWo Japan was pretty fascinating with Great Muta joining, but his alter ego, Keiji Muto, still being a New Japan loyalist battling the nWo. While he didn’t wrestle in the States under the nWo banner for long, he did have a match on WCW Nitro against The Giant, which was enough to justify including him in the Monday Night Wars Elite line from Mattel.

Let’s see if The Great Muta’s nWo figure is too sweet or worse than taking the dreaded black mist to the eyes.

Packaging: The Monday Night Wars packaging has a very cool Nitro-influenced presentation although I’m not a fan of the smaller window. At least in Muta’s case we can see all of his accessories.

I really dig the portrait of Muta used as it captures that mysterious aura he exuded, which is also used on the side. The bottom of the package features an image of the Build-A-Figure Trillionaire Ted.

Over on the back is the stats and a bio explaining The Great Muta’s tenure in the nWo. On the bottom is the cross sell and which part comes with the BAF Ted DiBiase.

Likeness: The Great Muta kept his outfit simple over the 90s. His hair was just a bit wilder and longer, but his overall look remained the same.

For the MNW version, Mattel gave him a sculpt with his tongue sticking out. That actually works for Muta since the black face paint would otherwise make his features like his nose and mouth hard to spot with a closed mouth portrait.

His hand sculpts are the spread fingers style, which is his default stance for his matches.

Scale: The Great Muta was 6’2” making him shorter than most of his nWo allies. In lieu of a Masahiro Chono figure, we can match him up with nWo Japan affiliate Michael Wallstreet at 6’3″ and the guest appearing Scott Hall at 6’7″ and Kevin Nash at 6’10”. Muta should definitely be looking up at the 7’1” The Giant.

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Paint: Muta largely ditched all of his cool bold color palette as a member of the nWo as well. That doesn’t mean his figure is shortchanged when it comes to the paintjob. One of the staples of this nWo look was he actually did his face paint like the New World Order logo with a lowercase ‘n’ and ‘o.’ The greater detail is it’s actually spelled out like a very thin beard around his chin.

His tongue is also green to suggest he’s already sprayed his green mist. Muta also features a hairy chest paintjob. Muta kept his fingers taped or wrapped so his right hand features his inner three fingers taped and his left hands with tape wrapped around his knuckles. Muta’s wrist tape also has a kanji pattern on it.

His pants have a really cool pattern with what looks like a butterfly flying over a mask of some sort. It’s cooler than my description.

He also has a chase in this wave with a different style print design on his pants.

Articulation: The Great Muta wasn’t quite as quick or athletic as his late 80s run in the NWA/WCW, but he could still pull off dazzling moves.

While you can’t get the poses as dynamic as his Ultimate Edition counterpart, you won’t have any issue pulling off Muta’s handspring elbow, leg lariats, Shining Wizard and moonsault.

The Great Muta has:

• neck
• bicep
• ball-jointed shoulders
• elbows (double-jointed)
• wrists
• wrist hinge
• torso
• waist
• hips
• thighs
• knees (double-jointed)
• ankles
• toe

Accessories: The Great Muta’s Ultimate Edition figure was geared up and his latest WWE Legends figure (available at Target) has just as intricate an accessory roll out.

For his nWo look, Muta didn’t wear particularly flashy gear. He comes with the standard soft goods nWo T-shirt.

Additionally, Muta has a swappable set of c-grip hands.

Finally, he’s got the legs for the Build-A-Figure Trillionaire Ted.

While this might not have made a ton of sense for every fan, this seemed like a sneaky way for the Mattel team to include a Keiji Muto unpainted head sculpt as well. Muta also rocked this really cool dragon theme hood mask in his entrance when facing The Giant. I’m sure that wouldn’t have budgeted out, but it definitely would have made for an awesome accessory.

Worth It? For a long time, Wal-Mart was the best value for Elite figures as they stayed at $19.99 well after every other retailer raised the prices to $22.99. With the addition of the Build-A-Figure parts, the price is up to a comparable price point to other 6-inch lines at $24.99. The Great Muta doesn’t feel like a rip off by any means though I do miss the old price for WWE Elite figures.

Rating: 9 out of 10

This was a welcome well done Muta variant and one that also helps fortify the ranks of the nWo. It’s definitely worth seeking out.

Where to Get It?  Wal-Mart is the exclusive home for the Monday Night Wars Build-A-Figure waves. They cancelled my pre-order, but it looks like he might actually be in stock now. When that eventually sells out, you can always try a secondary seller over at Amazon.

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