Sting Opens Up About Respect For The Great Muta

Sting paid his respects to "one of the greatest of all time" in a new interview with Pro-Wrestling NOAH this week. The AEW star was interviewed ahead of the Great Muta Final Bye Bye event at the Yokohama Arena this Sunday, where Sting and Darby Allin will team up with Muta in a six-man tag team match against Naomichi Marufuji, AKIRA, and Jinsei Shinzaki.

"In my opinion, he is the only Japanese wrestler that ever transcended wrestling here in America as far as Japanese wrestlers coming here — many great ones came, don't get me wrong — but Muta, nobody touches what Muta did," Sting said. "Muta to this day is revered and respected by wrestlers and by fans alike. We mirrored each other throughout our whole career from beginning all the way through to present day. He's the last one of his generation standing in Japan, and I'm the last one of my generation here in America, so yeah, I think highly of The Great Muta."

Sting said Muta's retirement tour is "bittersweet, but it's got to come," adding that the Japanese legend's final matches are making him think about the end of his own decorated career. "I know that he will go out with a bang," Sting said. "It's going to be great. Everything Muta ever did was great and I know he's not going to stop now." The longtime face of WCW said Muta "pushed me to my limit like no other wrestler ever did." "I feel like I have bragging rights to say I wrestled The Great Muta in front of 65,000 people in the Tokyo Dome," Sting added, calling their 1991 WCW/NJPW Starrcade match "one of the greatest moments" of his career.