Tetsuya Naito was selected after Shinsuke Nakamura was not immediately approved.
It has been a full month since Keiji Muto (The Great Muta) had his final match. He shared the ring with Tetsuya Naito and Masahiro Chono at the Tokyo Dome.
On the road to his final match event, Muto had a retirement tour and to kick off 2023, he took on WWE’s Shinsuke Nakamura at Pro Wrestling NOAH ‘The New Year’.
Ahead of Muto being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, he chatted with ESPN’s Marc Raimondi and Raimondi shared highlights of their conversation via Twitter. Muto told him that the initial plan was to face Nakamura at the Tokyo Dome, but WWE did not approve Nakamura right away so Tetsuya Naito was selected for that spot.
When WWE did make Nakamura available, that's when they booked the Pro Wrestling NOAH match on Jan. 1 at the Budokan as The Great Muta's final singles match.
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) March 23, 2023
Other notes from the conversation included Muto saying “too expensive” when asked about the idea of getting Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson for his final match. Muto is curious as to why WWE is inducting him since he never wrestled for them.
He then confirmed that Ric Flair will indeed be inducting him.
