In 2007, 1PW booked Great Muta for his debut in Great Britain. Their No Turning Back 2007 show looked to be their biggest with Muta on the card, as he had never wrestled anywhere in Europe, let alone in Doncaster.
Tickets flew off the shelves with thousands excited to see the Japanese legend in the flesh for the first and maybe only ever chance to see him wrestle. It was a very exciting time to be a British wrestling fan.
However, that excitement quickly turned to disappointment as fans got the first taste of what 1PW was really like.
1PW Booked The Great Muta For His Debut Match In The UK
In 2006, 1PW owner Steven Gauntley wanted Keiji “The Great Muta” Muto to One Pro Wrestling (1PW). He instructed Steve Corino to broker the deal owing to his connections in Japan and gave him the exact amount of money he could afford to pay Muta (in metric terms, it was one shed load of cash).
Then-booker Steve Corino was working for Zero-One in Japan at the time and was fined for merely asking if he could speak to All-Japan’s Great Muta by his bosses. Nevertheless, the pair met up in Japan to hash out a deal to bring Keiji Muto to England for the first time in his career.
They figured out a deal which Corino claimed was “a good amount of money”, but that Muta claimed he could make twice that much in an autograph signing. However, he agreed to come to 1PW to promote himself and AJPW, but insisted on putting over one of the young talents in the process.
That would turn out to be Sterling James Keenan, who today is better known as WWE commentator Corey Graves. SJK was one of the biggest stars in 1PW at the time, and one of the few Americans brought over regularly who was not part of the TNA roster.
Despite Corino insisting Muta would not be booed as a heel, the Japanese legend refused to accept his spot at a top babyface star for the night.
The match was announced during the 1PW First Anniversary Show. After Sterling James Keenan finished his match (a six-man tag match in the middle of the card) the lights went. Thinking it was just one of many errors present at these shows, he began exiting the ring before he was shouted at and told to get back in to watch the video.
He watched as some horrifically blurred footage of The Great Muta played on the screen as the fans went wild. Text appeared on the screen saying “The Great Muta is coming to 1PW…He’s coming for SJK.” This is how he found out that he’d be wrestling his hero.
The match was booked for 1PW No Turning Back 2007 and tickets went on sale in August for the January 2007 show. This was mainly because the company was in such dire straits that it needed to get the money in fast and was betting the promotion’s future on The Great Muta’s appearance.
If you search Google for that event, you may be shocked to find that nothing comes up. There is a good reason for that – 1PW were broke.
1PW Went Broke And Closed The Company
With the Doncaster Dome almost sold out and fans excited to see The Great Muta’s debut in England, nobody expected 1PW to cancel the show and close down the company completely.
This was the first of many times they would do this and it soon became a trademark of Steven Gauntley and company. Just one week before 1PW No Turning Back 2007 they did indeed turn back and cancel the event completely.
In 1PW: All or Nothing, Gauntley claims that the bank cut his funding in November 2006 and there was no money left in the company. He used his house as a guarantor on the debt and despite working tirelessly, nothing could be done to save 1PW.
The company had not been managed well at all. Gauntley was using pre-sales for future shows to pay talent and production staff, leaving them teetering on the edge of bankruptcy every time they entered the Doncaster Dome.
It appears The Great Muta had been a step too far and the whole operation had come crumbling down. While there were hardships, Steven Gauntley seemed unable to take any responsibility for his company’s failings, instead passing the buck to anyone who would take it.
1PW issues a statement in January 2007 announcing that the company was closing down. Money was always an issue for Gauntley although he never professed to anyone else in the company that he was struggling. The company kept booking talent from America despite not being able to afford them and simply did not manage to draw enough fans to stay afloat.
3CW And RQW Salvaged The Show And The Great Muta Deal
Despite 1PW shutting down (albeit briefly), the event at the Doncaster Dome still went ahead.
Dragon Aisu and 3CW stepped in to take over the show, rebranding it as their own event to give the fans who bought tickets something for their money. 1PW weren’t likely to refund anybody after shutting down so this was the best anyone could really hope for at the time.
The show was presented as 3CW: 1PW Will Not Die and featured a much different card from the ones fans were used to. No TNA talent was on the card and it featured a lot more local talent from the UK scene.
3CW did manage to get the money together to get Davey Richards, Sterling James Keenan and Kid Kash on the show and even put the feelers out to bring the now-wheelchair-bound Dynamite Kid to appear. However, with such a quick turnaround it was impossible to get that appearance together in time.
The plan was to say farewell to 1PW with this show, despite it looking nothing like their usual “Supershow” cards.
One man missing from the event was The Great Muta. 3CW couldn’t afford to pay him the ridiculous money 1PW had offered him so it looked like his first and only match in England was off the table. Luckily, London’s Ring Quality Wrestling stepped in to save the deal.
The Great Muto was unhappy that the show he would be wrestling on wasn’t the one he’d initially agreed and was angry that Sterling James Keenan wasn’t the man he’d be wrestling. But he still wanted to wrestle in the UK, partially because it coincided with a trip to Paris with his wife soon after.
Promoter Len Davies brought Muta to London for RQW No Pain No Gain 2007 on January 12th 2007. This was one day before he was supposed to wrestle for 1PW and Davies allowed anyone with 1PW tickets into his show free of charge.
The event at the York Hall had a huge star in their midst, but only 350 fans turned out. The show was decent but the Great Muta vs Martin Stone (Former NXT star Danny Burch) match failed to draw, likely because of how little time RQW had to promote this legendary appearance.
The poor performance of the show got back to Japan and some have claimed damaged relations between the two countries. Allegedly, Japanese companies became weary of dealing with British promotions after the poor treatment of one of their biggest legends.
Given that no Japanese talent appeared for 1PW for years aside from Ultimo Dragon proves that, although other Japanese wrestlers still made the trip over for other companies.
Oh yes, IPW had more shows. They came back just three months later with a much less impressive card with fewer imports (foreign wrestlers shipped in for the show) in what was a much less impressive but more cost-effective method of booking.
Some more cynical people would accuse Steven Gauntley of simply overstretching himself by booking The Great Muta in 1PW and once that was taken off his hands very much able to keep booking his promotion.
Who knows? Gauntley claims he found new backers before he actually officially declared bankruptcy, but the truth is usually somewhere in the middle (and not what Steven Gauntley tells you).
This wasn’t even the only time 1PW booked a big star, pulled out at the last minute and shut the company down. They did it again four years later with Shawn Michaels.
