the debuting Taiyō Kea in a six-man tag team match, where they defeated Masayuki Kono, René Duprée and Samoa Joe, thus saving his career. Through Wrestle-1's working relationship with TNA, Muto, working under his Great Muta persona, returned to the American promotion on March 9 at Lockdown, where he, Sanada and Yasu defeated Chris Sabin, Christopher Daniels and Kazarian in a six-man tag team steel cage match. Muta returned to TNA on the July 25, 2014, defeating Robbie E at an Impact Wrestling taping in New York City. After the match, Sanada turned on Muta. This led to a match at Wrestle-1's Shōgeki: Impact event on July 6, where The Great Muta defeated Sanada in a main event singles match. On September 22, Muto suffered his first direct loss since March 2012, when he was submitted by Masayuki Kono in a four-on-three handicap match, where he and the Novus stable (Jiro Kuroshio, Koji Doi and Rionne Fujiwara) faced the Desperado stable (Kono, Kazma Sakamoto and Ryoji Sai). On October 12, Muto, as the Great Muta, worked TNA's Bound for Glory event in Tokyo, teaming with Tajiri in a tag team main event, where they defeated James Storm and The Great Sanada. On November 1, during an event celebrating his 30th anniversary in professional wrestling, Muto defeated Masayuki Kono to become the second Wrestle-1 Champion. He made his first successful title defense on December 22 against Seiya Sanada. His second defense took place on January 30, 2015, when he defeated Manabu Soya. On February 16, Muto, as the Great Muta, returned to TNA, defeating Mr. Anderson as part of Global Impact: USA vs The World. On March 8, Muto lost the Wrestle-1 Championship to Kai in his third defense. On March 27, 2017, Muto announced he was stepping down as the president of Wrestle-1 with Kaz Hayashi taking over the position. Muto remained with the promotion as its representative director. On June 8, 2019, Muto returned to Impact Wrestling, wrestling as The Great Muta in the main event of their A Night You Can't Mist event in a tag team match where he teamed with Tommy Dreamer to defeat Michael Elgin and Johnny Impact. On April 1, 2020 at Wrestle-1's final event, Muto team with Kaz Hayashi, Masayuki Kono, and Shuji Kondo unsuccessfully against Kuma Arashi, Shotaro Ashino, Daiki Inaba, and Koji Doi. Total Nonstop Action Wrestling/Impact Wrestling (2014–2015, 2019) On