Talk about it here.

Meet The Pearl, WCW's idea to trick people into thinking that the Great Muta was back under a mask. Ranger Ross donned a mask and started pulling off Muta's old moves like the handspring elbow. Jim Ross points out that he is wearing "some type of oriental jacket" and "was not available for conversations with the media". The match is not particularly good, but it is amusing to see Ranger Ross trying to work a squash copying Muta's wrestling style and sorta kinda doing it.

ORIGIN UNKNOWN: THE MYSTERIOUS PEARL. I'm trying to dispense with the sarcastic all-caps, but sometimes it's hard. Caudle trenchantly points out that he "must be an Oriental." White gloves + black and white mask + martial arts pose = Asian? Pearl runs through the throat slash, the handspring elbow, the power elbow drop, and the moonsault all spaced out over a squash that feels about 8 hours long. Did even the densest mark really buy that this was Muta?

In a year where Zeus vs. Abdullah doesn't exist, this is your worst match of the year. The crowd was so dead.

The Pearl allows Ross to drop the word oriental. Caudle joins in too. Didn’t care much for this one. Crowd didn’t seem to either. Strange inclusion to the set.

I sounded like there was one guy in the audience loudly railing against this. Just think, Ole has yet another four months and even dumber tricks up his sleeve.

I don't think the audience quite knew what to make of this or why they should care. The Pearl wasn't exactly the most dominant wrestler in the world, as Cazana got far too much offense for The Pearl to be considered particularly dangerous. Ranger Ross has Muta's mannerisms down pat for sure, but if Ole really wanted people to believe that this was Muta, he should have booked the match a hell of a lot stronger than this. A shot of mist would have been nice too, although how Ross would have pulled that off while wearing a mask I'm not sure.

 

The Rich/Landell match hyped for the following night on Main Event intrigues me more than this match did. I wonder how Landell looked about this time. He didn't do much of note from now until his SMW run in 1994-95.

Ahaha this was Ranger Ross? Very funny. His movements were very awkward seeming and his body just doesn't fit the gimmick. He also throws one very poor looking moonsault for the win.

Gary Michael Capetta introduces the mysterious ‘Pearl’, whose origins are unknown. He’s head to toe in black bar some white gloves and some white on his mask. As the bell rings he does some sort of pre-match oriental ceremony, leading Jim Ross and Bob Caudle to speculate that he must be an oriental! Nice back heel trip from The Pearl, followed by some lame karate kicks and a very poor handspring elbow. A kind of power drive elbow, a not so snap suplex and the Japanese heel’s staple, the nerve hold. A couple of arm drags from Cazana and The Pearl steps outside the ring for a breather. A delayed face first piledriver from The Pearl and when Cazana whips him into the ropes, he rolls under his leapfrog and immediately nails him with a thrust kick to the throat. Throat slash, moonsault and The Pearl gets the win.

 

So The Pearl is Ranger Ross and no surprise that this gimmick was done after one appearance. Not terrible, but not good either. I presume they were trying to fool the crowd into thinking it was Muta (handspring elbow, powerdrive elbow, throat slash, moonsault), but the execution was nowhere near as crisp as Muta and it was clear it wasn’t him. I wouldn’t have let Cazana have any of this match myself. It would’ve been a dominant squash for The Pearl in his debut, but as the gimmick was one and done, that’s a moot point anyway.

I disagree on not terrible. Execution on all of the Muta spots was somewhere between barely competent and awful. How the Hell did the Georgia promotion run so long with Ole in charge?

Did this ever go anywhere?  Was it supposed to lead to anything?  Ranger Ross did a great job impersonating Muta.