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Kenta Kobashi Appreciation.


The Natural

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Been meaning to do this sooner. Daniel Bryan is my #1 Greatest Wrestler of All Time. For a while it used to be Kenta Kobashi who drops into second place. 

Kenta Kobashi was my introduction to puroresu which I'll always be thankful for. I used to watch Pro Wrestling NOAH on The Wrestling Channel in the UK and my first Kenta Kobashi match was vs. Jun Akiyama from the 2004 NOAH Tokyo Dome. What a match, *****. The physicality and the burning spirit of Kenta Kobashi just grabbed me. Said channel went on to air Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki in a ***** bout at the Tokyo Dome a year later and what I regard to be the 2005 MOTY as he teamed with Go Shiosaki vs. Kensuke Sasaki/Katsuhiko Nakajima in a ***** match, November 2005.

From there I watched All Japan Pro Wrestling on YouTube/Dailymotion. The classics vs. Mitsuharu Misawa in January 1997 and October 1998 (I rate that as the best of the Kobashi/Misawa matches) and the fantastic Misawa/Kobashi vs. Holy Demon Army on the 9th of June 1995. All are *****. I like making lists and I have one made up of the Greatest Wrestling Matches of All Time. For me it's a two horse race between that and Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin at WrestleMania 13 for top spot.

I became a wrestling fan at five years old. Two of the most emotional matches I've watched in my time were Kenta Kobashi's return from cancer beating the fucker to team with Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Mitsuharu Misawa/Jun Akiyama in NOAH on the 2nd of December 2007 and Kenta Kobashi's retirement ceremony/match at Final Burning in May 2013.

Thanks for reading.

Edited by The Natural
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  • The Natural changed the title to Kenta Kobashi Appreciation.
12 minutes ago, Spontaneous said:

I remember eagerly waiting for a VHS compilation of Kobashi's GHC reign. So many great matches. His defenses versus Misawa, Akiyama, Takayama, Suzuki, Saito, Taue... I could just list the entire reign!

Such a fantastic reign, may be the best ever. Only one I think may challenge it is Kazuchika Okada's fourth reign as IWGP Heavyweight Champion with defences against Kenny Omega, specifically the NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 11 one, Katsuyori Shibata, Tetsuya Naito and Naomichi Marufuji.

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A fun six man tag from 3/2/2008. Aoki starts shit with Kobashi who just demolishes him once he can get his hands on him.

The sad part about Kobashi's reign is Rikio was not the one to end it. Noah really bungled the post Kobashi GHC reigns. Hard to live up to it though. 

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Three matches I raved over in my original post. All three are ***** matches. In my aforementioned list of the Greatest Wrestling Matches, both Kobashi vs. Misawa bouts are well in my top ten and Kobashi/Shiosaki vs. Sasaki/Nakajima just sits outside of it.

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On 2/25/2021 at 9:07 AM, Spontaneous said:

A fun six man tag from 3/2/2008.

That was a bit long but really good. I forgot all about KENTA vs. Takayama and that little pissing contest heated up again real quick. Probably the best part was Aoki getting hung off the ramp by Honda in Olympic Hell with Kobashi chopping him until Honda lets go and Aoki falls into the abyss ?

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For me, Kenta Kobashi appreciation is like chocolate ice cream appreciation or playful puppy appreciation. They are such obviously good things, but I don't know what I can add to the conversation  at this point in my life. It's so obvious that it's almost silly to talk about it. And I haven't had a chocolate ice cream or played with a puppy or watched a Kobashi match in quite a while but I can clearly remember how good those things are and how much I enjoy them and I am happy that they are things that exist in this world and it brings me legit joy that somewhere right now someone is eating a chocolate ice cream and someone else is playing with a puppy and someone else is watching a Kobashi match and all of those people are really happy. 

Hell, somebody somewhere is complaining that their chocolate ice cream isn't rich enough and XYZ brand ice cream is so much better and somebody is thinking how their dog is so much cuter and better than that playful puppy everyone is cooing over and somebody is insisting that, let's say, Kobashi vs Kensuke is wildly overrated and those people are hopefully enjoying themselves too, in their own way.

Kenta Kobashi makes the world a better place to be alive in,  is what I think I am getting at here.

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Bret is my all-time favorite. He was the first wrestler I saw as a kid that hooked me and I've been a fan ever since. But Kobashi holds a special place with me also. I didn't learn about the All Japan 90s matches and early NOAH ( I didn't have a computer until 03) until the early-mid 00s when I got into ROH and saw Joe vs. Kobashi. Kobashi stood out to me the most because he had Bret level selling and could take an ass whopping and a strong emotional come back that made you cheer for him until the final bell.

In Feb 2006 when I was 16, I was diagnosed with cancer. It was a rough time for me. Being a high school student that played sports, I had a job, a pretty fun social life and all of that stopped in an instant. My only real outlet was wrestling and I spent countless hours, months at a time in bed watching all the wrestling I could get my hands on.

Then in the summer of 2006 when I found out Kobashi was diagnosed with cancer, it hit me pretty hard. And on days when I didn't feel like being here anymore, I would think of Kobashi and it would give me inspiration because I knew like any Kobashi match, he would get his ass kicked but he'd eventually make a strong come back. I had my last chemo treatment in Dec of 2006 and I've been in remission ever since but I was still cheering on Kobashi because he was still in the midst of it. And less than a year later, he made his come back, gave the burning hammer to cancer and then came back in the ring. And when he came back to wrestle, that's when I truly felt like I beat my cancer.

And that's my story for Kobashi appreciation. 

 

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9 hours ago, El Gran Gordi said:

For me, Kenta Kobashi appreciation is like chocolate ice cream appreciation or playful puppy appreciation. They are such obviously good things, but I don't know what I can add to the conversation  at this point in my life. It's so obvious that it's almost silly to talk about it. And I haven't had a chocolate ice cream or played with a puppy or watched a Kobashi match in quite a while but I can clearly remember how good those things are and how much I enjoy them and I am happy that they are things that exist in this world and it brings me legit joy that somewhere right now someone is eating a chocolate ice cream and someone else is playing with a puppy and someone else is watching a Kobashi match and all of those people are really happy. 

Hell, somebody somewhere is complaining that their chocolate ice cream isn't rich enough and XYZ brand ice cream is so much better and somebody is thinking how their dog is so much cuter and better than that playful puppy everyone is cooing over and somebody is insisting that, let's say, Kobashi vs Kensuke is wildly overrated and those people are hopefully enjoying themselves too, in their own way.

Kenta Kobashi makes the world a better place to be alive in,  is what I think I am getting at here.

If this contributes: I was lucky enough to meet him at one of the European shows (Germany). He was an all around class guy, humble, friendly and respectful towards me and put a lot of effort in the match aswell. 

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1 hour ago, olythegreat89 said:

Bret is my all-time favorite. He was the first wrestler I saw as a kid that hooked me and I've been a fan ever since. But Kobashi holds a special place with me also. I didn't learn about the All Japan 90s matches and early NOAH ( I didn't have a computer until 03) until the early-mid 00s when I got into ROH and saw Joe vs. Kobashi. Kobashi stood out to me the most because he had Bret level selling and could take an ass whopping and a strong emotional come back that made you cheer for him until the final bell.

In Feb 2006 when I was 16, I was diagnosed with cancer. It was a rough time for me. Being a high school student that played sports, I had a job, a pretty fun social life and all of that stopped in an instant. My only real outlet was wrestling and I spent countless hours, months at a time in bed watching all the wrestling I could get my hands on.

Then in the summer of 2006 when I found out Kobashi was diagnosed with cancer, it hit me pretty hard. And on days when I didn't feel like being here anymore, I would think of Kobashi and it would give me inspiration because I knew like any Kobashi match, he would get his ass kicked but he'd eventually make a strong come back. I had my last chemo treatment in Dec of 2006 and I've been in remission ever since but I was still cheering on Kobashi because he was still in the midst of it. And less than a year later, he made his come back, gave the burning hammer to cancer and then came back in the ring. And when he came back to wrestle, that's when I truly felt like I beat my cancer.

And that's my story for Kobashi appreciation. 

 

You got me choked up reading this. Thank you for sharing something so personal, @olythegreat89. Fuck cancer.

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