Kenta Kobashi Tribute Video - Part 2

KENTA KOBASHI challenged TOSHIAKI KAWADA and MITSUHARU MISAWA for the TRIPLE CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP in 1995, but lost on both ocassions, these two dissapoinments pushed KOBASHI'S popularity into supernova, and on JULY 24th 1996, KENTA KOBASHI defeated reigning CHAMPION AKIRA TAUE in a awesome match... His subseqent title defences, against STAN HANSEN and TOSHIAKI KAWADA, while as good as ever in the ring, failed to yield the BUDOKAN HALL sell outs that MITSUHARU MISAWA had acheived, This lead to MISAWA defeating KOBASHI for the titles on JANUARY 20th 1997...

KENTA KOBASHI returned to the tag team ranks but it wasent too long before KOBASHI won the TRIPLE CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP again, he did so in a sterling match with TOSHIAKI KAWADA on JUNE 12th 1998, Once again he lost the titles to MISAWA...
MITSUHARU MISAWA was still the biggest star in the company, but the years of brutal matches were beginning to take their toll on him, more and more people were looking to KOBASHI to carry the torch for ALL JAPAN in the future years... KENTA KOBASHI won his third and final TRIPLE CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP in the FEBUARY of 2000 by defeating VADER in a stiff contest, a few months later the "BIG SPLIT" happened and KOBASHI vacated the belts, so he could join MISAWA, AKIYAMA and almost every other ALL japan wrestler who left the company to form PRO WRESTLING NOAH...

KENTA KOBASHI was expected by most to be the lead man in the new organisation, but there was a problem...
his years of breathtaking bumps and brutal matches had caught up with him,specificly his knees... KOBASHI required a totall of 9 operations, 4 on 1 knee, 5 on the other, all in the space of a few months...after the operations docters strongly advised him to retire, but KENTA KOBASHI wasent finished yet, he still had some buisness to take care of... namley giving his fans what they wanted "A TRIUMPHANT RETURN"

KENTA KOBASHI returnd to action in a tag team match on FEBUARY 17th 2002, although he sufferd yet more knee damage in the match, KOBASHI refraind from more surgary and chose to rest his limbs instead, competeing in tag team and 6 man tag team matches where his workload was reduced signifficly... As the months went by and KOBASHI'S knees seemed to be getting better, word leaked out of a possable match with reigning GHC CHAMPION MITSUHARU MISAWA, KOBASHI had never beaten MISAWA in a CHAMPIOSHIP MATCH before, would this be KOBASHI'S night? On MARCH 1st 2003 KENTA KOBASHI defeated MITSUHARU MISAWA in a breathtaking match, to win the GHC HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP... it was a passing of the torch from MISAWA to KOBASHI and this time KOBASHI was ready to be the promotional figurehead that people thought he would be when NOAH started... KENTA KOBASHI went on to hold the title for over 2 years, defeating people like YUGI NAGATA, MASAHIRO CHONO, YOSHIHIRO TAKAYAMA and others, in what many considerd a shock upset new senstation, "or flavour of the month" TAKESHI RIKIO defeated KOBASHI to end his plus 2 year reign, After that KOBASHI went on to wrestle mainly in doubles matches, teaming regulary with TAMON HONDA, they won the GHC TAG TEAM TITLE in 2006 a few months later however KOBASHI and HONDA vacated the belts when KOBASHI was diagnosed with throut cancer... fans wished him well and hoped he would win his fight with cancer and return to action, and thats excactly what happened, after winning his fight with cancer KENTA KOBASHI returned to action on DECEMBER 2nd 2007 to a heros welcome, he has since had yet more surgary but continues to wrestle in NOAH...

Over the years there have been a lot of GREAT wrestlers... RIC FLAIR, SHAWN MICHAELS, BRET HART,MITSUHARU MISAWA, KURT ANGLE, STEVE AUSTIN, HULK HOGAN and so on and so on, but in my opinion as GREAT as all those guys were or in some cases still are none of them compare to the

"GREATIST WRESTLER OF ALL TIME"

KENTA KOBASHI...

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• kenta
• kobashi
• pro
• wrestling
• noah
• ajpw

[Coff1nf33der]

Actually thats the main theme from Lady Snowblood, a movie that influenced Kill Bill heavily. :)

[cypherhawk407]

cool, ill check that out!

[hayleyjones407]

kobashi is my favourite wrestler of all time..shows respect to the people and cries after the matches.he returned to the ring despite several injuries and cancer,,, KOBASHI=GOD

[cypherhawk407]

i coudent have said it better myself! great comment :)

[henrymarriottczw15]

My dream match is to see Kenta Kobashi (best wrestler ever) vs. Eddie Kingston, mostly because i'm a huge fan of both men but also because their wrestling styles are very similar. Awesome MV, Kobashi is a legend and he is the best ever.

[Chuloloc]

Awesome. Much respect for Kenta Kobashi.

[jdavidcc7]

there's only one man that even after 9 knee surgeries is capable to put on 4 out of the top 5 matches of the last decade and that's not other than the legend itself...Kenta Kobashi