Search Results - Kenta Kobashi

Kenta Kobashi

(born, March 27, 1967) is a Japanese professional wrestling promoter and retired wrestler. Broadly referred to by the nickname , he is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. He is best known for his two runs in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and Pro Wrestling Noah, of which he captured AJPW's Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship thrice, and Noah's GHC Heavyweight Championship once. He is the winner of numerous ''Match of the Year'' and ''Wrestler of the Year'' awards, including from the ''Wrestling Observer Newsletter'' (WON) and ''Tokyo Sports''.

Kobashi started his wrestling career in AJPW in 1987, debuting the next year and becoming the star rookie of the promotion. Booked as a resilient jobber by AJPW founder Giant Baba, he became a key major figure in the shift between old wrestlers to younger ones in the turn of the Super World of Sports exodus. In 1993, he was officially dubbed as one of the members of the of AJPW, alongside Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, and Akira Taue. He became renowned for his matches and rivalries with ''gaijin'' (foreign) wrestlers and fellow Japanese wrestlers alike. He became a widely successful tag wrestler, teaming with Misawa, the AJPW ace, as part of the , and becoming a noted combatant in some of the most highly acclaimed tag team wrestling matches of the 1990s.

He became successful as a singles wrestling star later on, usually by his determination and performance in highly acclaimed matches, usually for the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship or in the Champion Carnival tournament. His matches with his fellow ''Kings'', as well as the likes of Steve Williams, Stan Hansen, Burning stable-mate and tag partner Jun Akiyama, and Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy, are held in high regard and praise, especially those against the ''Kings'' and Hansen. As a top singles wrestler in AJPW, he qualified for the 1997 and 1999 Champion Carnival finals, and won the 2000 tournament.

Kobashi was part of the dissenting crew who would take part in the second exodus of All Japan Pro Wrestling in 2000, which led to the creation of the Pro Wrestling Noah promotion, and would later continue to work as a wrestler for the promotion for thirteen years. He notably concluded the inter-promotional rivalry with Misawa in Noah, winning the GHC Heavyweight Championship from him on March 1, 2003. He went on to have the longest singular reign for the championship of all time, holding it for 735 days, losing it to Takeshi Rikio on March 5, 2005. In that reign, he had defended the title thirteen times (the second most ever behind Takashi Sugiura, who had one more than Kobashi), and had sold out each of the Noah-affiliated shows that had him defend his title.

Kobashi spent many of the later years of his career sidelined due to various injuries. He underwent numerous surgeries on his arms and legs in the early-mid 2000s before retiring from in-ring action in May 2013. Kobashi continues to make sporadic appearances in Noah, as well as DDT Pro-Wrestling, whilst also promoting his own shows under the ''Fortune Dream'' banner. Provided by Wikipedia