Kenta Kobashi

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Kenta Kobashi JapanJapan
LEGEND .... jpg
Data
Ring name Kenta Kobashi
height 186 cm
Fighting weight 120 kg
birth March 27, 1967
Fukuchiyama , Kyoto
Trained by Giant Baba
Dory Funk, Jr.
Masanobu Fuchi
Kazuharu Sonoda
debut February 26, 1988
retirement May 11, 2013

Kenta Kobashi ( Japanese小橋 建 太Kobashi Kenta ; born March 27, 1967 in Fukuchiyama , Kyoto Prefecture ) is a former Japanese wrestler . His greatest success was the triple receipt of the AJPW Triple Crown World Heavyweight Champion title and the one-time receipt of the GHC Heavyweight Champion title , which are the highest titles of two of the three major Japanese wrestling leagues.

With 21 five-star ratings by wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer , he holds the record for most ratings in this category and is considered to be one of the best technical players ever.

Career

All Japan Pro Wrestling

After Kobashi had practiced rugby , judo and bodybuilding in his youth , he successfully applied for the Dōjō of All Japan Pro Wrestling in 1987 . His first wrestling match for the league he finally denied on February 26, 1988 against Motoshi Okuma, which he should lose , as well as the first 62 following . In 1989 he was put aside Mitsuharu Misawa and his stable in a feud against Jumbo Tsuruta . As a newcomer, he first met the established wrestlers Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada, whom he would meet several times later in his career.

When Misawa feuded his former partner Kawada in 1993, Kobashi became his new regular tag team partner. After Kobashi won a victory against the two-time AJPW Triple Crown Champion Terry Gordy in May of that year , December 3rd was the first temporary high point of his career: In the final of the Real World Tag League , he and Misawa played the legends Giant Defeat Baba and Stan Hansen , earning them both the tournament victory and the AJPW World Tag Team Championship . The same thing happened a year later.

In September 1994 Kobashi was booked for the first time in a match for the highest title in the league, the Triple Crown Championship title , but should not yet receive the title. In June, Kawada and his partner Akira Taue, Kobashi and Misawa took on the Tag Team Championship. Half a year later, Kobashi was assigned the inexperienced Jun Akiyama as a new permanent tag team partner. The team had to wait four years for their first joint title.

In July 1996 he finally achieved his hitherto greatest success: with a victory over Akira Taue he received the AJPW Triple Crown Championship title for the first time . He held the title for almost half a year until he had to hand it over to Mitsuharu Misawa. With his new partner Johnny Ace Kobashi got his second Tag Team Championship in the same month, which he lost after almost four months, like the first, to Kawada and Taue. In the meantime Kawada had also received the Triple Crown Champion title, but after only a month Kobashi got it back. In October Kobashi finally had to give up his Triple Crown Championship again, this time to Misawa. After Kobashi was allowed to win the Real World Tag League with Jun Akiyama in October 1998 , he began a feud program with Vader , during which Vader got the Triple Crown Championship, which he finally had to surrender to Kobashi in February 2000, who assumed his third reign .

Pro wrestling NOAH

Since the owner of the AJPW, Giant Baba, passed away in January 1999, Mitsuharu Misawa was now responsible for running the league. Baba's widow Motoko, however, had different views on the future direction of All Japan than Misawa, so the multiple Triple Crown Champion left the league and started his own promotion pro wrestling NOAH . Many AJPW wrestlers switched to NOAH immediately, including Kenta Kobashi. In January 2001, however, it was Kobashi, who had already had severe knee problems for several years, because of these no longer possible to step into the ring, so he had to take a 13-month break and have multiple operations.

His knees buckled again in Kobashi's first match on his return, when he faced Akiyama and Yuji Nagata alongside Misawa . Kobashi was suspended for another five months. This was followed by an unexpectedly successful return - the now 36-year-old Kobashi received the highest title in the league with the GHC Heavyweight Championship in March 2003 and held it for a full two years. It was not until March 2005 that Takeshi Rikio was allowed to take the title away from him.

In 2005 Kenta Kobashi left his home country for the first time to get into the ring in other countries. First he competed for the Ring of Honor and wXw in Essen .

In June 2006, Kenta Kobashi's kidney tumor was discovered, but it could be removed and did not spread to other organs. On October 6, 2007 Kenta Kobashi announced that he was back in regular training and on December 2 of that year he made his ring comeback at Pro Wrestling NOAH in a tag team match, where he and Yoshihiro against Takayama Mitsuharu Misawa and Jun Akiyama took over. Thereupon he continued to compete for Pro Wrestling NOAH and got into the ring again in June 2008 in Germany at the wXw in Oberhausen . He won the GHC Hardcore Championship on June 8, 2009. From July 2009 to December 2012, he was Vice President of Promotion after Mitsuharu Misawa died after a match in Hiroshima in June 2009 .

On December 4, 2012, Pro Wrestling NOAH announced that Kobashi had been fired from the league. The reason given was his high wage demands, which the league could not bear because it was in financial difficulties. Kobashi had not been able to play matches before because he had suffered from various leg injuries since February 2012. On December 9, 2012, he announced his resignation at The Great Voyage in Ryogoku Vol. 2 in Tokyo . He also expressed the intention to play one last match. With this compromise it should be achieved that Kobashi should not get an inglorious end of his career and at the same time the face of Pro Wrestling NOAH would be preserved. In solidarity with Kobashi, wrestlers Jun Akiyama, Go Shiozaki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Kotaro Suzuki and Atsushi Aoki also ended their involvement with NOAH on December 31, 2012.

Kobashi played his last match, an 8-man tag team match, on May 11, 2013 as part of the NOAH Final Burning In Budokan event .

successes

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kobashi, Kenta
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 小橋 建 太 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese wrestler
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Fukuchiyama , Kyoto Prefecture , Japan