Kenta Kobashi was born in Fukuchiyama, Japan on March 27, 1967. After practicing judo and rugby in high school and practicing bodybuilding after high school, he was eventually accepted into All Japan Pro Wrestling’s dojo in 1987 after being rejected for not having a legitimate sports background and being "too old". Having to fight his way onto the roster, and never being handed anything the way 1972 Greco-Roman Olympian Jumbo Tsuruta, or even 1980 high school wrestling champion Mitsuharu Misawa were shaped his career in a positive way because he never took anything for granted.

Kobashi was initially really good in the role of the young and sympathetic underdog. Of course, as time went on, he gradually moved more toward the role of established great champion, and eventually, he moved into the role of grizzly middle-aged veteran.

Kobashi has survived injury and illness, and he is very much respected in the wrestling community. One of the cool things about Kobashi is that he’s that type of sympathetic person people only have praise for.

Hopefully, people can remember Kobashi as more than the type of pro wrestler who chopped real hard. He was a passionate worker who worked hard to the point the opponent felt compelled to also work harder. He played a big role in All Japan Pro-Wrestling’s successful run of the 1990s with Kobashi being one of the Four Pillars of Heaven along with Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue.

If there’s one thing you should learn about Kobashi, it’s that his 1/20/97 match against Mitsuharu Misawa from January 20th, 1997 is one of THE greatest heavyweight pro wrestling matches in the entirety of the long and illustrious history of pro wrestling EVER! In fact, I’d say that 1997 was actually his strongest year, as he had another great match with Misawa on 10/21/97 and a surprisingly awesome match against Hiroshi Hase on 8/26/97. While you’re hunting down great Kobashi matches, don’t forget to also watch the 4/12/93 and 3/31/96 Champion Carnival matches vs. Misawa. 

When it comes to tag team competition, Kobashi was a reliable tag team wrestler, and he took part in one of the greatest tag team matches in all of pro wrestling, the 5/25/92 Danny Kroffat (Phil Lafon) & Doug Furnas vs. Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi match. Kobashi also took part in the amazing 12/3/93 Real World Tag League Final, a classic Four Pillars of Heaven match between the team of Kobashi & Misawa and the team of Kawada & Taue.

Now, without further ado, let’s have a closer look at a good selection of Kenta Kobashi’s best matches…

AJPW 7/15/89 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kenta Kobashi & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen 20:13. Kenta Kobashi showed potential. He sold well, and he took the beating well. He wasn’t very convincing on offense yet, though. The match was mainly about Tenryu beating up young Kobashi. The match wasn’t very interesting when Jumbo Tsuruta was in. Stan Hansen’s performance here was also quite uneventful. When Tenryu wasn’t on offense, the match kinda went to a standstill. Good match. ***¼ 

AJPW 8/21/89 Niigata City Gymnasium: Kenta Kobashi & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Johnny Ace & Shane Douglas 11:41. This was a rare appearance in Japan for Shane Douglas. In fact, this was his only tour for AJPW. Other than that, he wrestled a couple of matches for FMW in 1998 and a match for Tokyo Gurentai in 2016. This match from the summer of ‘89 took place just a few months after WCW had paired him with Johnny Ace as one half of the Dynamic Dudes, a tag team that lasted only till February 1990. Ace had been appearing in AJPW since a year prior, and he would end up becoming a regular and reliable gaijin for AJPW. The wrestling in this match wasn’t exceptional, but at least the match kept going at a reasonable pace, and there was a good amount of action. The Dynamic Dudes did well for themselves, but Jumbo Tsuruta proved to be too much to handle, and Tsuruta was able to pin Douglas to win the match. Kenta Kobashi did well for himself when considering these were still the early days of his career. Good match. *** 

AJPW 9/2/89 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kenta Kobashi vs. Johnny Ace 15:53. Kenta Kobashi showed a lot of confidence, yet he was also very good at showing he was a sympathetic young babyface who was trying to overcome the attack of this arrogant American gaijin. Ace was quite good at guiding the ebb and flow of the match. He wasn’t an exceptional wrestler, but he always seemed to have very good chemistry with Kobashi, who always seemed to have quite a good understanding of how to work with gaijin wrestlers. The Ace crusher got sold real big by Kobashi, the commentators and the crowd. Good match. *** 

AJPW 10/14/89: Jumbo Tsuruta & Great Kabuki & Kenta Kobashi vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada & Samson Fuyuki 20:11. The match was interesting from the start, as the frequent tagging in and out kept things fresh. Gradually, this consistent focus on keeping things fresh and action-packed paid off, as the match became something the viewer couldn’t walk away from. Surprisingly enough, Jumbo Tsuruta and Great Kabuki were the workers of the match. Those two kept the pace and intensity level super high, and everyone tried to keep up with them. Toshiaki Kawada threw some very nice kicks and certainly played his part well. All in all, this was a super high workrate match that was a blast to watch. Excellent match. ****¼ 

AJPW 10/11/89 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan, All Asia Tag Team Title: Danny Kroffat & Doug Furnas vs. Kenta Kobashi & Joe Malenko 23:20. Kenta Kobashi was still quite far removed from being a main eventer, but he definitely showed that he was someone who would play a reasonably big role in a match like this. He even did a splash off the top to the floor. Joe Malenko wasn’t very exciting, but his grappling was quite solid, as usual. That being said, the match was usually at its dullest when he was in the ring. Can-Am Express certainly showed the more cohesive tag team work, so that put them at an advantage. Danny Kroffat (Phil Lafon) took a nice shoulder-first bump into the corner and worked relatively hard in this match. In fact, he was the worker of the match, as he was the one that contributed most to the match maintaining some sort of momentum. Doug Furnas was a reliable tag team partner for Kroffat, as always, and his athleticism was the centerpoint of some cool spots and sequences. However, his performance wasn’t quite as memorable as that of Kroffat. The match certainly had its ups and downs, but there was quite a good amount of action throughout, and the match got more exciting as it went on. Excellent match. ****  

AJPW 5/26/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa & Akira Taue vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Great Kabuki & Masa Fuchi. This was basically the start of the big Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa feud. Tsuruta showed lots of energy and intensity in this match. One could definitely say he was the man in All Japan back then. He was great in his role of the grumpy veteran who wanted to teach the younger generation a lesson. Great Kabuki’s strikes looked pretty cool, as they were well placed and had quite a bit of intensity behind them. It felt a bit like he was the mercenary of the team. Masa Fuchi was easily the least impressive one in this match. His work was very basic, as always, but he was good at being a bit of an annoying jerk, which works perfectly in heated trios matches like these. He would pretty much only want to come into the ring to take advantage of a vulnerable Kobashi after Tsuruta and Kabuki had done all the hard work. Misawa really gave a strong performance in this match, as he carried himself like the leader of a faction and executed all the key moments of the match excellently. His tag team partners backed him up quite well. Kobashi was good in his role as a sympathetic young babyface who was mainly on the receiving-end of a lot of punishment from the veterans. When he was on offense, it looked good. He threw a neat dropkick off the top rope at one point. Akira Taue didn’t really stand out in this match, but he didn’t do anything that took anything away from the match either. He definitely showed enough passion and energy to contribute sufficiently. Excellent match. ****¼   

AJPW 6/8/90 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams 11:28. This was a rather slow and not-so-exciting match. Steve Williams tried to take the easy way out and decided to just keep holding on to a bear hug for a couple of minutes in order to stay in control. Kenta Kobashi mainly focused on being a vulnerable young babyface, and did a lot of selling in order to get sympathy from the crowd. When he was on offense, he was quite spectacular, as he hit an amazing moonsault that got a reaction from everyone. Williams won via flying shoulder tackle off the top rope. Decent match. **¾   

AJPW 8/31/90 Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium: Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 17:53. Young Kenta Kobashi played it safe against the top guy in the league and tried to hang on to headlocks and facelocks as long as possible. Of course, it was inevitable that it wouldn’t take Jumbo Tsuruta too long to turn things around. Tsuruta was quite good in his role as the grumpy veteran who found enjoyment in beating up the youngster. At this point in his career, Kobashi was becoming more and more capable of standing up for himself, so this definitely wasn’t a squash match. Kobashi hit a tremendous plancha off the top to the floor onto Tsuruta. Whenever Tsuruta wasn’t showing flurries of grumpiness, he didn’t seem to be in much of a hurry to beat his opponent. Kobashi did what he could, since, of course, all the odds were stacked against him in this non-title bout against the top guy in the league. In the end, Tsuruta scored the expected pinfall victory. Good match. ***¼ 

AJPW 9/7/90 Fukui City Gymnasium, All Asia Tag Team Title Tournament Final: Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace vs. Tommy Rogers & Bobby Fulton. About eight minutes in, it looked like the match was finally going to start moving. But, it would take another three minutes for things to really start picking up. Overall, this was quite disappointing, as it looked really good on paper. After hitting a beautiful moonsault on Tommy Rogers, Kenta Kobashi scored the pinfall victory to ensure that his team became the new All Asia Tag Team Champions. Decent match. **½ 

AJPW 10/19/90: Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi 25:25. Mitsuharu Misawa executed some graceful-looking offense. Jumbo Tsuruta hit a couple of stiff elbow smashes to Misawa to slow him down. Masa Fuchi’s offense looked quite weak compared to everyone else’s hard-hitting offense. After some intense first few minutes, the match started slowing down, and Toshiaki Kawada spent some time selling for Tsuruta’s team. Then it was Taue’s turn to sell for Misawa’s team. The match started losing momentum with nobody really showing any long-lasting urgency. We did get a bunch of interesting bits and pieces, though. Fuchi hit Kobashi with a chair, and Kobashi was in trouble, which led to the crowd starting a “Ko-ba-shi!”chant. Taue hit an interesting tope suicida that was done in a manner that made it clear he only did it to take the opponent out, not to show off. During the final few minutes, everyone decided to show more enthusiasm again. Tsuruta hit an awesome-looking backdrop suplex for the win. This definitely was a match worth watching, but it seems that, just like with the overly long 9/30/90 match, this match was simply a bit too long. You’d think that with two added participants and 20 minutes less to worry about they’d have a better match than on 9/30/90, but this was not the case. This match felt merely like a relatively unimportant chapter in the story of the Tsuruta vs. Misawa feud. Good match. ***¼   

AJPW 3/23/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi 13:53 shown. Nothing special. They just did some stuff without any real urgency or intensity shown. This felt like just another match that they just had to go through. Ironically, Masa Fuchi didn’t look as mediocre as usual due to everyone else phoning it in. The last three minutes were quite good, though. Decent match. **¾ 

AJPW 4/18/91 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kenta Kobashi vs. Danny Kroffat 10:39. They kept the action going at quite a nice and consistent pace. The match went back and forth with neither man getting a real advantage for too long. It’s nice to see Danny Kroffat being able to shine in a singles match for a change. Very good match. ***¾  

AJPW 4/20/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi 51:32. Akira Taue was still mad at Toshiaki Kawada and slapped him off the apron right away. Taue then hit a lariat to knock Kawada off the apron again. It really feels like Taue showed a lot more aggression during these years of 1990 and 1991, and he was a lot calmer when he teamed with Kawada in later years. Kawada spent a big part of the match selling for Taue and Jumbo Tsuruta. After a lengthy Kawada selling segment, Kobashi was tagged in, and did a bunch of moves. Mitsuharu Misawa then was tagged in. When he was back in, Kawada tried to make Taue submit. After some exciting minutes, it was now time for a lengthy Taue selling segment. Kobashi hit a plancha off the top to the floor. Kobashi spent some time selling for Masa Fuchi. In spite of his overselling being a bit comical, Tsuruta was arguably the worker of the match, as he brought a lot of intensity, and felt like he was a main driving force. Taue also deserves credit for bringing a lot of intensity to the match. Fuchi was the weakest performer of the match. Misawa’s team members showed some cool offense whenever they were on offense, but none of them truly stood out in this particular match. Though it should be mentioned that Kobashi got quite a lot of sympathy from the crowd during his selling segment, and he executed an impressive-looking moonsault near the finish. In the end, Misawa pinned Taue to win the match for his team. The main issue with the match was obviously the length. 51 minutes is just way too long. If it would have been shorter, perhaps the exciting segments would be even more exciting, since they wouldn’t be constantly interrupted by extensive selling segments. Very good match. ***½   

AJPW 6/1/91 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Danny Kroffat & Doug Furnas. Everything made sense and was so much more realistic than most of today's wrestling. Can-Am Express are really good at working tag matches with AJPW psychology. The match built well, and the finishing stretch was exciting. Very good match. ***¾ 

AJPW 1/24/92: Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi 44:23. The first portion of the match featured a lot of artistic selling and artistic wrestling psychology. Of course, this match went over 40 minutes! This is way too long. Nobody was in a rush, and everyone had a very methodical approach to this match. Things finally started picking up around the 35th minute. It wasn’t a bad match, but it definitely wasn’t anything that should be recommended. Decent match. **¾   

AJPW 1/26/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue 22:21. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi did his usual weak-member-in-trouble selling. Jumbo Tsuruta and Akira Taue weren’t particularly inspiring in this particular match, so that made the whole match fall flat, since that threw off the whole dynamic of the match and kinda ruined what Kobashi and Kikuchi were trying to accomplish. Instead, Tsuruta and Taue showed no intensity at all, and were moving like they had just gotten out of bed and had a rough sleep or something. Kikuchi hit a nice Dynamite Kid-like diving headbutt. Kobashi showed the most energy of these four. Taue basically wasn’t there. Tsuruta woke up during the final 30 seconds of the match. Decent match. **½ 

AJPW 2/27/92 Matsumoto City General Gymnasium: Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 21:39. This was a slow and contrived match. Execution and selling looked very deliberate. Kenta Kobashi was a lot more energetic than Jumbo Tsuruta in this match. Kobashi executed a spectacular moonsault. The last 40 seconds were pretty exciting. Okay match. **¼ 

AJPW 5/22/92 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi 36:36. Jumbo Tsuruta’s team did a good job of beating Mitsuharu Misawa up. The crowd started booing Tsuruta’s team whenever they did some triple-teaming and/or used the ropes to their advantage to give Misawa a rough time and/or did some general heelish stuff. Masa Fuchi barely had to do anything to get heel heat. Him just walking and stomping got him heel heat. Tsuruta and Kenta Kobashi were probably the most over with the crowd, though, in terms of heel heat and babyface heat respectively. Eventually, Misawa’s team decided that turnabout is fair play, and the crowd agreed. It was kind of a fun match to watch, but it was just a bit long, and there were several segments in which nothing noteworthy happened. Everytime the heels kept breaking up holds, and whenever they tied up their opponents in the corner, it slowed down the match more and more. As usual, the storytelling was really good, though. Kobashi was arguably the worker of the match due to his spirited comebacks. The Tsuruta vs. Misawa interactions during the finishing stretch had a lot of excellent drama. Kawada gave a very good performance, but he didn’t really stand out in this particular match. The match ended when Kawada made Taue submit while the other two members of Kawada’s team also had the other two members of Taue’s team stuck in a submission hold. Good match. ***¼   

AJPW 5/25/92 Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center, All Asia Tag Team Title: Danny Kroffat & Doug Furnas vs. Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi 22:11. This is one of the most heated, exciting and dramatic matches ever, which is even more amazing when you consider that it was for a secondary, undercard title. This is possibly the match with the most insane crowd heat ever (and some of the most insanely enthusiastic commentating ever). It’s hard not to get drawn into this match when you see the excitement this match delivers. The crowd was so loud that Furnas couldn’t hear Lafon yell at him to try to remind him of a spot they had planned. All-time great match. *****

AJPW 6/5/92 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa 27:12. This feels like a match that looks outdated when looking at it in the 2020s. It was a methodical mid-paced match with a lot of selling that at the time probably was considered an excellent display of wrestling psychology featuring what supposedly were some of the best men’s wrestlers in the world. While the execution of the moves was good, there was just too much dead time to consider this anything more than just good. Good match. ***

AJPW 7/5/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Yoshinari Ogawa & Masa Fuchi. Masa Fuchi was in the ring a lot, and he simplified and slowed the match down considerably. At least, whenever Kobashi wasn’t beating the crap out of him. This definitely wasn’t a bad match, though, it’s just a match that I wouldn’t necessarily recommend. Good match. ***

AJPW 11/27/92 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center, World's Strongest Tag Decision League Match: Mitsuharu Misawa & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Giant Baba & Kenta Kobashi 27:23. Giant Baba did reasonably well for himself, considering his limitations as an old giant. Kenta Kobashi was the worker of the match, because he showed the most excitement and enthusiasm. Toshiaki Kawada and Mitsuharu Misawa failed to really impress, and barely showed any desire to win this match. Once in a while, there were some cool-looking spots, but it was generally an uneventful and slow match. Baba and Kobashi showed great teamwork, unlike Kawada & Misawa, who barely acknowledged each other’s existence. Misawa did a lot of overselling for Baba. The way Kawada pinned Kobashi looked really cool, as he was trying with all his might to score the pinfall win, throwing his own legs into the air in order to place all his weight on top of Kobashi’s shoulders. Good match. ***

AJPW 1/24/93 Shizuoka, All Asia Tag Team Title: Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Jun Akiyama & Yoshinari Ogawa. There were lots of slow segments with little resistance and little happening. The work was pretty good, but it was just nothing special overall. Good enough to watch as part of a TV viewing once, but not notable enough to bother someone about it being a recommendation. Good match. ***

AJPW 2/28/93 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kenta Kobashi vs. Dan Spivey 16:59. Dan Spivey juiced relatively early in the match. Not sure when and how, though, since the match was joined in progress. Kobashi took a shoulder-first bump when Spivey accidentally dropped him as he was trying to lift him over his own shoulder. Spivey is not an excellent wrestler by any means, but he clearly tried, and he even executed a backwards falling elbow drop off the top rope. Once Kobashi was on offense, the match quality certainly picked up, though. Kobashi hit two amazing moonsaults. The second one got him the victory. This match exceeded expectations, but what hurt this match the most was its slow pace. Decent match. **¾  

AJPW 4/12/93 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukan, Champion Carnival Match: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi 21:16. The full hand-held version of this match has excellent video quality. It wasn’t just the video quality that was of high quality. Luckily, the wrestling was of extremely high quality as well. Kenta Kobashi wasn’t just fooling around, he was all business from the start, attacking Mitsuharu Misawa with one big move after another. Kobashi had very little patience for any downtime in this match, which was a huge factor in this match being great. Mitsuharu Misawa was generally fine with being on the receiving-end of Kobashi’s offense, but at some point, he was fighting back and wanted to show he was the man in All Japan. Misawa was the highest pushed worker in the league at the time, but Kobashi was arguably the best worker in the league. With the exception of a great move here and there, Misawa’s offense was generally not as amazing as Kobashi’s offense. Not only because of Kobashi being more spectacular in general, but also because Kobashi executed moves with more passion. At some point, about halfway through the match, Misawa started showing a bit more aggression, which combined with Kobashi’s never-dimming passion resulted in a surprisingly strong middle part of a match that featured a lot of hard-fought battling and struggling. There was surprisingly little dead time and a surprisingly good pace, especially for a high-profile AJPW match. The final minutes were definitely a wonderful conclusion to this match. The timing and execution was top-notch. Now this is what AJPW matches should be like! Great match. ****¾

AJPW 4/14/93 Nagoya Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Champion Carnival: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi 10:26 of 23:44. Less than half the match was shown, but it looked like a good match. It was an interesting battle between Toshiaki Kawada’s logic and Kenta Kobashi’s excitement. The finish looked pretty cool. Good match. ***¼ 

AJPW 5/14/93 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue showed great teamwork here. They teamed together several times in 1990 when they were still buddies with Mitsuharu Misawa. However, this was the first time that they started teaming together after leaving Misawa’s side. The execution in this match was quite good. The downside of the match was that it took until the final minutes before the match started reaching a high quality. Good match. ***¼  

AJPW 5/21/93 Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center: Kenta Kobashi vs. Terry Gordy 19:39. This was arguably the final good match of Terry Gordy’s career. The main issue with the match was its slow pace. Gordy was stalling a lot, possibly because he simply wasn’t able to continue without all this stalling in a singles match by this point in his career (and this was just a few months prior to his second near-fatal overdose). Other than that, this was quite enjoyable. Kenta Kobashi showed a lot of energy whenever he had the chance to. It’s just a shame that Gordy had to slow this down a bit too much, and Kobashi was a bit too polite to interrupt Gordy’s stalling. Kobashi executed two moonsaults, and the second one gave him the big pinfall win over the big-name gaijin. Decent match. **¾  

AJPW 6/1/93 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, AJPW World Tag Team Title: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa 29:12. There was a huge reaction when Mitsuharu Misawa and Toshiaki Kawada were tagged in to off against each other, as this was the #1 rivalry in AJPW at the time and the rivalry everything booked in this company was built around. The match had plenty of moments of intensity. When Kawada had Kenta Kobashi stuck in the Stretch Plum, Akira Taue knocked Misawa off the apron, which caused Misawa to fall into the guardrail and knock a monitor over. At nearly 30 minutes long, the match was probably a bit longer than it needed to be, but considering the length, they did quite a good job of keeping things relatively interesting for the most part. Towards the end of the match, the match started overstaying its welcome. The urgency was gone, and they would be more okay with the other chopping them as much as they pleased. Towards the end, unless you’re a die-hard fan of these guys, it’s easy to just wish for the match to be over, as the match kept losing steam more and more. Kawada pinned Kobashi to retain the title. Very good match. ***½ 

AJPW 6/3/93 Sendai Miyagi Sports Center: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa 21:26. They didn’t do anything beyond expectation. They also didn’t really take advantage of this being a trios match, as they wrestled it like it was just another tag match (they didn’t take advantage of the two extra people being there). Decent match. **¾  

AJWP 7/2/93 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Mitsuhara Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa 25:36. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada featured some hard-hitting action. Jun Akiyama hit a plancha to the floor. Good match. ***

AJPW 7/29/93 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kenta Kobashi vs. Stan Hansen 22:35. A slow-paced match that saw these two move around in a sluggish manner. They did some good moves here and there. I believe this match is quite famous, but I don’t care. Decent match. **¾  

AJPW 8/20/93 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kenta Kobashi & Satoru Asako vs. Danny Kroffat & Doug Furnas 10:12 of 17:28. Can-Am Express’ stiffness bloodied the underdog Satoru Asako. Can-Am Express were quite vicious in their attack on Asako, and they didn’t want to give him a chance to make the tag. Eventually, when Kobashi was finally tagged in, he went on rampage and beat up the gaijin bullies. These four had excellent timing and did a great job getting the crowd to be fully behind them. Danny Kroffat went for the tiger driver, but Asako avoided it. There was quite a bit of back-and-forth action. Doug Furnas and Kenta Kobashi mistimed a spot where Furnas was supposed to do a huracarrana, but they executed it well a bit later on. In the end, Kroffat got the pinfall over Asako after the tiger driver. Very good match. ***½ 

AJPW 8/31/93 Toyohashi City Gymnasium: Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams 27:15. The match was a bit too long, but they generally did a very good job of portraying the struggle they were in to overcome the other’s offense. This really came across like a fight, because there generally was a sense of intensity to whatever they did. They did a lot of moves that felt like desperation moves in order to stop the opponent from gaining any sort of momentum. As the match progressed, Kobashi became more successful at this and tried to put Williams away via a moonsault. However, the tough man from Oklahoma was able to kick out of the first moonsault and then block the second one by lifting his knees just in time. Williams almost beat Kobashi after the Oklahoma stampede. The near falls kept becoming more frequent and more dramatic. Each and every one of them felt like it could be the finish. In the end, Kobashi lost via pinfall. This would have been excellent if the first half of the match would have been more lively. Very good match. ***¾ 

AJPW 10/14/93 Matsumoto City General Gymnasium: Kenta Kobashi vs. Big Bubba 19:54. Ray Traylor was wrestling as Big Bubba but wearing the Big Boss Man gear. Bubba smashed Kobashi’s legs against the ringpost, which the crowd didn’t appreciate. Unfortunately, Bubba was wrestling quite slowly without any sense of urgency. Of course, he could kinda get away with it because of the rule breaking tactics slowing Kobashi down. The match ended up not really being anything special. It was mainly interesting due to the oddness of seeing Big Boss Man in an AJPW ring. Decent match. **½ 

AJPW 10/17/93 Nagaoka: Kenta Kobashi & Satoru Asako vs. Danny Kroffat & Doug Furnas 10:25 of 16:19. The sadistic Can-Am Express were relentless in their beatdown of Satoru Asako, who not only survived the beating but also fought back whenever he could. This match was slightly less exciting than their August match, because this one felt slightly like they were going through the motions a bit. It lacked the energy and intensity of the August match. Decent match. **¾ 

AJPW 10/23/93 Tokyo: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi 29:37. They tried way too hard. They were way too desperate. The match starts off with some dramatic stuff to show they’re evenly matched. Then they go to the mat for a bit. When they get back to their feet, Toshiaki Kawada is in control and throws some nice kicks. Then they chop each other over and over. They hit each other with some more hard-hitting moves. The execution was quite good throughout the match. The selling was okay. There was probably a bit too much reliance on drama. I think Kawada secretly wished he was a soap opera star (of course, this wish came true when he joined HUSTLE). One could say that it’s about how you do something and not so much about what you do, but while this may often be true, sometimes the pendulum swings too far into the other direction. The repetitiveness not only made this match a predecessor of some of the so-called epics we see in modern-day wrestling with the strike exchanges and overacting, but it also was a factor in making it harder to get drawn into the match. The speed was okay-ish. They could have shown some more urgency. The best part about the match was the crowd reaction. The crowd reacted perfectly to everything, and this actually made the match more interesting than it actually was. The main problem of the match was the length, as it was too long. The final minutes were quite exciting with lots of big suplexes and other big moves. Kawada certainly suplexed the starch out of Kobashi. In the end, the overkill just was unnecessary. It would have been nicer to have watched an actual match with a story that made sense. The early stuff that masqueraded as build-up towards an illusory future ended up not having much of a purpose other than killing time. There was no rhyme or reason to anything they did at all. This isn’t something new in pro wrestling, of course, but it’s yet another reason why this match didn’t work as well as it could have. Don’t get me wrong, this was definitely GOOD! However, this wasn’t exactly great. Good match. ***¼   

AJPW 11/24/93 Osaka, World’s Strongest Tag Determination League Match: Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Steve Williams & Big Bubba. The Americans acted like American wrestlers, which meant there was a lot of exaggerated stuff happening, and they acted like big shots. At least the match was never dull. Steve Williams probably added the most quality to this match. Williams and Big Bubba certainly did a good job of beating up Mitsuharu Misawa, who took the offense really well. Misawa definitely did a really good job of making the gaijin team look like a million bucks. He finally made the tag with Kenta Kobashi, who then came in like a house of fire. The final minutes were pretty crazy and heated. Misawa almost got pinned by the Big Boss Man, but Kobashi made the save. This was really exciting for a heavyweight tag team match. Excellent match. ****¼    

AJPW 12/3/93 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, World's Strongest Tag Determination League Final, World Tag Team Title Decision Match: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa 23:34. Thanks to Giant Baba’s great booking of this really enjoyable tag team tournament, it was a meeting of the ‘four pillars’ in the final. In fact, this was one of the most famous matches involving the four pillars of AJPW. This was the first time these two teams met in the tag final, after Kawada & Taue defended the tag titles against Misawa & Kobashi on 6/1/93. It was also an important match, as it not only decided who would win the tournament, but also who would be the undisputed World Tag Team Champions. This match is a great example of Kawada's realistic selling (of his knee, which was injured in his match against Steve Williams & Big Bubba two days earlier). The match and tournament culminated in Kobashi getting his first pin over Kawada. Execution was great from start to finish. Even Akira Taue, the weakest performer in the match, understood he had to really bring his A game here. What they did well here was to keep the action going early on, and they weren’t already selling in large amounts early on. This made the match exciting, and it made the selling later on in the match feel more meaningful. As soon as Kawada showed signs of his injured left knee hurting again, Kobashi went after the knee like a hungry shark and viciously attacked it. The storytelling and drama in this match were amazing. At the time of this match, it was arguably the greatest heavyweight match to have ever taken place. All-time great match. *****

AJPW 1/29/94 Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa & Giant Baba vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Masa Fuchi 39:02. Due to the length of the match, this started off quite slow and quite lackluster. Giant Baba started reaching a point in his career where he was going to be too much of a detracting factor. This was arguably the last match involving Baba that was somewhat worth watching. Masa Fuchi was just kinda thrown in there to make it a trios match, and he used to be involved in several big trios matches back when Jumbo Tsuruta was still the man. Eight weeks prior to this trios match, the ‘four pillars of heaven’ worked an all-time classic tag league final. This trios match wasn’t nearly as good, of course, but it was still interesting enough to have a look at. When Baba didn’t like something that was happening, he would just enter the ring and make it stop. One thing he couldn’t do was add more energy to the match, since he himself was running out of energy. The lifelessness and the grueling length of the match made this not only torture for the wrestlers involved, but it was a huge chore for the audience to sit through. Toshiaki Kawada’s team was so calm in their approach that Mitsuharu Misawa almost seemed to fall asleep while selling the polite attempts at offense from the opposition. Even Kenta Kobashi was lacking energy on this day. The man famous for fighting Dr. Death tooth and nail wasn’t feeling it here and was barely capable of fighting off Masa Fuchi. Since they had been wrestling in slow-motion from the start, they had a rough time trying to speed things up for the final minutes. The very final move of the match looked cool, though, as Kobashi hit his moonsault on Fuchi to win the match via pinfall. Decent match. **¾  

AJPW 5/21/94 Nakajima Sports Center, World Tag Team Title: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 40:25. To their credit, they managed to keep the action quite well. However, it’s just a really long match. They could have easily cut 15 minutes, and still have a great match. The middle portion just had too much of a filler vibe, since it was just obviously there because the match was so long. Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue were beating the crap out of Kenta Kobashi while Mitsuharu Misawa was relaxing on the apron. Once Misawa makes the hot tag, he’s well-rested enough to contribute sufficiently. Taue has generally been an inconsistent worker, but this was definitely a night where he was having a really good night. Kawada was great in his role as leader of his team. His selling was top-notch, and he made Misawa look like a million bucks. In the story of the match, Kobashi was having a bit of a rough night, as he spent a large portion of his time selling. Towards the end of the match, the match just simply gets to the point where it just is enough and it just needs to end. Excellent match. ****¼    

AJPW 9/3/94 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Triple Crown Heavyweight Title: Steve Williams vs. Kenta Kobashi 41:23. This was a very long match, especially considering it was just 19 days after Williams had his knee scoped. We can say that they at least tried their best to make the most out of the large amount of time they were given, even though it took a while for the match to start going. They gradually started going for bigger moves and getting the crowd ready for the latter stages of the match. It really is a shame this was so long, because this would potentially have been a great match if it had the first 10 minutes or so cut off. Very good match. ***¾ 

AJPW 11/19/94 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, '94 World's Strongest Tag League Match: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Danny Kroffat & Doug Furnas 21:43. They kinda went through the motions, and it took a while for the match to become interesting. Danny Kroffat acted like a cocky heel and got some good heel heat. Doug Furnas threw a beautiful dropkick and huracarrana. Kenta Kobashi was having a lot of trouble against the Can-Am Express, and sold a lot while Mitsuharu Misawa stood on the apron. This was mainly about Kroffat vs. Kobashi, and these two did a good job of making the final minutes exciting. In the end, Misawa wanted all the glory for Kobashi’s hard work, entered the ring and pinned Kroffat. Good match. ***¼ 

AJPW 12/10/94 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, '94 World's Strongest Tag League Match: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams & Johnny Ace 25:05. Mitsuharu Misawa was having a rough time against the cocky Americans. The American team seemingly did enjoy punishing Misawa, as they didn’t seem to be in a rush to actually pin him. However, as the match went on, the match became gradually more exciting. You could feel the anticipation thanks to the great way they built things up towards the finish. At one point, Ace even executed a moonsault on Kobashi. Not too long after, Kobashi executed a moonsault on Ace. Excellent match. ****¼ 

AJPW 1/19/95 Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Triple Crown Title: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi 60:00. I suppose it’s not their fault they’re booked in a 60-minute match, which is obviously way too long, especially for a singles match. They obviously started really slowly, as they had way too much time on their hands, and they had to preserve their energy. Because of this, whenever there was something happening, it felt important. But, it kinda goes without saying that the main issue of this match was the length, as there was, especially early on, little urgency and lots of long periods of selling. In the first 35 minutes of the match, there was maybe 5 minutes of action stretched out to 35 minutes. Things slowly started picking up at the 35-minute mark. So there was really no point in this match being 60 minutes other than to brag about the fact this went 60 minutes, and was therefore by default a classic of epic proportions. The first 45 minutes were merely average, and nothing was really accomplished in those 45 minutes. You could easily start watching at the 45-minute mark without having missed anything significant. The final 15 minutes of the match were decent. The final minute was pretty good, as Kobashi was trying everything in his power to not be on the receiving-end of a last-minute defeat. Mediocre match. *¾    

AJPW 1/24/95 Yamagata City Gymnasium, World Tag Team Title: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 60:00. As much as Giant Baba deserves all the respect in the world, as he was the founder of this great league and one of the best bookers ever, one has to question Giant Baba’s wisdom to book yet another big 60-minute match just five days after a rather underwhelming 60-minute draw between two of the participants in this match (Toshiaki Kawada and Kenta Kobashi). Luckily, this match started off with more liveliness in the first 5 minutes than in the entire 60 minutes of the 1/19/95 match. This match obviously had the advantage of being a tag match, so it wasn’t the same two guys having to stretch things out for 60 minutes. Here in this tag match, we got some good action from the start. One of the good things about that is that we got to see some action, and another good thing about it was that it wasn’t too obvious from the start that this was going to be a 60-minute match. It seemed like this was going to be maybe like a 40-minute match or so. However, it wasn’t quite on the level of their famous 5/21/94 match, which felt more important, worthwhile and satisfying. About halfway through this 1/24/95 match, things started meandering, and they were just more obviously killing time. This match probably would have been better if it was 40 instead of 60 minutes. Just like in the 1/19/95 match, it was Kobashi who was struggling, and just getting beat up for the most part. About 42-minutes into the match, Kawada was having a powerbomb party and powerbombed Kobashi and then Misawa. Very good match. ***¾    

AJPW 3/4/95 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, World Tag Title: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams & Johnny Ace 36:01. The loudmouth Americans were very confrontational, which added a lot of spice to the already heated match. This was easily the best heavyweight match of the year so far in 1995. Just like earlier in the year, Kenta Kobashi spent a great deal of his time selling. After standing on the apron for a while, Mitsuharu Misawa was tagged in and took a big bump off of Steve Williams shoulders. Misawa sold this well, as he needed some time in the corner to adjust his mind, muscles and bones before continuing. Williams continued his sadistic attack on Misawa by trying to destroy Misawa’s arm and shoulder. Johnny Ace would continue what Williams had started. Ace was quite a good worker, but his execution and selling weren’t quite as top notch as Williams’ execution and selling. The Japanese team eventually started getting more grip on the match, and things became very even and exciting. The best part about this match was certainly the great storytelling and the way they really were able to get the viewer drawn into what they were doing while gradually building more towards the culminating moments. The culmination was Kobashi pinning Ace for the win after a flying guillotine legdrop to the back of the head. Excellent match. ****

Shukan Puroresu Bridge of Dreams 4/2/95 Tokyo Dome: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Stan Hansen vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Johnny Ace 30:00. This event was organized by Weekly Pro Wrestling Magazine and featured one match each from several leagues. Stan Hansen was the Triple Crown Champion at the time, as Toshiaki Kawada had lost the Triple Crown Title to Hansen on 3/4/95. Kawada’s team worked together very well. Kenta Kobashi and Johnny Ace worked the majority of the match. Kobashi did his best Ricky Morton impression. Mitsuharu Misawa hit a tope suicida. Ace almost pinned Kobashi after a moonsault. Other than Ace, it felt like everyone in this match didn’t go all out. They simply did just enough to give the audience a taste of what All Japan Pro-Wrestling was all about. Good match. ***¼ 

AJPW 6/9/95 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, World Tag Team Title: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 42:37. This is one of the most famous tag team matches involving the ‘four pillars’ of AJPW. It is mainly notable for the first dramatic climax of Kawada's lengthy chase, finally scoring the pin on Misawa more than 2.5 years into the feud. It’s quite a long match, but the storytelling and the concluding minutes supposedly make it all worthwhile. The reason this is not 5 stars is that it feels like it’s a chore watching this match. The work is a bit too contrived and pretentious and artistic for it to be considered 5 stars. Too much acting. They don’t do anything that makes the viewer think they actually care, which in turn means the viewer won’t have any real reason to care about what they’re doing. They’re not really sure about what story they want to tell in this match other than the actual finish, which is all that really matters, and doesn’t warrant 40+-minutes of lacklustre wrestling as an excuse to reach the finish line that didn’t feel like something anyone was truly fighting for. This is not 5-star pro wrestling. This seems to be when wrestlers started catering to what people think 5-star pro wrestling is. Make sure you have enough coffee at home before watching this match. The lack of urgency displayed in a lot of the big AJPW bouts involving members of the Four Pillars appears to be a sort of agreed upon ‘unwritten rule’ that makes it plausible for them going into the match with the idea that they’ll do their Four Pillar style match, which is likely going to last a long time and involves all the usual Four Pillar tropes. The ‘legendary’ status of this match seems to rely a lot on these four guys going 42 minutes, thus forcing them to pace themselves, which instantly seems to indicate a classic for many. Perhaps we’ve all been way too conditioned to believe the 60-minute NWA World Title matches we either grew up on or heard about were the most legendary matches in pro wrestling history. A lot of the shitty overly long and boring ‘epics’ of the modern era copied what these guys were doing in this match. Please note that I’m not one of the biggest fans of the AJPW product, so perhaps my ratings should be taken with a grain of salt (or you could simply add a star and a half or so). That being said, I’m not here to be a people-pleaser (but I’m also not here to be purposely be a contrarian or anything), and I still believe these reviews and ratings will be helpful for those finding out which matches should be watched first (and then you can always decide for yourself what you want to watch next). Excellent match. ****     

AJPW 6/30/95 Tokyo: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Satoru Asako vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Tamon Honda. Everyone worked hard and was motivated. It’s not often you get to see Tamon Honda take part in a match this good. This was basically just non-stop action that was well-executed for the most part. Excellent match. ****

AJPW 10/15/95 Nagoya, World Tag Team Title: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi. This is a very long match, so it was quite slow early on, since they had to wrestle for so long. Akira Taue chokeslammed Mitsuharu Misawa off the apron. Misawa sold it really well, as it took him 13 minutes to make it back into the ring. The storytelling and selling was tremendous all the way through. Considering they had to wrestle for an hour, they did a better job than in their 1/24/95 match, which was also a 60-minute match. This one was better mainly due to superior storytelling and timing, which helped give the match more of a cohesive and sensible feeling. The length is definitely what kept this match from truly being a great one, though, as it just felt like it dragged on for too long. A bit more liveliness would have been beneficial, but then again, it’s hard to demand it from wrestlers who have to work a 60-minute match. Excellent match. **** 

AJPW 10/25/95 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Triple Crown Title: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi. This wasn’t quite as great or energetic as their tremendous 4/12/93 match. However, there was enough happening to keep this steady and consistent mid-paced match interesting for the majority of its duration. They didn’t really do anything exceptional, and they’d kinda do the things you’d expect from a big Triple Crown Title match, but the execution was good enough to make it a match worth recommending. Mitsuharu Misawa’s tope suicida looked quite graceful. They did a very good job of making this match gradually more dramatic and building towards the finish. The big moves and near falls were quite dramatic, and the selling was top-notch. Great match. ****½   

AJPW 12/9/95 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, '95 Sekai Saikyo Tag Kettei League Yushoketteisen: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 27:00. The Four Pillars meet again. The Holy Demon Army, Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue, were quite relentless in the beating they were giving their opponents here. Kobashi’s left arm was clearly a target, and the team of Kawada & Taue showed no mercy working it over in an aggressive manner. Since this was ‘only’ 27 minutes long (which is quite short for these four), the pace wasn’t quite as slow as in their longer matches. This was also more of a no-nonsense match, in which the wrestlers were simply out there to get the job done, which they did a very good job of getting across. The main issue with this match, however, is that Kawada & Taue were perhaps a bit too dominant. A bit more of a back-and-forth match would have been nice. Once they finally had taken Kawada out, it didn’t take Kobashi and Misawa too long to beat Taue. Excellent match. ****¼   

AJPW 3/2/96 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama. Jun Akiyama had been working his way up since his debut in September 1992. Here we finally see him try to show the world that he belongs in there with the Pillars of AJPW. Toshiaki Kawada invited Akiyama to fight back harder. Kawada found the perfect balance of giving and taking when he was in there with Akiyama, in a great attempt to help Akiyama grow as an in-ring performer. The work was very good throughout, but nothing about this match stood out other than seeing Akiyama instead of Mitsuharu Misawa team with Kobashi. Akiyama seemed eager to prove himself, but he was clearly in need of Kawada’s assistance. Of course, being the generous and humble fighter that he is, Kawada did an excellent job making Akiyama look like a future star. Akiyama tried hard, but it was Taue who delivered the finishing blow to pin Akiyama. Excellent match. ****

AJPW 3/31/96 Nagoya Aichi Prefectural Gym, Champion Carnival: Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa 24:07. Kenta Kobashi and Mitsuharu Misawa is the only pairing in AJPW history that never disappointed when facing off in a singles bout. These two were usually on the same side, but whenever they had to face each other, like in this Champion Carnival tournament, they definitely turned things up a notch to celebrate the fact they were able to provide the wrestling world with great wrestling. Even though this wasn’t exactly a short match (although, it’s shorter than many of AJPW’s big matches from this era), they kept the workrate quite high, higher than most of AJPW’s big matches from around that time. The selling was well done, as they put over each other’s moves in a way that made them seem lethal, yet they didn’t sell so much that viewers would be wondering whether or not the match is still going to continue or not. Constant action and a display of desire was what made this match stand out as one of the best matches of the year, arguably the best heavyweight match of the year. The vibe of this match resembled the inspiring electricity of their great match from the ‘93 Champion Carnival tournament. Great match. ****¾ 

AJPW 4/20/96 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Johnny Ace & Gary Albright. They could have shown a bit more speed and urgency, especially since it was a trios match. They clearly approached this match with the idea it was just a random trios match for TV, and not really a major main event type of match. Of course, Gary Albright being in the match pretty much confirms the fact this wasn’t a major match. Things started picking up in the second half of the match. Kenta Kobashi and Johnny Ace worked well against each other, as usual. Toshiaki Kawada doing a whole bunch of Kawada kicks to Kobashi’s head enraged Kobashi. Albright getting the pin of Kobashi felt unnecessary, but whatever. Good match. ***¼ 

AJPW 5/24/96 Sapporo: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi 19:41. After a high kick by Toshiaki Kawada, Kenta Kobashi went down. Kawada got the two count, but the ref counted to three. The ref then quickly made it clear he noticed Kobashi went for a rope break prior to the count of three. Perhaps this was an attempt to give the fans the impression that things happening early in the match were going to be meaningful. The fans seemed more confused and skeptical than impressed, though. Kobashi was still wobbly and drowsy from Kawada’s kick early in the match, so Kawada just kept beating Kobashi. Kawada let Kobashi fight back once in a while to keep things interesting. Kawada did some overdramatic selling for Kobashi’s strikes. Kobashi hit a nicely-executed released tiger suplex that saw Kawada take a cool-looking bump. The tide kept turning, which kept this match interesting. Neither man could really get a real upper hand in this bout, and things could go either way at any time. The main issue of this match was Kawada’s overreliance on giving a dramatic performance, which didn’t necessarily help either participant. Other than being overly artistic, this match was really good. What especially stood out was that there was a bit more urgency and action than expected. This was the best singles match these two had against each other up until that point in time. It was kind of a Kawada one-man show with Kobashi simply going along with whatever Kawada wanted, and Kawada wasn’t very subtle about it (about as subtle as when Shawn Michaels wrestled for two people in WWF). That being said, it was an interesting match that had a bit of a different ending than expected, as it was less than 20 minutes long and had no finishing stretch. Along with the interesting tease at the start, this end result definitely went in against the grain of a lot of the usual AJPW tropes and expectations (perhaps because it wasn’t a title or tournament match). Excellent match. **** 

AJPW 7/24/96 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Triple Crown Title: Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi 27:25. This followed the typical AJPW title bout template. This match definitely wasn’t very original, as it was just a watered down version of the bigger and most famous AJPW title bouts. The effort was very good, but they failed to reach a level of greatness. Their “what would Kawada do?” approach was appreciated, but it didn’t work out as well as they wanted. It was like they were struggling to come up with things to do. They did some cool things, but it felt like it was a match that was too dragged out and lacked urgency. This match lacked urgency so much that the referee literally started pulling Kobashi’s arm to get him to follow up quicker. Good match. *** 

AJPW 10/18/96 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Triple Crown Title: Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada 60:00. This was way better than their previous 60-minute match from 1/19/95 in which they did next to nothing. They certainly did lots of things here, but 60 minutes is way too long. It was hard to get invested as a viewer, because the workers were struggling to make things captivating. This caused the match to feel quite repetitive. As they were just mindlessly throwing bombs over and over, to the point of overkill, wrestling like there’s no tomorrow. That would be a good idea for a 20-minute match perhaps, but not for a 60-minute match. Clearly no one in attendance cared about their well-being at all, because they would have thrown the towel in if they did. The workers were clearly struggling to come up with things to do, and this only became more of a nagging issue as the match went on and on and on. It was almost as if they dropped each other on the head one time too many and didn’t know what they were doing anymore. Especially towards the end of the match, they were staggering around like zombies, yet they were still hitting each other with head-dropping and skull-breaking moves, like men who were already drunk still wanting to drink more and more until they passed out or got kicked out. It felt like they were devaluing all the big moves that would normally feel huge and important, not caring about any future matches at all. It was like they were trapped in a lost world of brutality. It was surprising to see this sort of approach after their well-crafted Kawada masterpiece from 5/24/96, which was pretty much the opposite of this match in every way possible. You’d think that Kawada would have taken the opportunity to craft out something masterfully with so much time to work with. Perhaps working 60-minute matches simply isn’t their thing (and it’s hard to blame them, since really no match should go over 30 minutes). However, in spite of this 10/18/96 match not being a match worth recommending, they were working hard and doing things. The moves were all well executed, which was definitely a plus. And it was nice they were doing some big moves about halfway through to give the illusion that this was going to end around the 35-minute mark or so (but unfortunately, this wasn’t the case). Decent match. **¾    

AJPW 11/29/96 Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center, World's Strongest Tag League Match: Kenta Kobashi & The Patriot vs. Sabu & Gary Albright 17:14. What a wonderfully refreshing palate cleanser, which was much needed after watching the 60-minute 10/18/96 Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada overkill fest. It’s odd seeing Sabu in an AJPW ring, and in fact, this was his first tour for AJPW. Kobashi was surrounded by gaijin and clearly didn’t want to waste too much of his time with the crazy gaijin, so he tagged ‘The Patriot’ Del Wilkes in as soon as Sabu entered the match. This wasn’t a very memorable match due to the in-ring work being quite unmemorable. However, it was an intriguing match-up, as you had an AJPW main event hero (Kobashi) team with a WCW midcard tag worker (Patriot), and they battled an infamously crazy indy worker (Sabu) who teamed with a slobby UWF-I flop (Albright). The randomness of these pairings reflected the randomness of the match. The main thing that wasn’t random, however, was that The Patriot was very consistent with his selling of the right arm, which definitely added a nice layer to the overall story. One of the most striking things about this match was that everyone was very careful not to strike each other too hard (pun intended). Even Kobashi was hitting like he was part of an American TV taping, which was unusual to see, not only because this was actually an AJPW taping, but especially after he had been in so many hard-hitting matches recently. As wild as all these aforementioned aspects of the match were, perhaps the most deranged thing about the match was the result, as Gary Albright somehow once again scored a pinfall over Kobashi. Decent match. **½   

AJPW 1/20/97 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan, AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Title: Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa 42:06. Kenta Kobashi showed a will to win from the start. He wanted to show the world that he, as a champion, could defeat AJPW’s ‘ace’ and former champion Mitsuharu Misawa. Misawa quickly realized Kobashi’s hunger to succeed here, and was trying to resist and avoid Kobashi’s attack whenever possible. However, Kobashi was on such a roll that Misawa had to resort to plan B, which was first surviving, and then worrying about everything else later. Kobashi was feeling more and more confident as the match progressed. He was now not only the top heavyweight champion in the pro wrestling world, but at this moment, he was also dominating the one and only Misawa. Whenever Misawa got the chance to knock Kobashi down with an elbow, that gave him a chance to finally breathe properly. Despite Kobashi’s confidence, he was obviously well aware of Misawa’s reputation, as he had been working in the same league for many years, sometimes facing Misawa, and often teaming with Misawa. This meant that Kobashi was wise enough to not be overconfident and took Misawa seriously as a top challenger. This interesting dynamic, along with the chance to show the world that it was Misawa who was the greatest heavyweight wrestler in the world, seemed to motivate Misawa to work harder than his default input setting. Misawa took a big risk off the apron, as he was launching himself at Kobashi in hopes of hitting the champion with a flying elbow. However, Kobashi, still aware enough to move in time, moved away, which resulted in Misawa crashing into the guardrail arm-first. Kobashi was like a shark that had tasted blood, as he started to assault Misawa on the floor while using the guardrail to his advantage. The referee came to check to see if everything was okay, and to guide the combatants back to the ring. Kobashi was determined to render Misawa’s right arm useless. If he were to be successful in doing so, this would eliminate 98% of Misawa’s favorite offense. After some minutes during which Misawa had no real choice other than to bite the pain, he finally had a chance to turn the tide completely. Out of instinct and/or desperation, he used his hurting arm to hurt Kobashi’s arm. A wailing Kobashi, who was taken by surprise, was attacked by Misawa now that Kobashi was still in the stages of being shaken up and vulnerable. Misawa tried to go for the tiger driver, but his arm hurt too much. Misawa used his experience and instinct to proceed while still being hurt himself. He knew he had to keep going if he wanted a chance to win this important bout, even if it meant his arm was going to be long-term or permanently damaged. Misawa hit a big released German suplex that took the starch out of Kobashi. Misawa then once again tried to go for the tiger driver and this time hit it. His arm hurt even more, as executing the move on the heavy Kobashi took a lot of effort from a man with a hurt arm, and this meant Misawa couldn’t go for the cover. Misawa, perhaps remembering his days as Tiger Mask II, went to the top rope, hoping this would do the trick for him. Kobashi saw it coming, and caught Misawa in mid-air. Kobashi, still hurt himself, saw this as a chance to win and went for the cover twice in a row. Kobashi hit a huge powerbomb that got him a two-count. The building was shaking, as the fans were going wild for the display of courage these two warriors were showing in front of them. Kobashi hit the orange crush, but still couldn’t win. Kobashi, with desperate things on his mind, went to the apron and was about to powerbomb Misawa off the apron. While people were screaming in fear for the safety of these reckless competitors, Misawa somehow managed to counter in mid-air with a huracarrana that sent Kobashi’s back straight onto the floor. Both men, still moving, had made it back into the ring and continued to fight. These two heroes weren’t quite done yet, but you could tell the final minutes were likely near, as they had escalated the impact to the point one of them would have to be defeated. Misawa hit a released tiger suplex that Kobashi bumped superbly for. Misawa still couldn’t get a three count. Misawa had a look on his face that said something along the lines of “I can’t believe it… but I have to believe it… and I’m going to take this man out… right now.” Misawa went for the tiger driver, and then hit the tiger driver ‘91! Kobashi somehow managed to kick out at two. Perhaps Misawa wasn’t going to be able to win after all. Kobashi, barely moving, tried to get up. Misawa, frustrated and in disbelief, was now desperate and decided to hit Kobashi once again on his head via the released tiger suplex. Misawa came charging at Kobashi, and hit Kobashi in the head with a violent elbow smash. Misawa went for the cover and finally got the three count. Misawa was once again the man and the champ. Wow. What a match! Misawa had always been a top-notch seller, but in this match, it was certainly one of the key elements of this match working as well as it did. Kobashi deserves a lot of credit for pushing through and staying focused. Giant Baba must have been delighted at the tremendous performances displayed by two of the main pillars of AJPW. In spite of the length of the match (about 15 longer than what on average could be considered an ideal length for a big title match), these two managed to keep things interesting all the way through. Of course, their effort didn’t make the match all of a sudden become shorter, however, their work certainly helped make it seem like time flew by relatively fast, and, perhaps most importantly, they made the most out of the large amount of time given to them. Kobashi and Misawa once again proved that the Kobashi vs. Misawa pairing is the most consistent in high-quality output. The work was stiff and the moves were superbly executed. The selling was superb and of exceptional quality. The great storytelling in combination with the tremendous effort resulted in a captivating bout worthy to be remembered for decades to come. This is easily one of the greatest heavyweight matches ever, arguably THE greatest. All-time great match. *****

AJPW 4/19/97 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Champion Carnival Final Match 1 of 3: Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa 30:00. This was the first in a three-way final to decide the winner of the Champion Carnival tournament. These two had wrestled one of the greatest heavyweight matches in pro wrestling history earlier in the year on 1/20/97. That was a long title bout. Here, their approach had to be different, because they knew they both had to wrestle another match (against Toshiaki Kawada, the third finalist). This meant they were showing more urgency, as they knew this was going to be a very tough night, so it was better to get the first opponent out of the way as soon as possible. They were both in the same ark here, so to speak, and that made it a compelling contest between two of the top heavyweight pro wrestlers in the world. Unfortunately, they slowed down quite a bit, which was plausible since they’d been going at it real hard earlier on. We still got to see some big moves, though, like Mitsuharu Misawa’s elbow suicida. This wasn’t nearly as good as their match from earlier in the year, of course, but it still was memorable and played a big role in the story that was being told that night. In spite of their urgency shown earlier on, it was just too hard for them to beat each other and get the job done within the time limit. The result was a draw. Very good match. ***¾  

AJPW 4/19/97 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Champion Carnival Final Match 3 of 3: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi 21:27. Both men had been in a hard-hitting match not too long before this match. Kawada had just literally beaten Mitsuharu Misawa (in the second final). Kenta Kobashi had had a little bit of time to rest after his match against Misawa (which was the first final). This was the third and final final of the night and tournament. This match was going to hopefully give us more answers than questions. It started off in an awesome way, as Kawada hit a high kick to Kobashi’s head and Kobashi still managed to hit a huge lariat before going down himself. Kawada was smart enough to roll to the floor to make sure he wasn’t completely vulnerable in the ring. The match continued at a rather slow pace with lots of selling, but this was exactly how it should have been, since the story being told needed that. We still got to see several moments of excitement, mainly in the form of big moves and near falls. After a koppo kick followed up with a high kick to the head, Kawada managed to cradle Kobashi for the pinfall win. Kawada had won the battle and won Champion Carnival. What was so cool about this three-way final is that we got something different from this league and these workers. We got to see something that didn’t fit in the usual category of AJPW pillars by the numbers. We saw elements of it, but with a different set and setting. It was a captivating conclusion to this tremendous story. Very good match. ***½  

AJPW 5/27/97 Sapporo Taiiku Center, World Tag Title: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi & Johnny Ace 11:50 of 28:40. In spite of Johnny Ace having got his long manes cut, he still had plenty of strength. He worked hard in this tag team title match, and once again proved that he’s one of the few gaijin that could hang in there with the pillars in big tag team matches. Ace and his tag team partner Kenta Kobashi had been rivals in the past, but here they proved to be a strong and cohesive unit. The Holy Demon Army, Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue, arguably the greatest tag team in pro wrestling history, were showing confidence and dominance in a large portion of the part that was shown on TV. Ace came close to victory when he hit a flying lariat off the top rope on Taue. During the final minutes, there was a lot of good-quality action, including several near falls. There was truly a lot of excitement in the air, as it looked like a title change was certainly a possibility. And, indeed, after a lariat by Kobashi on Taue, we got new champions! The Holy Demon Army’s 130-day title reign had come to an end. Very good match. ***½   

AJPW 8/26/97 Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center: Kenta Kobashi vs. Hiroshi Hase 32:49. This is one of those matches no one thought would ever be possible. Hiroshi Hase was previously one of the top stars of NJPW for over eight years, and to see him in an AJPW ring was surreal at the time. Hase was tying Kenta Kobashi up in all kinds of knots early in the match, and Kobashi was merely trying to survive, as he initially had no real good answer for Hase’s approach. Occasionally, Kobashi would block and try to counter, resulting in some of the most experimental matwork we’ve seen from Kobashi in a long time. This didn’t last long, though, because as soon as they were on their feet, Kobashi made it well known that if it was going to be stand-up striking, he was going to one dominating with hard-hitting chops. Hase respected this, and then took Kobashi down to the mat again to continue his quest to tie Kobashi up like a pretzel. Kobashi clearly had a lot of respect for Hase and/or was simply confused by this way of wrestling. Kobashi executed a Men’s Teio-esque delayed brainbuster and decided to try to beat Hase at his own game. This obviously didn’t last long, as Hase was quick to escape, counter and show Kobashi another way of tying up a knot. Hase was putting pressure on all kinds of joints and muscles. Kobashi had enough and started chopping, kicking and suplexing Hase. Kobashi wanted to take a page out of Hase’s book, but Hase grabbed the page and put it back by blocking. Kobashi insisted on taking the page and went for a giant swing, which the crowd generously acknowledged as a 5-rep sleeping giant swing. Hase suplexed Kobashi and smiled. Hase knew he had this match fully under control, and realized that Kobashi was struggling tremendously. Hase went for a giant swing on Kobashi and managed an impressive 12.75-rep giant swing. Kobashi seemed determined to beat Hase at his own game, and started doing some submission holds. Hase accepted the challenge and executed the sasorigatame. Hase also executed a beautiful missile dropkick. Hase started showing off his knowledge of North American pro wrestling psychology by working a figure-four the classic way. Kobashi then started inviting Hase to have a chopping contest. Hase accepted the challenge. As soon as he realized that maybe Kobashi was going to win this chopping contest, he dropped Kobashi on the ropes and tried to pin him via a bridging dragon suplex. He only got a two count, but he had made it clear he was out here to beat Kobashi and not to play games. Kobashi dropped Hase on his head as a reply, but he also only got a two count. Kobashi hit some nasty chops to Hase’s throat, and Hase started kicking Kobashi’s knees to weaken Kobashi’s mobility. And as soon as Kobashi went for the moonsault, Hase started kicking Kobashi’s legs to stop him in his tracks. Hase hit a Northern Lights suplex for a near fall. Hase did some big boots to show he could do the AJPW thing as well. Kobashi got a near fall after a powerbomb into a folding package pinning combination. In the end, Kobashi hit a devastating lariat. Hase was not able to answer and was down for the three count. Not only was this match so memorable because it was an unusual fantasy booking type match-up, as it was something completely different in an AJPW ring for a change, but it was also so much fun to watch because both participants were so into what they were doing. Kobashi showed that his versatility shouldn’t be underestimated. Hase showed that he could work the AJPW style on a high level while still maintaining his own character. And most importantly, Hase dared to add some fresh new ideas and suggestions to an otherwise very dogmatic style. Great match. ****¾ 

AJPW 10/21/97 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Triple Crown Heavyweight Title: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi 32:55. When these two were hitting each other and doing moves on each other, it felt like they put some power behind it. They didn’t just do things because they were supposed to do them. They did things because they were invested in the story they were trying to tell. There was none of that sleepwalking type stuff some of the AJPW matches suffered from. Even though these two put a strong effort into this match, they had the tough task of trying to live up to the greatness of their all-time great classic 1/20/97 match. The audience reacted when Misawa did an Ace crusher. Misawa followed it up with an elbow suicida. Kobashi’s leg was heavily taped, and he was limping a bit, but it didn’t stop him from trying to do everything he’d normally do. Since they had beaten and battered each other so much earlier this year, they realized there was no real need in going too fast early on. In fact, it would be wiser to be a bit more cautious early on, since they both knew this was going to be a long and tough battle. This didn’t result in a less interesting match, as everything they did seemed to have a purpose and strong effort behind it. They knew that everything they were going to do should be impactful, since they wanted to try to avoid the opponent from hitting a lethal move as much as possible. Of course, with the strong willpower possessed by these two, we would gradually see more and more big moves being executed. We all knew this was going to be a long and tough battle for both. The question was simply… who was going to survive, and who was going to dish out the final blow? Misawa hit an elbow suicida off the top rope. That was certainly a big step in the right direction for Misawa in his quest to retain the title. After a hard-fought battle that never became pretentious or ridiculous, the match ended when it needed to, as Misawa hit a tiger driver ‘91 for the win just before the 33-minute mark. There was almost no way they were going to repeat the great level of performance from their 1/20/97 match. However, they did an amazing job delivering a match that was great, in spite of all the pressure and expectation surrounding this match. We got a very genuine and hard-hitting contest between two of the very best heavyweights in pro wrestling history. They didn’t have a match that tried to be like their previous title match, yet they delivered a match that was the perfect follow-up to their previous title match. Great match. ****½

AJPW 6/12/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Triple Crown Heavyweight Title: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi 33:49. This is the best singles match between the of the best heavyweights ever. This hard-hitting, no-nonsense match is one of the best heavyweight matches ever. You definitely won’t see any punches pulled here. The only downside of the match is that it’s just a little bit too long, especially considering the brutal stiffness. Great match. ****¾  

AJPW 10/11/98 Nagoya, World Tag Team Title: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama 29:51. Jun Akiyama was being switched from being Mitsuharu Misawa’s tag team partner to being Kenta Kobashi’s tag team partner around this time. Toshiaki Kawada and Kobashi picked up where they left off on 6/12/98 with the stiff chops. The storytelling in this match was good, but they told the story very slowly. So slowly that it was hard to stay focused on the match, especially since they didn’t really go the extra mile to keep things really interesting. Kobashi, and especially Kawada, were definitely the ones who kept things at least somewhat moving. Kawada’s selling was exceptionally great. The work was very good, but it felt like they were kinda going through the motions, with the exception of Kawada and sometimes Kobashi, who would occasionally still be able to reach the intensity levels of their 6/12/98 match. In general, however, it felt like this match was lacking some fire. Kawada pinned Akiyama in what was possibly the best AJPW tag team match of the year. Around this time, Mitsuharu Misawa had taken over the book from Giant Baba, with exception of the Triple Crown Title matches. Very good match. ***½   

AJPW 10/31/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Triple Crown Heavyweight Title: Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa 43:29. In spite of Mitsuharu Misawa having not been close to 100% physically, it was clear that Misawa’s presence was needed on the AJPW cards, since business had been down significantly during the months he took a break to heal. Giant Baba had given Misawa most of the booking duties by this point, but Baba still was in full control of the Triple Crown Title program. Kenta Kobashi had been the Triple Crown Title holder since defeating Toshiaki Kawada in a great match on 6/12/98. This 10/31/98 match wasn’t on the level of the two big Kobashi vs. Misawa title matches from 1997. However, these two have such great chemistry together, that this was still a match that’s highly recommended. It was your typical high-impact match that relied a lot on a tremendous build up to a climactic finish. Misawa deserves a lot of credit for helping this company still resemble the glory days version of the company. He didn’t hold back in the ring, and he clearly worked hard and tried his best, in spite of the physical trouble he had been going through that year. He also did an excellent job laying out this match. Kobashi deserves credit for his never say die attitude and for once again being a great opponent for Misawa. In the end, Misawa retained the title in a hard-fought match. Excellent match. ****

AJPW 1/7/99 Kochi-ken Min Taiikukan, World Tag Team Title: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama 17:38 of 25:58. The dark production quality resembled the days of darkness that were about to follow in the world of professional wrestling. The work was certainly very good, as they really put their ability to persevere on display here. That being said, this certainly wasn’t one of the best tag team matches in the company’s history. The result was a memorable one, however, as Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama became the new tag team champions of the world. Very good match. ***½

AJPW 1/15/99 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan: Kenta Kobashi vs. Vader 16:59. This was around the time Giant Baba was in the hospital. Baba would die on 1/31/99 at the age of 61. Baba’s death was symbolic of the decline of pro wrestling, and its decade of darkness that was about to follow. After having left the American sports-entertainment circuit, Vader had recently joined AJPW. Vader, previously known as Big Van Vader or Super Vader in Japan and The Man They Call Vader in the sports-entertainment industry, was no stranger to Japan, as he used to wrestle for NJPW and UWF-I. However, when he started teaming with Stan Hansen in AJPW (and also participated in the ‘98 World’s Strongest Determination Tag League), it was his first run in AJPW. In January 1999, he started his feud with Kenta Kobashi after attacking Kobashi in the annual battle royal at the beginning of the month. Kobashi was still wearing a bandage around his head due to that attack by Vader. It was interesting to see Vader work in a puroresu ring again, and he showed that he could still get the job done in Japan, in spite of having had the reputation of stinking up an already stinky sports-entertainment league from January 1996 through October 1998. That being said, this certainly wasn’t the Vader who worked in NJPW, WCW and UWF-I earlier that decade, as he was considerably slower by 1999 compared to his prime years of 1988-1995. It was mostly thanks to Kobashi’s energy and perseverance that this match worked. Vader was simply hanging in there and surviving while trying to uphold the idea that he was a major threat. Vader was luckily still able to execute the moonsault in quite an impressive manner, which was particularly remarkable for a super heavyweight of his age. In the end, Vader won via a splash off the second rope. With this big victory over Kobashi, Vader definitely cemented himself as a top candidate to win the upcoming Champion Carnival. Good match. ***¼  

AJPW 6/4/99 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Mitsuharu Misawa & Akira Taue vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Kenta Kobashi. This was an interesting parejas increibles match involving the Four Pillars of AJPW. It was a rare opportunity to see Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue face off against each other in a tag team match, as it was the first time since 9/15/97 that this happened. What was the occasion? This match was a farewell to the Nakajima Sports Center. It was a good match, and it was fun to see the Pillars mixed up for this parejas increibles match, but it certainly isn’t a match that will be remembered as one of the best Pillars matches. They kinda did their usual thing but without any special amount of intensity behind it. It really felt more like a friendly contest that was held for fun (relatively speaking). Good match. ***¼ 

AJPW 6/11/99 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Sankan Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi 43:40. This wasn’t their best match together, but these two have had such legendary matches against each other, that when they have ‘merely’ a really good match against each other, it feels like a disappointment. Still, especially considering this was the summer of ‘99 and times had changed, this definitely deserves to be considered a highly recommended match. It was very much your typical Triple Crown Title match, but they were probably just a little bit more broken down by this point compared to their physical state during their previous Triple Crown Title match. It’s a bit too long of a match probably, especially at this stage of both their respective careers. Still, it felt like this match worked, and the workers commanded respect through their effort. Mitsuharu Misawa’s elbow suicida looked as amazing as always. The late, great Giant Baba would have been proud. Very good match. ***¾ 

AJPW 10/23/99 Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa 27:25. You can tell that things are starting to take a toll on Kenta Kobashi and Mitsuharu Misawa. In a way, it helps add realism to everything they do. Akiyama and Ogawa tried to belong there with the two legends. Good match. ***¼ 

NOAH 3/1/03 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi 33:28. Pro Wrestling NOAH had been around since the summer of 2000 when Mitsuharu Misawa took all Japanese workers of AJPW with him (except for Toshiaki Kawada and Masa Fuchi, who remained loyal to AJPW). Misawa had been having a dispute with Giant Baba’s widow, Motoko Baba, about the direction of AJPW, since Misawa wanted to modernize the product and push younger wrestlers. Here in this big NOAH match, we got to see these two legends battle each other once again. Even though this wasn’t 1997 anymore, there was definitely great interest to see these two finally wrestle in NOAH. They certainly didn’t disappoint those who paid attention. They fought hard and gave a great big-match effort. There were big moves that really put their bodies to the test. Kenta Kobashi was less broken down than Mitsuharu Misawa by this point, but that didn’t stop Misawa from going all out. Misawa’s passion once again shone through. Kobashi was not afraid of trying to do things like it was ‘97 or ‘98. After Misawa hit an elbow suicida to Kobashi on the apron, Misawa suplexed Kobashi off the apron! In the end, after both men had given all they had to give, Kobashi managed to pin Misawa. Excellent match. ****¼ 

NOAH 9/12/03 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, GHC Heavyweight Title: Kenta Kobashi vs. Yuji Nagata 30:13. These two had the fans in the palm of their hands. All they really needed to do was look at each other in a menacing way, and the crowd was totally into the story they were telling. Yuji Nagata really is Mr. NJPW, as he had been so loyal and important to NJPW over the years. Here he was on enemy turf, trying to win the most prestigious heavyweight title in the wrestling world at the time. It was his goal to show the world that he was the best heavyweight around, and that NJPW heavyweights could be better than the heavyweights that are part of the Giant Baba lineage. Of course, Nagata failed to do both, which meant his laughable thesis could be torn apart and thrown into the garbage. However, his effort was respectable. His kicks to Kobashi’s legs were super stiff, but Kobashi took them like a man and kept going. They were basically going for a Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kensuke Sasaki type of match here. The main difference was that there was more variety and excitement than in the rather one-dimensional Toshiakia Kawada vs. Kensuke Sasaki match (which was still better than the half-dimensional Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki match from 7/18/05). That being said, this match was a bit too long for these two, as they didn’t have enough material to present in a match that went 30+ minutes. Also, since they were mostly telling a story through simply hitting hard and through facial expressions, the match lacked urgency, as they weren’t in any rush to actually win the match. It wasn’t about actually geting the job done. It was all about dishing out punishment and taking punishment to satisfy the egoic sense of pride that was the main driving force. Very good match. ***½   

NOAH 11/1/03: Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshinari Ogawa. Yoshinari Ogawa worked over Kenta Kobashi’s leg. At least they had a story to tell, and they told it relatively well. Things gradually became more heated and intense as the match went on. Ogawa even juiced. Very good match. ***¾   

NOAH 7/10/04 Tokyo Dome, GHC Heavyweight Title: Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama 35:34. Jun Akiyama had no energy nor any signs of motivation to perform. Kenta Kobashi just did his thing and tried to work this like a typical big match. However, Akiyama seemed to completely not realize that he was in the Tokyo Dome, and this was a big title bout. It was almost like he was sent to run some errands he didn’t really want to do. Due to this approach by Akiyama, this match felt like a chore to sit through. They moved very slowly and they were never in any rush, which gave away that they were going to go over 30 minutes for sure. Since they were so obvious about not caring about the first half of the match, this rendered half the match meaningless. They were just killing time and doing random things because they had no patience to do something useful. They weren’t using their time wisely and didn’t pace themselves well. They went from about 12 minutes of doing nothing all of a sudden to putting their bodies through tremendous stress, as they both randomly took a sickening bump off of the apron to the floor. This mindless act seemed to cause Kobashi to cough up some blood. A bit later on in the match, they once again went for a sickening bump to the floor. If they were just going for shock value, there really wasn’t a reason to stretch this out to 35 minutes. They could have instead had a bit more of a pedal to the metal kinda match if this was shorter, and then they could still have some shocking spots, which possibly could make a little bit of sense in a match with more urgency. Here in this slow and plodding match, these sickening spots seemed either really stupid or really contrived, depending how you want to look at it. The polite NOAH crowd was accepting all of this and supported these wrestlers all the way through by patiently waiting for the finishing stretch. Decent match. **¾ 

NOAH 9/10/04: Kenta Kobashi vs. KENTA. Kenta Kobashi was having more and more mobility issues. He was relatively clever about trying to hide them/adapting to them. KENTA worked hard. What they failed to do was do something to get the viewer invested or interested in what they were doing. Their approach was basically something along the lines like “Let’s do random stuff for 20 minutes and then people will say it’s great.” Good match. ***

NOAH 7/18/05 Tokyo Dome: Kenta Kobashi vs. Kensuke Sasaki 23:38. This was a misinterpretation of Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kensuke Sasaki, which was an overrated (but still pretty good) bastardization of a blending of King’s Road Style and Strong Style. In other words, this match is partially responsible for pro wrestling deteriorating even more than it already had by that point through and endless series of cooperative chops. Okay match. **¼  

ROH 10/1/05 NYC New Yorker Hotel Grand Ballroom: Kenta Kobashi vs. Samoa Joe 23:42. Kenta Kobashi’s first match in the United States took place in front of a rabid and wild crowd who was eating up everything presented to them. The atmosphere was certainly great. The in-ring work was good and fun, but it wasn’t as great as most reviews like you to believe it was. So yeah, there really isn’t much to say about this match other than that it was more fun than great. The crowd was fully behind this match, overly excited about seeing these two compete, as they kept chanting “this is awesome!” even when they were doing nothing special. After a hot start, they did some random stuff, and then they had an exciting last few minutes that sort of were resembling somewhat of a finishing stretch. The random middle portion part was most heated when they exchanged chops. These chops sounded tremendously loud, but they seemed to merely do them because they knew people wanted to see them, it didn’t feel like they were actually trying to test each other that way. Other than these chop exchanges, however, the middle portion of the match had zero substance. There were a few nice suplexes at some point, though, so this was definitely a pretty good match overall. However, it felt that these head-dropping suplexes were merely there to pop the crowd, as they were treated like just another move by the wrestlers themselves. In the end, Kobashi won this match via pinfall. Good match. ***¼   

NOAH 11/5/05: Kenta Kobashi & Go Shiozaki vs. Kensuke Sasaski & Katsuhiko Nakajima. Go Shiozaki had quite a nice-looking dropkick back in those days. They kept moving, at least, and they did stuff. But, they didn’t really do anything to give people a reason to be invested or remotely interested in the match. It’s almost like they were robots programmed to do a certain thing, lacking emotion and connection. They didn’t quite know whether or not to do a hard-hitting style match or a high-workrate style match, so they kinda half-heartedly did a poor mixture of both. The storytelling wasn’t done very well. The only thing they kinda did well was hit each other hard and keep things moving. Decent match. **¾ 

Kensuke Office 2/11/06 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kenta Kobashi & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Genichiro Tenryu 26:36. Katsuhiko Nakajima, one of the most promising young stars, was surrounded by aging veterans in this match. Everyone was hitting each other as hard as they possibly could. Akira Hokuto, who was on color commentary, was enjoying it all. Nakajima was definitely paying his dues. Good match. ***¼ 

NOAH 3/5/06 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kenta Kobashi vs. KENTA 21:57. KENTA really took this match seriously and worked as hard as he could. Kenta Kobashi could still go in spite of having wrestled in hard-hitting matches for so long. The length of the match really helped as well, as this wasn’t one of those overly long matches. Of course, KENTA mainly being much lighter, smaller, and lower ranked than Kobashi was a factor in probably keeping this shorter than your usual big match. Excellent match. ****¼ 

NOAH 4/23/06: Kenta Kobashi vs. Naomichi Marufuji. This was an extremely contrived match. Just your typical B.S. modern wrestling match. Whatever story they were trying to tell, if any, they told it very poorly. This is like every big match of the modern era, no imagination and all pretense. They took watered down elements of watered down wrestling and mixed it up like a disgustingly poor mixture that nobody in their right mind would want for breakfast. Maybe the Japanese were right about pro wrestling having died when Giant Baba died. By the way, Marufuji singles matches are overrated in general. Okay match. **¼  

Kensuke Office 8/17/08 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Kensuke Office vs. NOAH 4 vs. 4 Survival Tag Match: Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima & Takashi Okita & Kento Miyahara vs. Kenta Kobashi & KENTA & Atsushi Aoki & Akihiko Ito 55:30. Eight guys doing all kinds of stuff. Some of them were a lot better than others, but it worked as a whole. Excellent match. ****¼ 

1988: Decent

1989: Very Good

1990: Excellent

1991: Excellent

1992: Great

1993: Great

1994: Great

1995: Great

1996: Great

1997: Great

1998: Great

1999: Great

2000: Excellent

2001: Excellent

2002: Excellent

2003: Excellent

2004: Excellent

2005: Excellent

2006: Excellent

2007: n/a (worked only 1 match)

2008: Good

2009: Good

2010: n/a (didn’t work that year)

2011: Good

2012: Good

2013: n/a (worked only 1 match)

After having watched over 100 of Kenta Kobashi’s matches, it’s safe to say that he is one of the greatest heavyweight wrestlers ever. Depending on your definition of heavyweight, he’s arguably one of the top 4 heavyweight wrestlers in pro wrestling history.

Kobashi was arguably the second-best of AJPW’s ‘four pillars of heaven.’ Toshiaki Kawada was arguably THE best, and Mitsuharu Misawa was probably the third-best. Akira Taue was a distant fourth.

Kobashi was involved in some of the most memorable matches of the 1990s…

AJPW 10/14/89: Jumbo Tsuruta & Great Kabuki & Kenta Kobashi vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada & Samson Fuyuki 20:11. ****¼ 

AJPW 10/11/89 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan, All Asia Tag Team Title: Danny Kroffat & Doug Furnas vs. Kenta Kobashi & Joe Malenko 23:20. ****

AJPW 5/26/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa & Akira Taue vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Great Kabuki & Masa Fuchi. ****¼

AJPW 5/25/92 Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center, All Asia Tag Team Title: Danny Kroffat & Doug Furnas vs. Kenta Kobashi & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi 22:11. *****

AJPW 4/12/93 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukan, Champion Carnival Match: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi 21:16. ****¾ 

AJPW 11/24/93 Osaka, World’s Strongest Tag Determination League Match: Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Steve Williams & Big Bubba. ****¼

AJPW 12/3/93 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, World's Strongest Tag Determination League Final, World Tag Team Title Decision Match: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa 23:34. *****

AJPW 5/21/94 Nakajima Sports Center, World Tag Team Title: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 40:25. ****¼

AJPW 12/10/94 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, '94 World's Strongest Tag League Match: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams & Johnny Ace 25:05. ****¼

AJPW 3/4/95 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, World Tag Title: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams & Johnny Ace 36:01. ****

AJPW 6/9/95 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, World Tag Team Title: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 42:37. ****

AJPW 6/30/95 Tokyo: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi & Satoru Asako vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue & Tamon Honda. ****

AJPW 10/15/95 Nagoya, World Tag Team Title: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi. ****

AJPW 10/25/95 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Triple Crown Title: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi. ****½

AJPW 12/9/95 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, '95 Sekai Saikyo Tag Kettei League Yushoketteisen: Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 27:00. ****¼

AJPW 3/2/96 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama. ****

AJPW 3/31/96 Nagoya Aichi Prefectural Gym, Champion Carnival: Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa 24:07. ****¾

AJPW 5/24/96 Sapporo: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi 19:41. ****

AJPW 1/20/97 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan, AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Title: Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa 42:06. *****

AJPW 8/26/97 Sapporo Nakajima Sports Center: Kenta Kobashi vs. Hiroshi Hase 32:49. ****¾

AJPW 10/21/97 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Triple Crown Heavyweight Title: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi 32:55. ****½

AJPW 6/12/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Triple Crown Heavyweight Title: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Kenta Kobashi 33:49. ****¾

AJPW 10/31/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Triple Crown Heavyweight Title: Kenta Kobashi vs. Mitsuharu Misawa 43:29. ****

NOAH 3/1/03 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi 33:28. ****¼

NOAH 3/5/06 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kenta Kobashi vs. KENTA 21:57. ****¼

Kensuke Office 8/17/08 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Kensuke Office vs. NOAH 4 vs. 4 Survival Tag Match: Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima & Takashi Okita & Kento Miyahara vs. Kenta Kobashi & KENTA & Atsushi Aoki & Akihiko Ito 55:30. ****¼

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