Kobashi is why I love pro wrestling

flahavaj

Its very easy to get cynical about wrestling these days. There's the endless list of dead wrestlers, the Benoit deal, there's the ****e currently being produced by the so-called alternative TNA, there's a midget and a Diva contest on WWE that takes up valuable minutes of TV time.

Then there's the story of Kenta Kobashi. One of the greatest wrestlers of all time. A guy who's bouts in the 90's with Kawada, Misawa and others rank amongst the finest exhibitions of pro wrestling ever senn in a ring. A guy who in 2003 and 2004 was still the finest worker on the planet despite having a pair of knees that had been reduced to mush by one too many moonsault.

In late 2006 Kobashi contracted cancer. It was presumed his career was over, indeed his career was the least of his worries such was the severity of his condition. 18 months later, a short week ago, Kobashi returned to the ring, partnering Yoshihiro Takayama against Mitsuharu Misawa and Jun Akiyama.

I had the privilege and pleasure of watching this match last night and I can honestly say its one of the most amazing, moving and genuinely emotional things I have ever seen. The match was fantastic in its own right, a throwback to the times when NOAH was awesome back inn 2003. However the atmosphere in the building was something to behold. Anyone who says a Japanese crowd can't make noise is talking out their ass. The pop when Kobashi's music it was ****ing incredible. Everytime he tagged into the match, every time he threw a chop it was greeted rapturously. I have never seen a man hold a crowd in the palm of his hand like Kobashi did last night.

And the amazing, awe inspiring thing is that this legend amongst legends hasn't missed a step in the ring. When he hit his trademark running powerslam followed by his customary point towards the top turnbuckle I have to admit i was on my feet. I had never dreamt that Kobashi would EVER hit that move, yet there he was like it was still 1993, soaring from the top rope to a massive pop. I can honestly say I will treasure that moment a dearly as the night Eddie hit his frog splash on Lesnar and took the world title. You bet our life Kobashi is here for another while and in this an unbelievably ****ty week for me personally that puts a smile on my face.

This goes beyon Match of the Year, Match of the Decade or Match of the century. This is something EVERYONE who calls themselves a wrestling needs to see, even if they've never even seen Puro before. This is one of those occasions like Mania 3 that transcends time and personal interest. It's must see footage. I'm posting a link to it now in the youtube thread. Watch it with a tear in your eye.

I love pro wrestling. Its moments like this that come along every few years that keep me trawling through the **** that liters the wrestling world, when an entire arena can stand in a unanimous ovation and chant Kobashi's name, even while his rival Misawa's music plays, when even the comentators are reduced to tears by one man's bravery, one man's sense of duty to wrestle and entertain. God bless you Kenta Kobashi, you are truly one of, if not THE greatest of all time.

fatal

nice read
I have been a big kobashi fan for a number of years.When he contracted cancer I thought that he would be forced to stop wrestling.However like so many of his other injuries where he was told that he would never wrestle again,he kicked cancers ass.
I was ecstatic when I heard that he would be back in the ring-even thought only months before he was a crippled man.Although I was fairly happy when I heard that news,deep down I asked myself if I would be seeing the same kobashi that I had been seeing for the last number of years.
I didn't see the return match but from your post I think that many of my doubts about him being the same(if not better) have been proven wrong, thankfully!!!!
I will definitley be checking this match out tonight to see the great man in action once again and to see the definition of word "wrestling" in front of my eyes

john concannon

A legend in all meanings of the word.Hope he is genuinely okay but I can't help but feel a bit worried that he might be hiding some injuries. Would hate to think yet another person is risking it all for our entertainment.

Fozzy

I'll be writing a much longer post about this at the weekend when I get a chance to see the show, so I haven't read the thread completely, but this is the third time I've seen someone sounding inspired by what they saw in that match (and this is only the third time I've heard mention of it)

Ever since I first saw Kobashi wrestle, something clicked for me with him. He's got a lot of great qualities, but what always stands out is his mastering of selling and how he can pull you into a match by making you feel that he is genuinely in trouble, and then making you jump out of your seat when he somehow turns things around. I swear, I've never split so many drinks as I have when watching Kobashi's matches!

I can't remember the last time I've looked forward to a wrestling match so much. Either Angle vs Lesnar at Wrestlemania or Rock vs Austin at WM 17. But it's not so much the match I'm looking forward to, it's just seeing Kobashi back in a ring. The fact that it's the same match that he was originally meant to be in before he was forced to stop wrestling adds a little something to it as well. I'll be back here in a couple of days

flahavaj

You're gonna love it Fozz. It's the most involved I've been in a match since I was a kid. There's something wrong with anyone who doesn't feel moved by the sight of Honma on commentary weeping like a baby.

Gerard.C

Is it anywhere on the net other than youtube, like dailymotion? ****ing accomodation blocking youtube!!!

fatal

Gerard.C wrote: »

Is it anywhere on the net other than youtube, like dailymotion? ****ing accomodation blocking youtube!!!

use www.getpassit.com to get onto restricted sites
mess around with the ticks in the boxes until the site that you want to visit displays

Gerard.C

I've tried something like that, but youtube then says I need some new flash thing or something, and that just refuses to download! Sucks to be me!

Vince135792003

fatal wrote: »

use www.getpassit.com to get onto restricted sites

You will never post anything of more value than that on this board! Thank you.

I never knew such a thing existed.

fatal

Vince135792003 wrote: »

You will never post anything of more value than that on this board! Thank you.

I never knew such a thing existed.

So it worked !?!?
You can repay me with some Wrestling observer live lol

Bubs101

I just watched it there and I have to say i was disapointed. Maybe it was because of the build up it was given here which is understandable given the exceptional circumstances but I really didn't see what all the fuss was about. before I get jumped by Flahavaj and Fozzy, I did watch the whole thing and I have an idea of the backstory (Misawa mentored Kenta and then betrayed him for Jun who's name escapes me or something like that).

I thought the finish was good and Misawa's finisher of the top rope was class. I thought Jun was very very impressive and Kenta sold everything very well. But for 25 minutes I saw nothing but 4 entrances and slaps and punches. I'm pretty sure there wasn't one wrestling move (bar irish whips) for that amount of time until the superplex The rest of the match was good but I got bored quickly of those cross body chops. Surely I can't have been the only one to think it wasn't the bee's knees

flahavaj

Bubs101 wrote: »

I just watched it there and I have to say i was disapointed. Maybe it was because of the build up it was given here which is understandable given the exceptional circumstances but I really didn't see what all the fuss was about. before I get jumped by Flahavaj and Fozzy, I did watch the whole thing and I have an idea of the backstory (Misawa mentored Kenta and then betrayed him for Jun who's name escapes me or something like that).

I thought the finish was good and Misawa's finisher of the top rope was class. I thought Jun was very very impressive and Kenta sold everything very well. But for 25 minutes I saw nothing but 4 entrances and slaps and punches. I'm pretty sure there wasn't one wrestling move (bar irish whips) for that amount of time until the superplex The rest of the match was good but I got bored quickly of those cross body chops. Surely I can't have been the only one to think it wasn't the bee's knees

No you're perfectly entitled to that opinion man. Puro is a strange aul kettle of fish especially when you're used to watching the North American style of wrestling. It IS heavily strike based but I wouldn't just dismiss it as nothing but slaps and punches. There's so much more depth to the match than that. There's the unusually heelish performance by Misawa throughout (in which i thought he excelled), the way he pounced on Kobashi once he was weakened and even hit a sly elbow to the kidney (where he had the cancer) at one stage. There's the selflessness of Takayama, Kobashi's partner who has recovered from seriousness illness in the past. There's Kobashi basically chopping the snot out of the little upstart Akiyama who has threatened his spot for years in japan but never managed to usurp him.

This match is definitely from the "less is more" book of psychology. You won't see any major flips or high flying in these matches. But EVERY single punch and chop that's thrown is made to look significant by the selling. The first time Misawa hits an elbow strike, there's almost a rueful smile on Kobashi's face as if he's saying "**** i forgot how much they hurt." You can see it in the crowd's reaction to just about everything they do. Then, when its time for the big head drops in he finishing run, the sleeper suplex and the super emerald frosion, they're made to seem all the more important by the fact that the first 20 mins have been al strike based. And look at how special the moonsault seems in the context of this too, as I said, that for me is the wrestling moment of the decade so far, Kobashi breaking out a move he barely ever uses (or indeed is even physically capable of using) on his return from life threatening illness.

This match, much like Hogan/Rock or Hogan/Andre is as much about the occasion, the huge upswelling of emotion that sucks you in completely,the unbelievable crowd response, as it is about the actual wrestling.

gimmick

Looking forward to watching this. Pity it isn't anywhere else bar youtube.

Have to admit I have been trying to 'get' Puro, but I do find it tough. That said, the star quality of this match alone should be enough for me.

krudler

Cancer jobbed to Kobashi


what a legend

Fozzy

I watched the full show earlier and it was something else. To see Kobashi back in the ring after 18 months is something that I'll never forget

I can understand how someone who isn't familiar with Kobashi might not fully get the match. But for anyone who is, that match will really mean something to them

When Kobashi's music started playing my eyes welled up. I'd forgotten just how much I love the guy. He was looking slightly rusty at the start, but that seemed to be a work given how he improved later. He's still probably the best in the world at selling, his facial expressions could not have been better throughout. Like I said in my post above, he just pulls you into the match with his selling

The look on Kobashi's face when he got that first elbow from Misawa was priceless. As if he were thinking, "damn, they still hurt like hell". The start was slow enough but it more than picked up

The match was a testament not only to how much the fans love Kobashi, but also how over his moves are. They don't react like that to just anybody doing a chop. When he got the sleeper on Akiyama (I think it was him), the fans were going crazy because they knew the suplex was coming. Same as when he hit the powerslam before the moonsault. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! That was a moment to behold, Kobashi once again coming off the top rope like that

I have to talk about Misawa a bit here, because he brought his best in this match. There's two big matches of his that I watched in the last few months, one was his last title defence against Marufuji and I can't for the life of me remember what the other one was. But Misawa looked old and dodgy in those two matches. He was messing up moves and falling off the turnbuckles, nearly killing Marufuji at one point in their match. There was none of that in this match, which seemingly proves that Misawa can still have one absolutely great match each year nowadays

Also, if you were a first time watcher you'd swear that Misawa is a heel, even though he's the guy who usually gets the biggest reaction on NOAH shows! Him getting booed so much for bending the rules against Kobashi was something else. I was hoping he'd do something heelish, seeing as nobody is ever going to be as big a face in NOAH as Kobashi was in this match, and he did it perfectly with the elbow to where Kobashi had cancer

Takayama and Akiyama didn't bring the match down either, Takayama was actually looking a lot better than he should. Just as a sidenote, any fans of MMA reading this who haven't seen Takayama vs Don Frye from some PRIDE show, do yourself a favour and go find it. Akiyama was excellent in his role in the match, mainly taking Kobashi's pented up abuse

The finishing stretch was awesome, I jumped up when Kobashi was going for the Burning Hammer!

The fans really did make this match so special, they reacted to everything and to see them rush down to ringside after the bell was really nice. They helped make this the most emotional wrestling match I've ever watched. Seeing Tamon Honda and some fans with tears in their eyes was touching. I'll be watching it again many times this Christmas


The undercard was pretty good too, you could tell that nobody wanted to disappoint on this night. One of the matches that stood out was Honda, Kikuchi & Go Shiosaki vs Sugiura, Mohammed Yone & Ito. I wasn't loving it at the start, but the finishing sequence was done brilliantly by Shiosaki

KENTA & Ishimori vs Ogawa & Eddie Edwards was a lot of fun. I haven't been following NOAH lately so I don't know why KENTA and Ogawa hate each other so much, but it made for some really cool exchanges. KENTA would be running the ropes with Edwards and then suddenly dart away and kick Ogawa off the apron. Ogawa was being real sneaky in attacking KENTA and they had a pull-apart brawl after the match

Best match though was Morishima vs Marufuji. They've both had an excellent year and this was a great way to finish it off between them. Morishima was trying to kill Marufuji with big moves like the backdrop driver off the ring apron, he even did a dive to the outside through the ropes. Marufuji hit an amazing move off the entrance ramp at one point, it was something to see. And the ending was excellently done, it had me sitting up in my seat with everything that was going on. The crowd were really into this match too and it only helped the two guys. If I see a video for this I'll stick it up in the video thread in case there's some ROH fans who'd like to see it (EDIT: I posted the match in the video thread)

The night belonged to Kobashi. I'm so happy that he's back wrestling. Can't wait to see what he does in 2008

fatal

Fozzy wrote: »

I watched the full show earlier and it was something else. To see Kobashi back in the ring after 18 months is something that I'll never forget

I can understand how someone who isn't familiar with Kobashi might not fully get the match. But for anyone who is, that match will really mean something to them

When Kobashi's music started playing my eyes welled up. I'd forgotten just how much I love the guy. He was looking slightly rusty at the start, but that seemed to be a work given how he improved later. He's still probably the best in the world at selling, his facial expressions could not have been better throughout. Like I said in my post above, he just pulls you into the match with his selling

The look on Kobashi's face when he got that first elbow from Misawa was priceless. As if he were thinking, "damn, they still hurt like hell". The start was slow enough but it more than picked up

The match was a testament not only to how much the fans love Kobashi, but also how over his moves are. They don't react like that to just anybody doing a chop. When he got the sleeper on Akiyama (I think it was him), the fans were going crazy because they knew the suplex was coming. Same as when he hit the powerslam before the moonsault. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! That was a moment to behold, Kobashi once again coming off the top rope like that

I have to talk about Misawa a bit here, because he brought his best in this match. There's two big matches of his that I watched in the last few months, one was his last title defence against Marufuji and I can't for the life of me remember what the other one was. But Misawa looked old and dodgy in those two matches. He was messing up moves and falling off the turnbuckles, nearly killing Marufuji at one point in their match. There was none of that in this match, which seemingly proves that Misawa can still have one absolutely great match each year nowadays

Also, if you were a first time watcher you'd swear that Misawa is a heel, even though he's the guy who usually gets the biggest reaction on NOAH shows! Him getting booed so much for bending the rules against Kobashi was something else. I was hoping he'd do something heelish, seeing as nobody is ever going to be as big a face in NOAH as Kobashi was in this match, and he did it perfectly with the elbow to where Kobashi had cancer

Takayama and Akiyama didn't bring the match down either, Takayama was actually looking a lot better than he should. Just as a sidenote, any fans of MMA reading this who haven't seen Takayama vs Don Frye from some PRIDE show, do yourself a favour and go find it. Akiyama was excellent in his role in the match, mainly taking Kobashi's pented up abuse

The finishing stretch was awesome, I jumped up when Kobashi was going for the Burning Hammer!

The fans really did make this match so special, they reacted to everything and to see them rush down to ringside after the bell was really nice. They helped make this the most emotional wrestling match I've ever watched. Seeing Tamon Honda and some fans with tears in their eyes was touching. I'll be watching it again many times this Christmas


The undercard was pretty good too, you could tell that nobody wanted to disappoint on this night. One of the matches that stood out was Honda, Kikuchi & Go Shiosaki vs Sugiura, Mohammed Yone & Ito. I wasn't loving it at the start, but the finishing sequence was done brilliantly by Shiosaki

KENTA & Ishimori vs Ogawa & Eddie Edwards was a lot of fun. I haven't been following NOAH lately so I don't know why KENTA and Ogawa hate each other so much, but it made for some really cool exchanges. KENTA would be running the ropes with Edwards and then suddenly dart away and kick Ogawa off the apron. Ogawa was being real sneaky in attacking KENTA and they had a pull-apart brawl after the match

Best match though was Morishima vs Marufuji. They've both had an excellent year and this was a great way to finish it off between them. Morishima was trying to kill Marufuji with big moves like the backdrop driver off the ring apron, he even did a dive to the outside through the ropes. Marufuji hit an amazing move off the entrance ramp at one point, it was something to see. And the ending was excellently done, it had me sitting up in my seat with everything that was going on. The crowd were really into this match too and it only helped the two guys. If I see a video for this I'll stick it up in the video thread in case there's some ROH fans who'd like to see it

The night belonged to Kobashi. I'm so happy that he's back wrestling. Can't wait to see what he does in 2008

where did you get the entire show from?ive looked almost everywhere and i cant find it.
Feel free to pm me if u need to;)

estebancambias

Awesome read man.

Prufrock

I've never seen anything like it. I've never heard anything like it. Wow.

gimmick

Just watched it there, and thought it was an absolutely fantastic match. There is always a special feel when Kobashi and Misawa are in the ring together. This was certainly th best performace i have seen from Misawa ever (though that is because I have not seen much Japanese wrestling). The emotion of this match was off the scale also.

I honestly thought the hyperbole in this thread would have had me a bit lft down after watching, but honestly, I dont think it did it justice.

Bazuki

Anyone else going to see him in the Noah show in Coventry?

Fozzy

Bazuki wrote: »

Anyone else going to see him in the Noah show in Coventry?

Of course, there's a thread about it here: http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055211780