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Kenta Kobashi

Kenta Kobashi

Height: 6'2"
Weight: 260 lbs.
Hometown: Fukuchiyama, Kyoto, Japan
Pro debut: February 26, 1988, against Motoshi Okuma
Finishing move: Burning Lariat (Running lariat, short range lariat or short-arm lariat), Orange Crush (Vertical suplex powerbomb)
Other aliases: "Orange Crush", Zettai Ohja" (The Absolute Champion), "Mr. Puroresu" (named by Harley Race; generally Japanese fans use the title to refer to Genichiro Tenryu)
Career highlights: All Asia Tag Team Champion (4), AJPW World Tag Team Champion (6), AJPW Triple Crown World Heavyweight Champion (3), GHC Heavyweight Champion, GHC Tag Team Champion (2) (w/Tamon Honda)
Trained by: Giant Baba, Dory Funk, Jr., Masanobu Fuchi, Kazuharu Sonoda

Kobashi practised Judo and rugby during high school in Fukuchiyama. He practised body building after his graduation while working "regular" jobs. He applied and was accepted to All Japan Pro Wrestling's dojo on June 20, 1987. He was trained there by Giant Baba, Dory Funk, Jr., Masanobu Fuchi, and Kazuharu Sonoda. Kobashi debuted as a professional wrestler in Ryuo, Shiga on February 26, 1988. He lost his first 63 matches.

During 1989, when the Road Warriors were in AJPW, they taught Kobashi how to train every day. He first gained some prominence as member of Mitsuharu Misawa's faction during Misawa's feud with Jumbo Tsuruta. Kobashi during this period played dual roles according to who his partners and opponents were. When teamed with the higher ranking Mitsuharu Misawa or Toshiaki Kawada, Kobashi would play the gutsy underdog. At the same time, when teamed with the much smaller Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, he would play a "big brother" role, coming in to try to save the day after Kikuchi had been worked on for a while by the opponents.

In 1993 he became Misawa's main tag partner in the middle of the year when Kawada became Misawa's main rival. He gained his first singles victory over a former Triple Crown Champion when he defeated Terry Gordy in May of that year. On December 3, 1993 Kobashi gained his first pin over Kawada, won his first Real World Tag League, and won his first AJPW World Tag Team Championship.

Kobashi's singles matches around this time with Stan Hansen, Mitsuharu Misawa, and Toshiaki Kawada are amongst his most highly regarded. In tag competition he had strong efforts with opponents as diverse as rookie Jun Akiyama to elderly legend and promotion owner Giant Baba.

Over the next few years Kobashi continued to gain more honors, but his position in the company did not truly change. In the 1994 Champion Carnival he gained his first singles victory over Stan Hansen. In September 1994 he lost his first Triple Crown challenge against Steve Williams. His next title challenge, against Toshiaki Kawada, in January 1995 led to a 60 minute time limit draw.

On June 9, 1995 Misawa and Kobashi lost the tag titles to Kawada and Akira Taue. The match is also notable because it won the best match of the year award from Tokyo Sports. He suffered the first of many knee injuries in mid 1995. He worked through it.

In the early part of 1996 the company elevated Jun Akiyama by making him Misawa's main tag partner. While this was good for Akiyama and lead to some fresh tag matches, it left Kobashi without a real tag partner for most of the year.

Kobashi defeated Taue on July 24, 1996 to capture his first Triple Crown. He lost the championship to Misawa on January 20, 1997, in a very highly regarded match.

Even though 1997 began with the end of Kobashi's title reign the year in many ways was more satisfying for Kobashi. In 1997 he began to feud in with Misawa, and in March 1997 in the Champion Carnival he gained his first pinfall victory over Misawa. At the end of the Carnival Kobashi for the first time had qualified for the finals; however, instead of the traditional one on one contest to settle the carnival this year a one night 3 way round robin was held due to Kobashi, Kawada, and Misawa all having finished the Carnival round robin with the same score. In the first match Kobashi went to a 30 minute draw with Misawa. However, this match left both men greatly weakened and Kawada was able to quickly gain his first singles pin over Misawa in the next match that gave Kobashi little time to rest. In the final match Kawada defeated Kobashi to gain his second Carnival title.

In October of 1997 Kobashi won his first tag title without Misawa when he and Johnny Ace defeated Williams and Gary Albright. In the same month he challenged Misawa for the Triple Crown in another memorable match, but again Misawa defeated him.

While Kawada would finally end his quest to defeat Misawa for the Triple Crown at AJPW's May Tokyo Dome show, in 1998, Kobashi would replace Kawada as Misawa's top rival. On June 12, 1998 Kobashi defeated Kawada to begin his second Triple Crown reign.

Shortly before his victory he again suffered a major knee injury which he would not give time to heal. This injury nearly ended Kobashi's career. He lost the championship again to Misawa.

1998 would end with Kobashi gaining another career milestone as he with Akiyama captured his first Real World Tag League championship. As January began Kobashi was kicking off a new rivalry against Vader. Shortly thereafter, and totally unrelated, the founder and owner of All Japan, Giant Baba, died.

He won the Real World Tag League again with Akiyama in December 1999. In February of 2000 he defeated Vader to earn his third triple crown reign. Then in April 2000 he won his first Champion Carnival while in the course of the tournament gaining his first televised singles victory over Misawa. In mid-2000 Misawa left the company to form Pro Wrestling NOAH. Kobashi, along with all but three All Japan native Japanese workers, left with Misawa. He was the reigning Triple Crown champion at the time, and the championship was thus vacated.

During this period Kobashi's knee injuries were beginning to worsen to the point that he desperately needed time off to heal; however, he was needed to establish NOAH as a viable promotion. Upon the formation of NOAH, he was given a marquee position on the first two shows. First, splitting with Akiyama after they defeated Taue and Misawa in the main event of the promotion's first show, then losing to Akiyama in the second show in an attempt to establish Akiyama as the number 2 man in the promotion.

NOAH struggled to organize itself without any titles during this period. At the biggest show of the year on December 23, 2000 Kobashi defeated Jun Akiyama, avenging his loss earlier that year. Unfortunately for Kobashi the next month his knees finally deteriorated to the point he could no longer work through the pain and he was forced to take 13 months off for healing. He went through multiple knee surgeries during this time.

His return match was on February 24, 2002, and featured Kobashi reforming his pairing with Misawa to face Akiyama and New Japan Pro Wrestling's Yuji Nagata. His knees again gave out on him during the match. After taking another 5 months to recouperate he returned and NOAH began to slowly build towards him winning their top prize, the GHC Heavyweight Championship.

In March 2003 he achieved this goal, defeating Misawa. Kobashi's reign spanned two years and included 13 successful defenses. Notable defences included: against Masahiro Chono at New Japan's May 2, 2003 Tokyo Dome event, against Yuji Nagata on September 12, 2003, against Yoshihiro Takayama on April 25, 2004, and against Jun Akiyama in the main event of NOAH's first Tokyo Dome show on July 10, 2004.

During his reign he won the Wrestling Observer Newsletter's wrestler of the year award in both 2003 and 2004. In March of 2005 he finally lost the championship to Takeshi Rikio. Despite the loss of his title Kobashi remained NOAH's top wrestler, the rest of the year was highlighted by matches with outsiders such as Genichiro Tenryu and Kensuke Sasaki (the latter on July 18, 2005 in the Tokyo Dome), and in the following year he had praised matches against junior heavyweights such as KENTA (March 5, 2006, win by Burning Hammer) and Naomichi Marufuji (April 23, 2006, win by delayed vertical-drop brainbuster).

In late 2005, Kobashi made his first appearance in North America with Harley Race's World League Wrestling promotion, defeating then WLW champion Wild Wade Chism. His second and third North American appearances were for Ring of Honor, where he defeated Samoa Joe in a memorable singles match (given a full 5-stars by the Wrestling Observer as well as their Match of the Year 2005), and teamed with Homicide to defeat the tag team of Samoa Joe and Low-Ki. Kobashi also traveled to Europe where he had matches at in Germany, and Universal Uproar, England, in November of 2005.

Kobashi was discovered to have a tumor in his kidney during a routine medical examination on June 19, 2006, however on July 7, surgery was able to successfully remove the tumor without it spreading to other organs.