@@dylanpiazza6358 That chop was so fierce, the force of it travelled back through time to rock it's foundations. A frustrated Kobashi is a dangerous man indeed.
Kobashi didn’t sell Akiras apron to floor chokeslam like death, it just felt like death. To jump up and take a high bump like that to the floor flat back will literally knock the wind out of anyone. Don’t let that thin mat on the floor fool you. This hurts way more than a suplex that you share the bump with the other guy, or the tiger suplex off the ramp that you bounce and roll off.
and there is no way to soften the blow. you litterally throw yourself back first on a concrete floor. this must feel like hell! just thinking about it hurts my spine
A friend of mine is a typical NJPW fan - exclusive and rarely watching other promotions. But he loves Kobashi. Once I asked him why and he told me, "Kobashi-san kept puroresu alive. Had he not united all puroresu fans and protected puroresu from MMA, even NJPW would have been out of business." (Not a surprise that he did not like Antonio Inoki.)
@@Aaron-zo9qynot really hating just telling the truth pro wrestling was not gonna die without Kobashi the business probably wouldve been weaker but it still would exist
The mans face just says "tough bastard, made of oak and fire and steel". The first matches of a japanese star i ever saw were kobashi vs hansen and i loved them both instantly. Before i ever watched any japanese wrestling really. But you know greatness when you see it.
What's fucked up about Rikio's reign not being star defining is that it sorta indirectly killed Misawa. One of his biggest goals during the hayday of NOAH was to create a big enough star on par with himself and Kobashi was that so he could quietly go into the night and be a multiman tag team guy just like with Kobashi. But because Rikio flopped, and Shiozaki flopped, Misawa was forced to still be in the position of being a major draw. And the rest is history from then on.
This is exactly what I've been looking for. My favorite wrestler finally gets a proper deep dive into a historic title run. Thank you so much. Amazing work!
As much as I love all Four Pillars and think that Kobashi’s Burning Hammer is one of the sickest finishers ever, I’d love to see you do a doc about my personal fave of the four: Toshiaki Kawada. Also, a Jun Akiyama spotlight would be great. Guy was amazing talent and yet so understated
Kawada’s arc is all about him showing the world that he’s better than Misawa in many aspects and he won’t rest until Misawa’s reign as the top guy is finished and that he would be the one who’ll do it.
The clips of Frye vs Takayama " chopping wood " is still legendary !!! Takayama got his face pounded and kept going , not backing up an inch !!! RESPECT ! So hell yeah Takayama vs Kobashi !!!
The Only Reign I can think of that comes close to Kobashi is Okadas 4th IWGP Reign. Besides the matches with Omega, he had a classic with Shibata, a burner with Cody, his match with Naito at the Dome. He even brought the best out of a lot of guys who we wouldn't expect it from. He Elevated anyone who stepped in the ring with him during the run & every defence was emphatic that the Climax to his Reign is pretty much perfect with the transition to Omega as champion compared to Kobashi when passing the torch.
Even his defense against Fale was great. I think that the absolute weakest of that Okada reign was his KOPW match with EVIL, which was at absolute worst a flat 4* match.
The reason why Kobashi's reign will always trump Okadas reign is the respective ending. Okada needed to drop the belt to Naito at the dome and New Japan was oblivious to this necessary title change. Naito had organically grown to become the biggest star in the company clearly outshining Okada and was in the most popular faction LIJ. The timing was perfect, the stage was set but New Japan had plans in play to transition to Omega which they for some insisted upon to fulfil their plans for western expansion. I dont fault Okada for Omega stinking up the place with his run and not wanting to do tours since Rikio really wasnt all NOAH hoped he would be aswell. But there really wasnt anyone else Kobashi needed to drop the belt to during his run. He was the clear top guy and trying to make a star off his legendary run was the right thing to do.
I think the point of a champion is not to be great, but to make other people greater via the competition. Kobashi did that with the GHC run. Okada did that in his record breaking IWGP run. Nobody those two men faced came out of the matches worse for the loss. Everyone got elevated. Pretty well perfect title runs.
A running theme of a lot of the matches here is what shows exactly why Kobashi was such a great champion. He elevated everyone he worked with. All those midcarders who served as "filler" defenses came out looking like big stars, much bigger than they did going in. That's one of the most important roles of a champion, to bring everyone up and make the whole company stronger by association.
Akiyama was still the best option to have dethroned Kobashi at the dome. Akiyama was still young enough to carry the company but not green like Rikio was. Akiyama had the experience main eventing for other companies and had more appeal than Rikio. Cewsh reviews kindly put it that Akiyama's loss firmly established him as "leader of the new guard" but still firmly below the old guard with his loss to Kobashi at the dome after all the build up.
I’ve been depressed for months and this is exactly what I needed, my favorite thing the world, featuring one of my favorite wrestlers ever being presented by my absolutely favorite UA-camr Thx Kim, I really needed this
The bit that got me was the neck training at the start. Getting a guy to stand on his head whilst he lies on his side and lifts him up and down! Are you sure mate? Yeah, just stand on my head. It will be totally fine! I hope you're feeling better still. :)
Im with you brother ! Kobashi is the man ! And i hope you are in better spirits my friend . I know how tough depression and anxiety can be . I wish you the best . Keep Walking The Kings Road !!!!
That win over Misawa had to have been a magical moment for Kobashi. To finally beat him for a singles title. 5 singles title matches between them and Kobashi (4 in All Japan and 1 in NOAH) with Misawa taking all 4 All Japan title matches (2 of which he was defending) and Kobashi getting the only one in NOAH
I was a wrestling tape trader back in the VHS days, and I can still remember the excitement when I finally got a hold of the NOAH Budokan show from March 1, 2003. Kobashi was always my favorite of the 4 pillars of All Japan, and it was magical seeing him finally win the big one against Misawa. Great video!
NOAH was on fire during that era. A few missteps here and there, but overall fantastic match after fantastic match. I have a lot of fond memories of their matches during that time.
Just wanna say you're making possibly the best wrestling content on UA-cam. I've watched all the videos on this channel multiple times. Truly amazing work.
I was always a fan of Tamon Honda ! I just dug his matches . He didnt look like much , but he was ! And when it comes to Kenta vs Chono ? I was all in on Kobashi !!!!! I loved how they would do dream matches from rival promotions . You would never see that in America . At least with WWE vs AEW type stuff .
A good video, but I think you were a bit harsh on the Mike Awesome match. There was a bit of a mismatch in styles but I thought it was a perfectly serviceable match. Also, I met Kobashi-san during the Meet And Greet during the European Navigation tour of the UK, bloody lovely bloke, couldn't do enough for the fans.
Thank you so much for this. I've always been a huge Kobashi fan due to the various classics I've stumbled upon on UA-cam over the years but never knew the stories or sequences of his famous reign. Excellent work well done!
One thing I love about this reign is that he made *EVERY* challenger look like a threat to his reign. The Gladiator, Bison, even Suzuki! Greatest title run ever.
this is a great video. It taught me a lot about puro while only really having knowledge of the fringes of it. It tied a lot of loose ends together while showing some incredibly entertaining highlights and providing context for them
Man, I was born in the wrong bloody country. I stopped watching wrestling around 2001-2014. There’s no way I woulda stopped if I had access to NOAH with Misawa & Kobashi beating the devil outta every one that stepped in the ring.
Given I've never watched a wrestling match in my life, it speaks well of your abilities as a writer and narrator that I enjoy these so much. It helps a little that I lived in Tokyo for a year in the mid '80s, so it's a little bit nostalgic on that level, but still. Seems like you're one of The Almighties yourself.
Stellar video my friend !!!!! Much applause !!!! Ichiban !!! Sorry for all the comments i left , it really had me going on though ! Great stuff thank you !
I remember first learning about a lot of these wrestlers from my brother and also playing fire pro wrestling returns on ps2 back in the mid 2000s. We changed all the wrestler names to their real names and everytime we put Kobashi in a match we could never beat him.. The ai Kobashi even seemed unstoppable lol. There's also a very old music video s guy made that is really awesome called Burning JukeBox that was a cool music video with Kenta Kobashi that's been on UA-cam since like 2006 I remember watching back then. It's still up and still cool video.
For me, following the Puroresu-wrestling through the ninties and 2k s, Kobashi is one of my favourites, same with NOAH....the matches Kobashi/Misawa...the best ever, really....
Some of the matches in this 2 year reign are up there in my favorite matches of all time like the match where Kobashi took the belt off Misawa, the matches with Takayama and Taue and the match with Akiyama in the Tokyo Dome and the matches with Nagata, Chono, Saito and even Honda were really good too for example. A few of the matches weren't up to par with the rest of his run with the title but Kobashi always made sure they weren't outright bad because the man couldn't really have one at that point.
Im sure you have gotten this request before but id love a video on the end of kobashi's career cause ive heard stories on how it went down but id love your level of detail and information to tell us what went down
So basically he is the R9 (brazilian Ronaldo) of japanese wrestling or wrestling as a whole. The knee injuries are similar. Him coming back and then bam again injuring the knee.
Which makes his durability even more "legendary". A guy who whole careers took enough 90° Vertical Drop on his neck that could end a careers (or even kill, in case of Angel del Oro) 90% of wrestlers for almost 30 years... ...retires due to knees and elbow injuries, with ZERO neck injury whatsoever, even now almost 10 years since his retirement. Dude is Iron Man for real
Awesome video, i remember watching those Kobashi matches when I was a kid, and I stilm watch that Misawa/Kobashi match at least once a year. Again, awesome video. Greetings from Chile
I love Kobashi. One of my all time favorites. Can you do a career deep dive on Jun Akiyama? He's a legend. I always felt he was never fully respected to where he should have been with how truly great he was in the ring.
For my money, in the four year period between Kobashi regaining full health after his knee surgeries until his cancer diagnosis, he was the absolute greatest pro wrestler who has ever lived.
49:29 not entirely true. Jun Akiyama headlined New Japan's January 4th show in 2002 with a GHC Title defense against Nagata. Granted, it wasn't a NOAH or even All Japan show and it was a last-minute situation, but Akiyama did have Dome Main Event experience going into the Kobashi match.
22:12 I think this characterization of Inokiism is sort of misplayed. It's important to keep in mind that worked shoot fights had been a constant in wrestling for a long time, you can even point to the success of UWF. PRIDE's success probably wouldn't have happened without pro wrestling. That said, Inoki's reliance on using wrestlers in actual MMA bouts was an awful mistake.
The days when I'd get NJPW and AJPW monthly videotapes were the best. My first was the first Super J Cup that Benoit won, but I became an AJPW fan most of all.
Fun fact: Kobashi was in Italy once and got bored, so he decided to chop a bell tower. It’s now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
As an italian, who loves kobashi, we let it go this once lol
@@dylanpiazza6358 That chop was so fierce, the force of it travelled back through time to rock it's foundations. A frustrated Kobashi is a dangerous man indeed.
I have noticed that in his 25-year career, he was always a babyface. Kobashi is a fucking legend and never had a bad match with anyone.
Kobashi's reign as the GHC Heavyweight Championship in my humble opinion is the greatest reign in pro wrestling history. Miss seeing him in wrestling!
This one and Kazuchika Okada 720 days reign are the two greatest championship reigns ever imo
Kobashi didn’t sell Akiras apron to floor chokeslam like death, it just felt like death. To jump up and take a high bump like that to the floor flat back will literally knock the wind out of anyone. Don’t let that thin mat on the floor fool you. This hurts way more than a suplex that you share the bump with the other guy, or the tiger suplex off the ramp that you bounce and roll off.
and there is no way to soften the blow. you litterally throw yourself back first on a concrete floor. this must feel like hell! just thinking about it hurts my spine
A friend of mine is a typical NJPW fan - exclusive and rarely watching other promotions. But he loves Kobashi. Once I asked him why and he told me, "Kobashi-san kept puroresu alive. Had he not united all puroresu fans and protected puroresu from MMA, even NJPW would have been out of business." (Not a surprise that he did not like Antonio Inoki.)
What a bunch of bullshit. New Japan was deep enough in the Yakuza to survive everything. Same reason why Noah stood afloat.
@@ShadowAngel606why u hating
@@Aaron-zo9qynot really hating just telling the truth pro wrestling was not gonna die without Kobashi the business probably wouldve been weaker but it still would exist
The mans face just says "tough bastard, made of oak and fire and steel". The first matches of a japanese star i ever saw were kobashi vs hansen and i loved them both instantly. Before i ever watched any japanese wrestling really. But you know greatness when you see it.
Kobashi was quite a handsome man in the mid-to-late nineties. It just shows you how brutal the King's Road style was on the human body.
What's fucked up about Rikio's reign not being star defining is that it sorta indirectly killed Misawa. One of his biggest goals during the hayday of NOAH was to create a big enough star on par with himself and Kobashi was that so he could quietly go into the night and be a multiman tag team guy just like with Kobashi. But because Rikio flopped, and Shiozaki flopped, Misawa was forced to still be in the position of being a major draw. And the rest is history from then on.
The Buffalo Bison Smith was phenomenally huge in Puerto Rico, IWA PR was his home and us Puerto Rican fans loved and missed him so much RIP Bison
This is exactly what I've been looking for. My favorite wrestler finally gets a proper deep dive into a historic title run. Thank you so much. Amazing work!
As much as I love all Four Pillars and think that Kobashi’s Burning Hammer is one of the sickest finishers ever, I’d love to see you do a doc about my personal fave of the four: Toshiaki Kawada.
Also, a Jun Akiyama spotlight would be great. Guy was amazing talent and yet so understated
Kawada’s arc is all about him showing the world that he’s better than Misawa in many aspects and he won’t rest until
Misawa’s reign as the top guy is finished and that he would be the one who’ll do it.
I second the need for a kawada video
The clips of Frye vs Takayama " chopping wood " is still legendary !!! Takayama got his face pounded and kept going , not backing up an inch !!! RESPECT ! So hell yeah Takayama vs Kobashi !!!
I still like their match at AJPW better of sorts
The Only Reign I can think of that comes close to Kobashi is Okadas 4th IWGP Reign. Besides the matches with Omega, he had a classic with Shibata, a burner with Cody, his match with Naito at the Dome. He even brought the best out of a lot of guys who we wouldn't expect it from. He Elevated anyone who stepped in the ring with him during the run & every defence was emphatic that the Climax to his Reign is pretty much perfect with the transition to Omega as champion compared to Kobashi when passing the torch.
Even his defense against Fale was great. I think that the absolute weakest of that Okada reign was his KOPW match with EVIL, which was at absolute worst a flat 4* match.
The reason why Kobashi's reign will always trump Okadas reign is the respective ending. Okada needed to drop the belt to Naito at the dome and New Japan was oblivious to this necessary title change. Naito had organically grown to become the biggest star in the company clearly outshining Okada and was in the most popular faction LIJ. The timing was perfect, the stage was set but New Japan had plans in play to transition to Omega which they for some insisted upon to fulfil their plans for western expansion. I dont fault Okada for Omega stinking up the place with his run and not wanting to do tours since Rikio really wasnt all NOAH hoped he would be aswell. But there really wasnt anyone else Kobashi needed to drop the belt to during his run. He was the clear top guy and trying to make a star off his legendary run was the right thing to do.
I think the point of a champion is not to be great, but to make other people greater via the competition.
Kobashi did that with the GHC run. Okada did that in his record breaking IWGP run.
Nobody those two men faced came out of the matches worse for the loss. Everyone got elevated.
Pretty well perfect title runs.
@@WaywardBrigandthank you. Nobody's trying to dismiss either reign. Both should be celebrated.
Kobashi was my introduction into Puroresu, he looked like a Japanese Superman, a larger than life character but still down to earth
A running theme of a lot of the matches here is what shows exactly why Kobashi was such a great champion. He elevated everyone he worked with. All those midcarders who served as "filler" defenses came out looking like big stars, much bigger than they did going in. That's one of the most important roles of a champion, to bring everyone up and make the whole company stronger by association.
Akiyama was still the best option to have dethroned Kobashi at the dome. Akiyama was still young enough to carry the company but not green like Rikio was. Akiyama had the experience main eventing for other companies and had more appeal than Rikio.
Cewsh reviews kindly put it that Akiyama's loss firmly established him as "leader of the new guard" but still firmly below the old guard with his loss to Kobashi at the dome after all the build up.
I’ve been depressed for months and this is exactly what I needed, my favorite thing the world, featuring one of my favorite wrestlers ever being presented by my absolutely favorite UA-camr
Thx Kim, I really needed this
Also Suzuki vs Kobashi is one of my favorite matches of all time
The bit that got me was the neck training at the start. Getting a guy to stand on his head whilst he lies on his side and lifts him up and down!
Are you sure mate?
Yeah, just stand on my head. It will be totally fine!
I hope you're feeling better still. :)
Im with you brother ! Kobashi is the man ! And i hope you are in better spirits my friend . I know how tough depression and anxiety can be . I wish you the best . Keep Walking The Kings Road !!!!
@@cloudfanboy18I hope you’re doing better, my friend. Channel your inner Kobashi and Misawa, and never stop walking the King’s Road
I Got into Japanese Wrestling in 2017 always heard great things about Kenta kobashi so I'm glad I found this video
Thank you very much
That win over Misawa had to have been a magical moment for Kobashi. To finally beat him for a singles title. 5 singles title matches between them and Kobashi (4 in All Japan and 1 in NOAH) with Misawa taking all 4 All Japan title matches (2 of which he was defending) and Kobashi getting the only one in NOAH
I was a wrestling tape trader back in the VHS days, and I can still remember the excitement when I finally got a hold of the NOAH Budokan show from March 1, 2003. Kobashi was always my favorite of the 4 pillars of All Japan, and it was magical seeing him finally win the big one against Misawa. Great video!
Unreal tribute to the goat! Kobashi will always be my fav! Keep it up and thank you so much for doing this!!!!
NOAH was on fire during that era. A few missteps here and there, but overall fantastic match after fantastic match. I have a lot of fond memories of their matches during that time.
No wonder Walter/Gunther is a fan of him 💪
Kobashi is my pick for best babyface champion ever. He made everyone he faced look like viable threats. Everyone comes out looking good
Just wanna say you're making possibly the best wrestling content on UA-cam. I've watched all the videos on this channel multiple times. Truly amazing work.
I'd love to see you do a documentary on toshiaki kawada. I think it'd be very interesting.
Kobashi's run here is peak pro wrestling. Fantastic video
If I thought the 90s Tiger Driver off the apron was nuts, the Tiger Suplex spot off the ramp was even more insane.
Any chance you’ll do something like this about Keiji Mutoh?
I was always a fan of Tamon Honda ! I just dug his matches . He didnt look like much , but he was !
And when it comes to Kenta vs Chono ? I was all in on Kobashi !!!!! I loved how they would do dream matches from rival promotions . You would never see that in America . At least with WWE vs AEW type stuff .
A good video, but I think you were a bit harsh on the Mike Awesome match. There was a bit of a mismatch in styles but I thought it was a perfectly serviceable match. Also, I met Kobashi-san during the Meet And Greet during the European Navigation tour of the UK, bloody lovely bloke, couldn't do enough for the fans.
I do think that Okada's 2016 - 2018 run rivals Kobashi's reign.
No it doesn't. Kobashi drew way more money and fans
@@drunkensailor112 Sure, nobody's disputing that. I'm strictly talking about match quality.
Nope
It’s not Okadas fault…he didn’t have the same level of competition that Kobashi did. Yes…..Kobashi all the way
U can make that argument but Kobashi is often overlooked whereas Okada is not
Seeing you start a dedicated wrestling channel is a very welcome surprise. Looking forward to seeing new vids and hopefully the old vids again too!
I shutter every time I see Kobashi land on his head, knowing about all his neck problems. Miracle, he never got paralysed
Thank you so much for this. I've always been a huge Kobashi fan due to the various classics I've stumbled upon on UA-cam over the years but never knew the stories or sequences of his famous reign. Excellent work well done!
Loved it. Please cover 80s territories or Joshi in Japan! Lovely new channel kim.
One thing I love about this reign is that he made *EVERY* challenger look like a threat to his reign. The Gladiator, Bison, even Suzuki! Greatest title run ever.
I watched this when it first came out and absolutely loved it. It feels like an achievement to have finally tracked it down again. Great work 👏🏻
Just found all your videos and absolutely love them. Going to start working my way through them all.
Kenta Kobashi is a total beast in wrestling!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is a great video. It taught me a lot about puro while only really having knowledge of the fringes of it. It tied a lot of loose ends together while showing some incredibly entertaining highlights and providing context for them
Tamon Honda is prime Boy Stable material. Good call. I loved using him in King of Coliseum. 💯
Man, I was born in the wrong bloody country. I stopped watching wrestling around 2001-2014. There’s no way I woulda stopped if I had access to NOAH with Misawa & Kobashi beating the devil outta every one that stepped in the ring.
59:25 that was a wrist clutch Death Valley driver.
Burning hammer lands face down
He makes sure it a safer back bump. Burning hammer is scarier
You do a great job conveying the feel of these big matches, the sense of importance they had. I'm gonna have to watch some of these fights.
i have watched this so many times, i love it thanks Kim
This channel is fantastic. Excellent work on this and the Vader episode. I look forward to more in the future.
Given I've never watched a wrestling match in my life, it speaks well of your abilities as a writer and narrator that I enjoy these so much. It helps a little that I lived in Tokyo for a year in the mid '80s, so it's a little bit nostalgic on that level, but still. Seems like you're one of The Almighties yourself.
Stellar video my friend !!!!! Much applause !!!! Ichiban !!! Sorry for all the comments i left , it really had me going on though ! Great stuff thank you !
I remember first learning about a lot of these wrestlers from my brother and also playing fire pro wrestling returns on ps2 back in the mid 2000s. We changed all the wrestler names to their real names and everytime we put Kobashi in a match we could never beat him.. The ai Kobashi even seemed unstoppable lol. There's also a very old music video s guy made that is really awesome called Burning JukeBox that was a cool music video with Kenta Kobashi that's been on UA-cam since like 2006 I remember watching back then. It's still up and still cool video.
Takayama had a singles match for the triple crown against Kobashi in 2000, it's Kobashi's last defense of the triple crown and it's very good.
Oh shit, Kim Justice does a video on the GOAT. Kobashi Kenta. Forever BURNING 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
1:56 What's this theme? I'm curious. It's lit 🔥🔥🔥
For me, following the Puroresu-wrestling through the ninties and 2k s, Kobashi is one of my favourites, same with NOAH....the matches Kobashi/Misawa...the best ever, really....
Kobashi says to this day his shoulder still hurts from all the Burning lariats he did over the years.
Been watching your content for a while now and I must say it's absolutely superb.
Some of the matches in this 2 year reign are up there in my favorite matches of all time like the match where Kobashi took the belt off Misawa, the matches with Takayama and Taue and the match with Akiyama in the Tokyo Dome and the matches with Nagata, Chono, Saito and even Honda were really good too for example. A few of the matches weren't up to par with the rest of his run with the title but Kobashi always made sure they weren't outright bad because the man couldn't really have one at that point.
To quote AKB48 alum and Kobashi fangirl Kuramochi Asuka,
"Ya, subarashi!"
Im sure you have gotten this request before but id love a video on the end of kobashi's career cause ive heard stories on how it went down but id love your level of detail and information to tell us what went down
Homie is cut from a different cloth. One of the all time greats, regardless of region or era.
Always appreciate the effort put into your videos!
Kobashi is the greatest of all time
Amazing video man,love to see this legendary Wrestler have some time in the sun again
Absolutely amazing video! Very excited to dive into the rest of the one's you've made ^^
I LIVED THROUGH THIS PURORESU LORE!!!
My favorite wrestler of all-time. Absolute legend!
This is an amazing video. As someone who also makes wrestling videos I truly admire the writing and everything you put into this. Thankyou!
Everytime you do a Vid on Wrestling I enjoy them and the immediately put on Fire Pro Returns and re-create the matches
Maybe a video about Kensuke Sasaki career? That would be awesome
Hey Kim at 2:00 to 2:29 there's that fire (no pun intended lol) song playing in the background. What is that song by any chance?
It's the opening theme from Demon's Crest/Blazon on the SNES/SFC.
So basically he is the R9 (brazilian Ronaldo) of japanese wrestling or wrestling as a whole. The knee injuries are similar. Him coming back and then bam again injuring the knee.
Which makes his durability even more "legendary".
A guy who whole careers took enough 90° Vertical Drop on his neck that could end a careers (or even kill, in case of Angel del Oro) 90% of wrestlers for almost 30 years...
...retires due to knees and elbow injuries, with ZERO neck injury whatsoever, even now almost 10 years since his retirement.
Dude is Iron Man for real
nice touch to add tributes to Bison Smith and Mike Awesome in their segments.
This video was absolutely brilliant! Fantastic work!
Awesome video, i remember watching those Kobashi matches when I was a kid, and I stilm watch that Misawa/Kobashi match at least once a year. Again, awesome video. Greetings from Chile
took me 3 viewings, but i finally finished this video!! amazing work!!!
fantastic documentary, very entertaining
This is so good . Wow.
I'm surprised I heard Mike Awesome was hardly credible as a challenger. Even with his limitations,he was more than capable of having a good match.
I love Kobashi. One of my all time favorites. Can you do a career deep dive on Jun Akiyama? He's a legend. I always felt he was never fully respected to where he should have been with how truly great he was in the ring.
Absolutely amazing work .
Awesome will be watching this over the weekend.
For my money, in the four year period between Kobashi regaining full health after his knee surgeries until his cancer diagnosis, he was the absolute greatest pro wrestler who has ever lived.
49:29 not entirely true.
Jun Akiyama headlined New Japan's January 4th show in 2002 with a GHC Title defense against Nagata. Granted, it wasn't a NOAH or even All Japan show and it was a last-minute situation, but Akiyama did have Dome Main Event experience going into the Kobashi match.
Excellent video. Looking forward to what you cover next
Bro I watched everything you put out. Absolutely great work ! Keep it up and happy new year !
25:56 I was there live for this clip! Good old Chicago Ridge Frontier Fieldhouse ROH shows
Bison Smith legitimately scared the crap outta me
Great work, Kim
Oh my god, oh my god, OH MY GOD I AM SO EXCITED TO WATCH THSI VIDEO.
Would you do a Kawada/Misawa style video retrospective on Kobashi/Misawa? I love your videos and would love to see the deep dive on them
Really great video. Keep up the good shit.
please make an Akira Taue video
22:12 I think this characterization of Inokiism is sort of misplayed. It's important to keep in mind that worked shoot fights had been a constant in wrestling for a long time, you can even point to the success of UWF. PRIDE's success probably wouldn't have happened without pro wrestling. That said, Inoki's reliance on using wrestlers in actual MMA bouts was an awful mistake.
Awesome, awesome video!
This version of grand sword is absolutely amazing at the end? Unless it’s the regular, but I can’t seem to find it.
Thank you so much for this, Kim. There needs to be more proper wrestling documentaries and you are excellent at creating them!
Very nice video!
The most surprising thing was he managed to stay relatively healthy for most the reign
why wasnt this on my tv in 02
The days when I'd get NJPW and AJPW monthly videotapes were the best. My first was the first Super J Cup that Benoit won, but I became an AJPW fan most of all.
just how did kobashi survived those deadly suplexes from AJPW ,NOAH days with no neck or head injuries but have a lot of knee and arm injuries?
The arms must be all the lariat's especially how he threw them. Knees is probably poor lifting techniques with a top heavy body.
@@seaniekay makes sense. Iirc his lifts for a brainbuster or vertical suplex were awkward.
@@seaniekay and Moonsault, don't forget that.