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Kenta Kobayashi

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Kenta Kobayashi
File:Kenta Kobayashi.jpg
BornMarch 12, 1981
Soka, Saitama, Japan
Professional wrestling career
Ring name(s)KENTA,
Kenta Kobayashi
Billed height174 cm (5 ft 9 in )
Billed weight81 kg (179 lb)
Trained byAll Japan Pro Wrestling Dojo,
Kenta Kobashi,
Yoshihiro Takayama
DebutMay 24, 2000 against Naomichi Marufuji

Kenta Kobayashi (小林健太; Kobayashi Kenta) or, KENTA as he is known is a Japanese professional wrestler and one of the last two trainees of the All Japan Pro Wrestling dojo before the Pro Wrestling NOAH split, which he followed. He initially used his real name, but due to obvious potential confusion with his mentor Kenta Kobashi, he dropped his surname and began spelling his given name in Roman all caps. His style is a combination of aerial junior heavyweight wrestling and shoot style. Spunky, with an attitude reminiscent of Akira Maeda's, he has even challenged heavyweights like Mitsuharu Misawa and Genichiro Tenryu to staredowns and feuds despite often being on the losing end of attacks.

Career

Early career

Following the split from All Japan (where Kenta Kobayashi debuted in May 2000 Vs. Naomichi Marufuji) one of Mitsuharu Misawa's main focuses in the new NOAH group was the junior division, which had never really received much attention in AJPW but had been used by other promotions (notably, NJPW & WCW) to great success. This meant that juniors like the then-Kenta Kobayashi would be allowed the opportunity to shine like never before. Having struggled with injuries in the early part of his NOAH career, Kobayashi returned on the July 2001 "Accomplish Our First Navigation" tour as simply KENTA and began his rise up the ladder.

When GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion Naomichi Marufuji was forced to vacate the title after suffering a knee injury on the April 7, 2002 Tokyo Ariake Colosseum show, KENTA received one of his biggest opportunities to date by being entered into the tournament that would crown a new champion. He defeated Kotaro Suzuki and veteran Tsuyoshi Kikuchi en route to the final where he fell to Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Following another unsuccessful challenge for Kanemaru's title on December 1, KENTA continued to improve in the ring and refine his increasingly popular character, now as part of mentor Kenta Kobashi's BURNING stable with Tamon Honda, Kentaro Shiga and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi.

Rise to stardom

On the March 1, 2003 Budokan Hall show, KENTA teamed for the first time with Naomichi Marufuji, who had returned in January from the aforementioned knee injury against Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Makoto Hashi in a match which they won when Marufuji pinned Hashi, looking very impressive in the process. They teamed semi-regularly from then on (mostly in trios matches with Kotaro Suzuki) before entering the tournament to crown the first GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team champions on the June/July "Accomplish Our Third Navigation" tour. They defeated Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Mitsuo Momota and Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Yoshihito Sasaki in the opening rounds before beating junior heavyweight legend Jushin Liger & Takehiro Murahama in a highly rated match in the final at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium. This was followed by an incredible defence against Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Makoto Hashi on the September 12, 2003 Budokan Hall show, which was considered by many as one of the best matches all year. KENTA challenged for the GHC Jr. Title once again on November 30, 2003, but was once again beaten back, this time by Takashi Sugiura. However, in that match, and indeed, throughout the year, KENTA showed enough growth to earn himself a seven match Trial Series going into 2004, which would be a rare opportunity to face some of the company's top heavyweight stars in singles action.

Following another successful defence with Marufuji against New Japan wrestlers El Samurai & Wataru Inoue on the year opening Budokan Hall show, KENTA began his trial series on the "First Navigation" tour, beating Juventud Guerrera. This was followed by a defeat to Yoshinari Ogawa and another against Jun Akiyama on May 14, 2004 at Korakuen Hall. The latter, however, created a buzz around the series due to the quality of the match which was only heightened by an excellent series of matches against Yoshihiro Takayama, Mitsuharu Misawa and mentor Kenta Kobashi (all defeats) where fans were charmed by KENTA's fighting spirit and refusal to back down to his much bigger, more experienced counterparts. The final match of the series was against Naomichi Marufuji in October, in what was another impressive match, but unfortunately, another loss. While the series was taking place, KENTA & Marufuji made even more defences of their titles, against Yoshinari Ogawa & Kotaro Suzuki, Kotaro & Ricky Marvin, Marvin & SUWA and, most notably, on NOAH's first Tokyo Dome show against Kendo Kashin & Takashi Sugiura on July 10, 2004.

On 7/16 in the Budokan, KENTA & Marufuji would revive their tag team to take on WILD II (Takeshi Morishima and Takeshi Rikio) in what ended up as a 30-minute draw; it is not known at this time if this will be maintained.

Singles success

The first few months of 2005 passed with KENTA being involved in little of note until the March 5, 2005 Budokan Hall show, where, in an undercard trios match, sparks flew between KENTA and all three of his opponents - Yoshinobu Kanemaru, SUWA and Takashi Sugiura, all of whom he had issues with in the past which were still unresolved - with Sugiura winding up knocked out on the outside of the ring. This set the stage for many of KENTA's programs throughout the year as on April 24 he had a violent match with SUWA that ended in his opponented getting disqualified for referee violence. After an incredible display in the 2005 Differ Cup, where they had extremely highly rated matches with indy stars such as Spanky & Kaz Hayashi and Minoru Fujita & Ikuto Hidaka, winning the tournament, KENTA & Marufuji faced Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takashi Sugiura on June 5 in Sapporo with the GHC Jr. Tag Titles on the line. After nearly thirty five minutes of yet another highly rated match, Sugiura pinned KENTA to crown new champions after a near two year reign. This would signal the end of the KENTA & Marufuji tag team, as KENTA re-set his sights on the GHC Jr. Singles belt and Marufuji formed a team with heavyweight Minoru Suzuki, going after the GHC Heavyweight Tag Titles.

On July 18 at Pro Wrestling NOAH's near-sellout second Tokyo Dome show he challenged Yoshinobu Kanemaru (who defeated Jushin Liger for the title at the previous year's Dome show) for the third time and finally managed to wrestle the title away from him, in a match that is considered by some as the match of the night at one of wrestling's greatest ever supershows in terms of quality from top to bottom. KENTA made his first defence of the belt at Budokan Hall on September 18 in a spectacular match with SUWA that had to be restarted after weapon use by SUWA, then kept going despite further blatant conduct; nonetheless, KENTA ended their feud with the pinfall victory. He made his second against Mushiking Terry on October 28 at Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium in a match that received relatively luke-warm response. Also, after his defence against SUWA, rising heavyweight star Katsuyori Shibata offered congratulations and suggested that the two should tag together. KENTA accepted, and on November 5 at Budokan Hall, the two challenged recently crowned tag team champions Takeshi Morishima & Mohammed Yone, entering a strong showing but losing when Morishima pinned KENTA. The two regrouped to defeat Mitsuharu Misawa & Go Shiosaki on December 4 in NOAH's final big show of the year.

On January 22, 2006 at the Tokyo Nippon Budokan, KENTA made his 5th GHC Jr. Heavyweight title defense (the 3rd and 4th were made in America; see Foreign Excursion) against Naomichi Marufuji, finally beating his long time friend & former GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title partner. KENTA's win broke up a run of 6 consecutive Marufuji singles wins against KENTA.

On March 5, 2006 KENTA faced Kenta Kobashi, and lost due to a Wrist-Clutch Burning Hammer; he is to date the only junior heavyweight as well as arguably the only NOAH "trueborn" (despite training in the All Japan dojo, he debuted on the "split" tour and his career is almost entirely in NOAH) to receive any variation of the Burning Hammer.

On April 23, 2006 KENTA made his 6th GHC Jr. Heavyweight title defense against Taiji Ishimori, also at the Tokyo Nippon Budokan, making him the to date most successful GHC Jr. Heavyweight champion.

On June 4, 2006 KENTA lost the GHC Jr. Heavyweight title to Takashi Sugiura after tapping out to a grapevined ankle lock.

Foreign excursion

KENTA, along with his NOAH collague Naomichi Marufuji, made their debut for independent promotion, Ring of Honor, at ROH's last show of the year, Final Battle 2005 on December 17, 2005. KENTA defend his GHC Jr. Heavyweight title for the 4th time against Low Ki and defeated him in a match of year candidate. Earlier in his foreign tour, KENTA made his third defence against Ace Steel in his North American debut for Harley Race's WLW promotion on December 10, 2005. He also defeated Ty Dalton on December 11, 2005, again for WLW.

KENTA returned to the United States to wrestle for Ring of Honor at the main event of the Best in the World show in New York City on March 25, 2006. He and Naomichi Marufuji (for the first time teaming in the U.S.) defeated the team of Samoa Joe and ROH World Heavyweight champion Bryan Danielson after KENTA used the Go 2 Sleep on Danielson. Afterwards, KENTA told the audience in English that he would return in the future, but after Samoa Joe said that he hadn't been beaten, that they hadn't had a singles match yet and then called KENTA a bitch, KENTA faked ignorance by saying "I don't understand Engrish."

KENTA returned to Ring of Honor for a one week tour during the month of June. KENTA returned to Manhattan on June 17th, featuring him in the main event against Samoa Joe and ROH World Heavyweight champion Bryan Danielson in a non title one fall 3 way match, where KENTA pinned Danielson after the Go 2 Sleep, marking the second time KENTA has defeated the ROH World champ. After the match, KENTA declared he wanted a championship match. June 23rd saw his Detroit debut against one half of the ROH World Tag Team champions, Roderick Strong, and defeated Strong with the Go 2 Sleep. The following night, he debuted in Chicago against the other half of the ROH Tag Team champions and former ROH World Heavyweight champion, Austin Aries and was victorious with the Go 2 Sleep. The ROH Wrestling School in Philadelphia held a training seminar with KENTA, along with head trainer Bryan Danielson, on June 18th.

On August 4th, KENTA would compete for ROH for a 6th time when he debuted in Long Island, teaming with Davey Richards to face the Briscoe brothers. However, he would receive his first (technical) loss after Richards was pinned. On the 5th, though, he went one on one with Davey Richards and defeated him with the Go 2 Sleep.

On September 15th and 16th, KENTA, along with Naomichi Marufuji, will make his 8th and 9th appearances for ROH when he debuts in East Windsor, Connecticut and returns to Manhattan at ROH's debut in the Manhattan Center where KENTA will compete against the ROH World Champion for the ROH World title.

Finishing and signature moves

Championships and accomplishments

  • 2003 Tag Team of the Year (with Naomichi Marufuji)
  • 2004 Tag Team of the Year (with Naomichi Marufuji)
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