10 Loudest Wrestling Pops You Didn't Know About

10. Kenta Kobashi Returns From Cancer

Life-affirming is a grand word, but it's the only word that captures the feeling of King's Road legend Kenta Kobashi returning to the ring after his cancer diagnosis.

Kobashi's epic career trajectory allowed him to forge a unique bond with his people. He was the indefatigable babyface upstart booked to earn his spot inch by inch, and when he earned it - and earned is the word - he rewarded his fans with blow-away performances every night. The greatest ever purveyor of babyface fire grasped this incredible skill - really, it was a natural extension of his wonderfully human personality - and applied it to incredible matches. His firing up resonated all the more after enduring such harrowing (read: awesome) punishment.

The man who never took a night off took over a year and a half off between 2006 and 2007 before making the ultimate, defiant babyface comeback.

Life-affirming is the only word.

Hearing an entire Budokan Hall roar KO-BA-SHI in perfect sync - united in their adoration - is the sort of moment that genuinely makes one feel introspective. How bad can this world possibly be, when human endeavour is rewarded so resoundingly?

Layers of misanthropy are stripped away, replaced by goosebumps, as Kobashi stops and registers it all.