10 Hypothetical WWE Signings (And Whether They'd Have Succeeded Or Failed)
8. Kenta Kobashi
If rumors were to be believed, WWE was very interested in signing the legendary Japanese wrestler in both 1998 and in 2005. It’s not hard to see why, since he was a big guy and he could wrestle incredibly well with virtually anyone.
Success or Failure in WWE: Failure
Despite WWE’s attempt at luring in major stars from around the world, Kobashi simply wouldn’t have worked in WWE for many reasons.
Kobashi’s wrestling style is built around long, dramatic matches featuring extremely stiff strikes and increasingly-dangerous maneuvers. None of those things would’ve worked well in WWE at any point, especially the stiffness part.
He’s also soft-spoken, cuts short promos, and prefers to have his actions do the talking for him. Every single one of these things makes him an excellent wrestler, but not a good 'superstar'. Even if they’d offer to help him improve his English, he’d have the same problems that Hideo Itami does right now.
Finally, by 2005, Kobashi had terrible knees brought on by years of doing Moonsaults. If WWE had hired him, they’d have most likely used him as a ‘bodyguard’ of sorts, but that would still require him to do a lot of strength-based moves on a regular basis which, coupled with the intense road schedule, would’ve made it difficult for him to stay in shape.
So in the end, despite WWE’s attempts at signing one of Japan’s best wrestlers ever, it wouldn’t have worked out at all.