10 Stiffest Wrestling Matches Ever

2. Steve Williams Vs Kenta Kobashi - 1993

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In the 1990s, All Japan Pro Wrestling got a reputation for putting out the best wrestling product in the world. Men like Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, and Kenta Kobashi delivered some of the best matches ever seen, and they were very, very physical.

One of the most infamous - yet beloved - bouts during that era came in 1993, when the then-26-year-old Kenta Kobashi battled American Steve Williams for the rights to get a shot at the Triple Crown Championship. Despite his age, Kobashi was already considered one of the best pure talents in wrestling history, while Williams, like most of the foreigners who succeeded in Japan back then, was a hard-hitting tough guy.

The bout was filled with the stiff action that typified the era, but the most memorable part was the finish. Williams used a high-angle back suplex called the Backdrop Driver as his finisher, but the ones he nailed Kobashi with in this bout were unbelievable. He dropped the future legend directly on the top of his head more than once, inexplicably not causing permanent injury to Kobashi.

The third Backdrop Driver put Kobashi away, ending one of the most insane matches in wrestling history.

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Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013