For those of you who dont know who Kenta Kobashi is, I strongly recommend that you open YouTube and watch any of the videos dedicated to this fantastic wrestler (after youve finished reading this article, of course). Kobashi is a legendary name in professional wrestling. For twenty five years, he was arguably the greatest wrestler to never wrestle for a major North American promotion. He accomplished everything there is to achieve in Japanese wrestling, and experienced many setbacks as an athlete. Despite spending almost his entire career in Japan and having never wrestled for a top American promotion, Kobashi has made a name for himself among wrestling fans the world over. He first achieved this thanks to the quality of his matches, which spread through word-of-mouth and illegal tape trading. Then the internet allowed for old clips to be shared worldwide, at which point countless fans got to witness the craziness of Kenta Kobashis matches unfold right there on their computer screens. His insane strength, bottomless pit of endurance, innate charisma, and wide variety of ultra-dangerous wrestling moves made him a cult favorite among hardcore fans, the kinds of wrestler thats appreciated for his ring-work far more than any gimmick or larger-than-life character. Indeed, WWE could learn a lot from this veteran wrestler. From creative directions to many subtleties in his wrestling style, this legendary Japanese wrestler has a lot to offer WWE in terms of lessons that could be learned and ideas that should be implemented.
Alexander Podgorski is a writer for WhatCulture that has been a fan of professional wrestling since he was 8 years old. He loves all kinds of wrestling, from WWE and sports entertainment, to puroresu in Japan.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Queen's University in Political Studies and French, and a Master's Degree in Public Administration. He speaks English, French, Polish, a bit of German, and knows some odd words and phrases in half a dozen other languages.
