10 Things WWE Could Learn From Kenta Kobashi's Career

6. No-selling Without Making One's Opponent Look Weak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeLZvZrj9y8 Why does Kenta Kobashi have 23 Dave Meltzer rated 5-star matches under his belt (more than any other living wrestler)? Because he was the ultimate example of €˜fighting spirit€™ and he no-sold his opponent€™s offence on occasion to excellent dramatic effect. Kobashi€™s matches would follow a simple yet highly-successful formula. He€™d get dominated for a good portion of his matches, before suddenly getting a surge of €˜burning spirit€™ and would no-sell his opponent€™s offense by getting up from everything they threw at him and kept kicking out from even the most destructive moves. If this sounds familiar, that€™s because it is; this is the same formula WWE uses with many of its babyfaces, most notably John Cena and Roman Reigns. But Kobashi did something that WWE doesn't. Those moments of no-selling would last only a fraction of his matches (perhaps only 40 seconds of no-selling a big Suplex, or something), and he would spend the rest of the match doing whatever possible to make his opponent feel like his equal. In doing so, his opponents would look like they have a genuine chance of winning, despite Kobashi€™s legendary toughness. If WWE did this by changing how their matches are structured and added more subtle details that elevated all of their top wrestlers instead of only a select few, marquee matches would be more unpredictable and fans wouldn€™t be so quick to respond with phrases like €˜Cena Wins LOL€™.