10 Wrestlers Who Had To Destroy Themselves To Get Over
8. Kenta Kobashi
An exponentially better worker than Spike Dudley - arguably the greatest wrestler of all time - Kenta Kobashi nonetheless subverted (or betrayed) what the art form is or used to be by getting himself over as the ultimate never-say-die babyface.
This was Kobashi's core appeal. If his bones were broken, if his organs were bruised, if his neck was hanging by a thread, the eternal fire burning within compelled him to fight. If Kobashi lost, it was because he was rendered unconscious, sprawled on the mat, tended to by young boys. Not as skilled as Ace Mitsuharu Misawa in storylines, Kobashi was the physical embodiment of the fighting spirit philosophy.
And he lost ritually, as part of Giant Baba's masterplan to get him over; he lost all 63 of his first singles matches, showing more and more improvement and resilience each time to become a standout. He graduated to the orbit of the main event in a battling loss to Steve Williams in 1993, in which he infamously took a succession of back suplexes directly on his neck. He defined and exacerbated the King's Road style, and his moonsault finish disintegrated his knees.
Kobashi retired from in-ring competition a genuine legend, one of the very best at laying it all on the line - but a husk of a man.