11 Most Influential Japanese Wrestlers Of All Time

5. Kenta Kobashi

There€™s something to be said about a guy who was once called €˜the perfect wrestler€™ by the Japanese press. During the late 1990s, Kobashi stood at 6€™1 and weighed 254lbs., so around the same size as John Cena. But unlike Cena, Kobashi could pull of power moves with ease, and perform diving Moonsaults like someone much lighter. He also did these things with very badly damaged knees. So bad was the damage to his knees, that he had about 13 surgeries over a year and a half period. Yet he still managed to not only wrestle full-time for NOAH afterwards, but managed to carry the company during his two-year reign as GHC Heavyweight Champion. The reason he gets on this list is twofold. First, he is considered to have come up with more moves than any other wrestler in history. The Double Arm DDT, Orange Crush Bomb, Black Crush, Diamondhead, Turnbuckle Powerbomb, Pumphandle Powerbomb, and of course his ultimate maneuver, the Burning Hammer, were all innovated by Kobashi. Secondly, and more importantly, he is considered to be one of the greatest and most respected wrestlers in Japanese history, from both a technical standpoint and based off of his own success. This is a man who had 23 5-Star matches over his career, participated in WON€™s Match of the Year six different times, and has enjoyed incredible success in both singles and tag team wrestling. Despite most people not knowing his name, he made a huge impact on North American fans in 2005, when he faced Samoa Joe in his first match in the United States. So beloved is Kobashi in wrestling that, when he was released from Pro Wrestling NOAH, several of their top stars resigned out of loyalty for him. To put this in perspective, imagine if Daniel Bryan was suddenly let go by WWE because they couldn€™t pay his salary. In response to this, Seth Rollins, Brie Bella, Dean Ambrose, Adrian Neville, and other former independent stars left WWE out of loyalty to Brian. That is the closest possible scenario to what happened with Kobashi.