15 Amazing Pro Wrestling NOAH Matches You Must See Before You Die

3. Kenta Kobashi Vs. Jun Akiyama €“ Departure 2004

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC7plkBKeIY This is a legendary match that has a story built over 12 long years. A perfect example of King€™s Road style booking, this match was the culmination of over a decade of match-ups, rivalries, booking decisions, jealousy, and desire. Akiyama, who was a better technical wrestler than Kobashi, spent so many years in the Iron Man€™s shadow. He lost quite often to the Four Pillars of Heaven, but there was something about Kobashi that irked him like no other. Kobashi was such a straight-up good guy that even John Cena would tell him to loosen up. And that€™s what made Akiyama snap, attacking his former partner and challenging him for the GHC Heavyweight Championship on this show. If you want to see a bitter and personal match based on over a decade of one man being in the other€™s shadow, and that jealous man going to incredible and insane lengths to break away from that position, this is the match for you. Neither Kobashi nor Akiyama hold anything back, which leads to a brutal match with a lot of crazy spots, including an insane Exploder Suplex off the top rope onto the floor. Imagine the bitter rivalry between Brock Lesnar and John Cena (only if both of them were as skilled as Kurt Angle or Chris Jericho), and Lesnar had never left and Cena had spent the first decade of his career exclusively in Lesnar€™s shadow. That is what this match represents: the culmination of an immensely-long rivalry built around two men both wanting to be World Champion.