Ranking Who Was Really The Man In Wrestling Every Year 1990-2020
18. 2003 - Kenta Kobashi
The year in which the sentimental favourite became the Ace - thus destroying the reality that the money is in the chase - Kenta Kobashi dethroned GHC Heavyweight Champion Mitsuharu Misawa on March 1. A seminal match, masterfully crafted in technique, emotion and a continuity that spanned years, Kobashi subsequently embarked on an all-time great run that demonstrated an exceptional range beyond the King's Road mode of storytelling that elevated NOAH, briefly, into a Tokyo Dome-sized concern.
There is a deflating history of art vs. drawing power in the annals of professional history, but in 2003, Kobashi was the great unifier.