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Kenta Kobashi Comments On 20th Anniversary Of Legendary Wrestling Match

By Alex Podgorski • Published 2nd March 2023
kenta kobashi kawada happy

Puro legend Kenta Kobashi recently celebrated the 20th anniversary of what many call the greatest match of all time.

On March 1st, 2003, Kenta Kobashi challenged Mitsuharu Misawa for Pro Wrestling NOAH’s GHC Heavyweight Championship. Not only was this a big title match, but it was also the conclusion of a 13-year storyline. Prior to that match, Kobashi had always come up short against Misawa in title matches and only managed to win the odd fluke tournament match or go to a 30-minute draw.

But in 2003, despite being much older and after over a dozen knee surgeries, Kobashi finally pinned Misawa clean in a title match. And to give this match added gravitas, Misawa also promised that he would never face Kobashi one-on-one again. And aside from a ten-minute comedy match on a Christmas show, he kept his word.

Having retired from wrestling ten years ago, Kenta Kobashi is still involved in pro wrestling to some degree. Yesterday, he took to Twitter to reminisce about this iconic match with Misawa. He also hopes that fans will continue to talk about his other big matches as well.

“It’s been 20 years since GHC today…I’d be happy if it was a match that will remain in everyone’s memories and hearts forever.

(I would be happy if the Triple Crown match, including the 2nd Triple Crown match in 1995, 1997, and the 5th Triple Crown match in 1998 and 1999, would remain in everyone’s hearts… Although I lost all the Triple Crown matches, I fought each match with “preparedness”.)

The match between Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi is still widely hailed among wrestling fans as one of the best in-ring matches in modern times. It was voted the Match of the Year for 2003 by the Wrestling Observer’s readership and has consistently placed in either the #1 or #2 spot on cagematch.net’s top 100 match ranking for several years.

h/t 411Mania for the transcription.