(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshinari Ogawa – NOAH Navigating Against The Current 2003

Kenta Kobashi is many longtime wrestling fans’ favorite wrestler. His career is filled with outstanding matches, crazy moves, and insane moments. Even though he spent 99% of his career in his native country he created an interesting legacy for himself. Though he was never as famous, wealthy, or popular as the biggest names in American wrestling, he still became beloved among diehard segments of the wrestling fandom for a myriad of reasons. To this day I have yet to see an outwardly bad Kobashi match. Even when he was having an off day he was still putting on mid-to-high-***-range matches. It seems like he is allergic to having bad matches…as proven here once again when a seemingly forgettable match of his ended up being way better than expected.

The Story

At first glance this looked like one of the biggest mismatches imaginable at the time. Post-knee surgeries Kobashi was built like a classic heavyweight champion who could hit like a freight train and take hits like a planet. Think of him as a wrestler with John Cena’s physique, Kurt Angle’s in-ring ability, and Rey Mysterio’s knees. In 2003 Kobashi was on a tear as NOAH’s world champion, having accomplished a lot in his first six months on top. His world title reign was something of a template for all world champions to follow. He won the title from Mitsuharu Misawa in what many call THE best match of all time (and is also my personal favorite match), and then proceeded to elevate the title by defending it against all comers. First he beat a near-Olympian grappler in Tamon Honda. Then he had his first and only match for NJPW by beating Masahiro Chono ~IN THE TOKYO DOME~. Then he beat a token gaijin hoss in Bison Smith. And after that defended his home turf against then NJPW ace (read: the only guy wrestler in the company with a shred of credibility remaining following Inoki’s disastrous MMA obsession) Yuji Nagata. After surviving such a wide variety of opponents, including some that outclassed him in some way, Kobashi needed a new challenger…and I guess with NOAH having a dearth of credible homegrown guys built up, they went with one of the most perplexing choices imaginable.

Ogawa will probably go down as the least-threatening Japanese wrestler in the past 30 years. He was pencil thin, unimposing, and lanky. He was too tall to be a full junior heavyweight and too small to be a heavyweight (his official stats show him as standing 5’7” and weighing 180 pounds, motherfucker is smaller than ME!) And yet there were three reasons not to dismiss Ogawa so easily. First, Ogawa was AJPW’s wrestling trainer who oversaw technique training in the All Japan dojo. Since he lacked overall strength and looked like he could be knocked over by a passing breeze, Ogawa built his own wrestling ability around countering, fluid techniques, and being crafty. This led him to be a mainstay in AJPW’s fledging junior heavyweight division, it also made him an interesting partner for Misawa when the green machine found himself without a partner once again (Misawa originally wanted to team with equally small UWFi guy Masahito Kakihara while Giant Baba wanted him to team with Hawaiian wrestler Maunakea Mossman and Ogawa was ultimately selected as a compromise).

This led to the second reason: Ogawa was surprisingly good in his role as the sneaky weasel who cheated and used underhanded tactics to win. He earned the nickname “Rat Boy” and wrestled like a mixture of William Regal on the mat with Ric Flair at his eye-poking best, all while looking less menacing than Jack Perry. Yet with these attributes Ogawa was able to have at least two outstanding, MOTYC-level tag matches with Misawa against Kobashi and Akiyama in 1999.

Third, these skills helped Ogawa reach the top of the mountain NOAH once before. That’s right, this scrawny little geek is a former GHC Heavyweight Champion, having beaten Jun Akiyama with his countering and reversal specialty in only four minutes a year earlier.

So on one hand people saw these two very different men square up and probably concluded that this was going to be a night off for Kobashi. After all, Kobashi’s arms were wider than Ogawa’s torso so it was only a matter of time before Kobashi caught this little rat and cleaved his head from his shoulders with a lariat. On the other hand Ogawa was as unscrupulous as he was quick, which meant he wasn’t above cutting corners to get what he wanted. And since Kobashi was this righteous do-gooder who believed in sportsmanship and digging down deep to get the most out of himself and his opponent, it was only a matter of time before these two diametrically opposed ideologies led to an explosive clash.

The Match

This took place on November 1, 2003. It was rated ***3/4 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer.

Ogawa spits water in Kobashi’s face to get the jump on him. He opens with punches to the face (a no-no in NOAH) and poses for the fans with his boot on Kobashi’s face. But this only fires Kobashi up and he ROARS in disgust. Then he chops Ogawa so hard Ogawa sells like each one knocks the wind out of him. The ref pulls Kobashi off but moments later Kobashi’s back on the attack with neck chops. He goes for a suplex but Ogawa counters into an armbar attempt. Kobashi counters that but Ogawa counters the counter with some smooth mat technique which gets applause from the crowd.

Ogawa does Kobashi’s shtick and keeps a headlock cinched in despite being shot off the ropes. Ogawa gets some quick one-counts and when Kobashi tries shooting him off a second time Ogawa holds on again, drags him to the bottom rope, lands outside, and punches Kobashi’s face again.

Kobashi tries using his power to break Ogawa’s neck cranks but Ogawa uses his speed to reapply them before Kobashi can do much of anything. Eventually he does break free but Ogawa answers with a backpack sleeper, only for Kobashi to power out and punish him with more chops. Kobashi fights out of a corner and lands his trademark rolling cradle for two. He lands more chops in a corner, including a vicious discus chop to the neck that Ogawa sells like death. The referee checks on him and makes Kobashi back up to check on him. Kobashi’s not buying this but he gets caught up in the referee’s insistence. While all this is happening Ogawa wakes up from playing possum…and kicks the back of Kobashi’s surgically repaired knee. Oh no he didn’t.

Ogawa smirks as he drags Kobashi to a corner and smashes his knee into a ringpost. He rips off one of Kobashi’s kneepads, lands a knee stretch of some sort, and lands direct hits to the tape on Kobashi’s knee. He twists Kobashi’s ankle, stretches the knee in unnatural fashion, and even when Kobashi tries a chinlock Ogawa maintains control by punching Kobashi’s injured limb. Ogawa smashes Kobashi’s knee into the side of the ring, stomps on it some more, and just continues to agonize kobashi with simple but effective leg holds.

Kobashi tries fighting back with chops and elbow but Ogawa retaliates with a dragon screw leg whip. He powers out of a half crab and then starts hulking up NOAH style as Ogawa punches his head. More furious than I’ve ever seen him, Kobashi launches into a machine gun chop barrage…only for Ogawa to cheapshot him and lands another dragon screw. Another half crab leads to another ropebreak so Ogawa does his own version of Bret Hart’s ringpost Figure-4. Then Ogawa gets real cocky and paintbrushes Kobashi. Kobashi tries to reverse a corner whip but Ogawa kicks the knee. Ogawa ducks another clothesline but Kobashi counters with a Giant Baba neckbreaker drop out of nowhere. Both guys counter different suplex attempts until Ogawa launches Kobashi into the referee, knocking him down. A ref bump spot in NOAH, what a novelty.

Ogawa follows with an enzuigiri and a backdrop suplex but the ref’s out and unable to count and covers. I guess referee’s of all backgrounds are secretly made of glass. With the ref out cold Ogawa hits Kobashi’s knee with the ring bell several times and taunts the fans while doing so. He goes to send Kobashi into the guardrail but Kobashi counters. Ogawa tries smashing his face into the post but Kobashi reverses and smashes Ogawa’s instead. And he does so with malice. It looks like he doesn’t put any effort into holding back or protecting him. Either he’s that good at making it look real without it actually being so or he’s genuinely mad at this point.

With the referee now up Kobashi lands another discus chop and gets some much-needed recovery time for his knee. After reattaching his kneepad he starts punching Ogawa as blood pours down Ogawa’s face. This goes on for a while with Ogawa staggering about. Ogawa goes back to the knee but now it’s not doing all that much. Both men fight onto the elevated entrance ramp where Kobashi shoots Ogawa off the ropes and plants him with a DDT.

Back in the ring Kobashi continues to chop Ogawa away and starts out-thinking him as he tries more counters. A delayed back suplex gets Kobashi a two-count so he lands more knife-edge chops to the forehead and bridge of the nose. Ogawa kicks out of a delayed jackknife powerbomb so Kobashi locks him in a sleeper. Ogawa fades but still kicks out at two. Kobashi continues punching to the point that the ref, who had been admonishing him for this for some time, gets physical, desperate to get him to stop punching and to avoid disqualifying him. This distraction allows Ogawa to land a low blow. Ogawa follows with an enzuigiri but Kobashi fires up and lands even more machine gun chops. Kobashi gets a near-fall off a superplex and goes for a half-nelson but Ogawa escapes and lands a backdrop. Kobashi bounces right back up and tries another half-nelson. Ogawa counters with a surprise cradle for a close two-count. Kobashi misses a corner charge and Ogawa gets a school boy and uses the ropes for leverage. Two-count. Ogawa tries blocking another half-nelson so Kobashi counters mid-move with a half-nelson exploder suplex. Two-count. Kobashi tries the Burning Lariat. Ogawa blocks and tries a crucifix hold. Kobashi throws him off and connects with a short-range lariat. Then Kobashi drills him with a successful short-range Burning Lariat to get the three-count and retain the title.

Winner and STILL GHC Heavyweight Champion after 23:51: Kenta Kobashi

Review

This was a very fun and exciting match…for about the first half. When Ogawa was cheap-shotting Kobashi and weaseling his way out of each precarious situation as it happened the match was all kinds of entertaining. Ogawa was slimy, deceptive, and remorseless as he cheated and broke any pretense of gentleman’s agreement to not go after Kobashi’s obvious weakness. Once he went down that route he became a classic American style heel. He lived up to his ‘Rat Boy’ nickname and got the NOAH audience, who were traditional and rarely willing to go so far as to boo anyone, to really let him have it. After all, Ogawa had the nerve, the gall, to attack Kobashi’s bad knees, which had sidelined him for the better part of two years. Ogawa’s strategy was paying off bigtime: Kobashi was left stuck on the mat, unable to hold himself for long and so slow on the attack that Ogawa was able to chain together multiple weak attacks long and consistently enough to do some serious damage. With each passing moment of Ogawa in control the unlikely possibility of a second upset victory, this time over the greatest draw NOAH had, grew ever more possible.

But then the match turned around. Kobashi got a random counter in and then busted Ogawa open. And from there the match, well, kinda dragged. If this were a classic American-style babyface comeback moment, then Kobashi could’ve milked his comeback moment and begun his fiery comeback right than and there but made it abrupt and definitive. Instead, Kobashi stretched this comeback segment out way longer than necessary. He just punched and punched and punched, to the point that the catharsis and satisfaction of seeing Ogawa get his just desserts simply dissipated. These guys could’ve shaved off that long middle section and gone straight for the fiery babyface comeback. But Kobashi chose to go into overkill territory in some false attempt at protecting Ogawa’s credibility. I suspect Ogawa needed some kind of protection so he took countless punches to his bloodied head to make him look somewhat valiant in defeat.

Final Rating: ****1/4

Even though the match had a bit of a weird order/structure during the second half, this match was still plenty of fun and I think you’ll enjoy it as well. While Kobashi, the star of the match, shines brightest when he’s in a competitive setting against either an equal or someone that can outclass him, which makes him bring out his best, there’s a delightful fish-out-of-water dynamic here in seeing Kobashi wrestle a more directly American style match. Ogawa heeled it up as much as he could and put up roadblock after roadblock, to the point that Kobashi could barely move forward. But for all his tricks and conniving ways, Ogawa could only slow Kobashi and not stop him completely.

Had these guys simply executed the turnaround/babyface comeback portion of the match a little differently and with a bit more focused action and tension, I’d have given this an even higher rating. With so many generic matches lacking any outward storytelling and just sold to the audience as a token “banger”, it’s refreshing to see one guy famous for such quality-driven contests to excel in a story-driven setting as well.

Thanks for reading.