FINAL BURNING - pics from Kenta Kobashi retirement match

[Warner2BruceTD]

SUPER NO VACANCY - sold out Budokan Hall

Hayabusa opened the show

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

He did the moonsault one more time

My god, look at that sellout Budokan crowd. NOAH can't even run it anymore, and it's their home base. Sad.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I can't wait to see this. I have a DVD of the Budokan show where he returned from cancer, which was a great show of emotion, I can only imagine how awesome this was.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Full card

NOAH "FINAL BURNING IN BUDOKAN", 11.05.2013
Tokyo Nippon Budokan

1. Feel the Dengerzone: Masanobu Fuchi vs. Hitoshi Kumano
2. This is the NOAH Junior: SUWA & Genba Hirayanagi vs. Taiji Ishimori & Atsushi Kotoge
<Kenta Kobashi Retirement Ceremony>
3. BURNING vs. BURNING: Tamon Honda & Kentaro Shiga vs. Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Aoki
4. Js Spirits vs. Revolution: Takeshi Morishima & Masao Inoue vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Yoshinari Ogawa
<Break>
5. NOAH vs. NJPW: Takashi Sugiura, Mohammed Yone, & Akitoshi Saito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Yuji Nagata, & Satoshi Kojima
6. Four Men GET Together: Naomichi Marufuji & Minoru Suzuki vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Takao Omori
7. Final Burning in Budokan - Kenta Kobashi’s Retirement Commemorative 8 Man Tag Match: Kenta Kobashi, Jun Akiyama, Keiji Muto, & Kensuke Sasaki vs. Go Shiozaki, KENTA, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, & Maybach Taniguch




Spoilers:

 

KENTA KOBASHI FINAL BURNING :

Hayabusa opened the show.

Results:

1) Fuchi over Kumano with a Backdrop Suplex in 6:18
2) Ishimori over Genba with a 450 Splash in 8:44 (SUWA & Genba vs. Ishimori & Kotoge). Ishimori may have botched a Frankensteiner on SUWA; he was carried out on a stretcher
----Kobashi Retirement Ceremony----
3) Kotaro over Shiga with the Endless Waltz in 11:28 (Kotaro & Aoki vs. Honda & Shiga).
4) Ogawa over Inoue with a schoolboy in 8:38 (Morishima & Inoue vs. Tenryu & Ogawa). Wada was the referee, and after Morishima did his "Don't Stop!" routine, they played J (Tsuruta's theme song).
----Intermission Time----
5) Tanahashi over Saito with the High Fly Flow in 14:22 (Sugiura, Yone, & Saito vs. Tanahashi, Nagata, & Kojima). Chono did commentary and Tanahashi did a heel Air Guitar performance after the match.
6) Takayama over Marufuji with the Everest German (after an Axe Bomber) in 18:23. (Marufuji & Suzuki vs. Takayama & Omori.) Omori appeared with bleached hair. Marufuji had a new outfit. Wada was the referee.
7) Kobashi, Akiyama, Muto & Kensuke vs. KENTA, Shiozaki, Kanemaru, & Taniguchi. Entrance in order of becoming attendant (Kanemaru -> KENTA -> Shiozaki -> Taniguchi). Red team entrance order: Kensuke -> Muto -> Akiyama -> Kobashi, who had the GHC title with him. Nishinaga is the referee, Maybach's mask is purple, and both Kobashi and Akiyama have new entrance gear. LOTS of people crying, Kobashi call was loud, and tons of streamers for Kobashi. They started it off with Kobashi vs. KENTA. Chop Sandwich. Kobashi vs. Shiozaki chop sequence. Kobashi pulled out a rolling cradle. Maybach is cheating. Half-Nelson on KENTA. Kensuke and Shiozaki did a chop battle that was like an "unreal reproduction." 184 (they were counting..?!!) round Machine Gun Chop.

Kobashi pins Kanemaru with a Moonsault after 39:59

Fans loved the match. Akiyama and KENTA are crying. Post match celebration. Misawa Call prompted by Kobashi because he couldn't have a retirement match. Kobashi's wife and mother in the ring.

 

[Bigpapa42]

Awesome pics. The whole leaves me conflicted. I'm happy because he got to go out in a pretty awesome way and he should have good quality of life. I'm sad because he was a physical wreck by the end compared to his prime and its always sad to see a favorite go. Kobashi is one of the main reasons I got into puro in the first place.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

One of the cot damn best to ever lace'em up. One of'da GOATs.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Got 20 hours to kill?

Kenta Kobashi All Japan Triple Crown anthology:

..and the Kenta Kobashi NOAH GHC anthology:

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I'm rewatching that first Kobashi/Misawa GHC Title match 1/3/03, and it's basically a blueprint for many of those great ROH matches that took place a couple of years later.

To say these guys were influential is selling them short. It would be like saying Led Zeppelin or The Rolling Stones influenced a few bands.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

You know, most people prefer the 10/31/98 or especially the 6/11/99 match, but for me, the 1/3/03 Misawa/Kobashi match is not only the best match they ever had against each other, but it just might be the best match i've ever seen - period.

Flawless execution, worked at a ridiculous pace, memorable spots (the Tiger Suplex off the ramp, Kobashi kicking out of the Emerald Flowsion, Misawa nearly beheading himself on the guardrail, the BURNING HAMMER at the finish), red hot crowd, historical world title match, it really has it all. Perfect match, *****+.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Also, we talk about how well they protect finishers in New Japan these days, and they really do, but think about this. Kobashi used the Burning Hammer a grand total of something like 9 times in his entire career. Think about that for a second.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

That didn't take long.

Here's the match, complete with full pre & post match.

 

[EmpireWF]

 

[EmpireWF]

Also, we talk about how well they protect finishers in New Japan these days, and they really do, but think about this. Kobashi used the Burning Hammer a grand total of something like 9 times in his entire career. Think about that for a second.

Woah...that's pretty fucking cool. The guy popularizes the move and has only used it less than 10 times in his career. Watched this old video, christ it's a scary looking move.

 

[Bigpapa42]

Protecting an uber-finisher is kinda necessary in the King's Road style. It also allows for it a lot more than the typical American approach. Still awesome move and awesome how rarely he used it.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Protecting an uber-finisher is kinda necessary in the King's Road style. It also allows for it a lot more than the typical American approach. Still awesome move and awesome how rarely he used it.

The idea that he wouldn't (need to) use it in random Champion Carnival matches against Doug Furnas or The Patriot or Kikuchi or Ogawa is what makes a move like that retain its magic. There's a reason the fans would go batshit crazy when they would see him set it up in a big match vs Misawa or Akiyama. It's like, holy shit, I didn't think he could finish this guy, but if he hits this, game over.

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

 

[BigBiss]

You know, most people prefer the 10/31/98 or especially the 6/11/99 match, but for me, the 1/3/03 Misawa/Kobashi match is not only the best match they ever had against each other, but it just might be the best match i've ever seen - period.

Flawless execution, worked at a ridiculous pace, memorable spots (the Tiger Suplex off the ramp, Kobashi kicking out of the Emerald Flowsion, Misawa nearly beheading himself on the guardrail, the BURNING HAMMER at the finish), red hot crowd, historical world title match, it really has it all. Perfect match, *****+.

I still own the event on VHS

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

Meltzer's Kobashi write up in today's Observer is fantastic.

Baba is the gold standard of wrestling booking and being reminded about all of those subtle layers really makes me want to dig into my VHS collection a rewatch the All Japan golden period.

Every wrestling fan should at some point watch All Japan/NOAH from the match where Misawa sheds the Tiger Mask gimmick, to the Kobashi vs Misawa NOAH 2003 GHC title match. Those are poignant starting/ending points for what I think is the greatest era of wrestling history.