Full NOAH-Kobashi story

After several days of rumors and meetings trying to put out fires, Pro Wrestling NOAH got through its last major show of the year on 12/9 at Sumo Hall in Tokyo with Kenta Kobashi announcing his retirement and saying the stories that he was fired weren’t true, claiming it was all his decision.
Kobashi noted that there was no way he would be able to continue wrestling with all of his injuries, noting that he had neck surgery in July that was largely kept quiet until a few days earlier, and his left arm was in bad shape after repeated elbow surgeries.
The company had been under tremendous heat from fans for an economic-based decision since they could no longer afford Kobashi due to dwindling revenues. But that reality would publicly make the company look like a sinking ship, and both sides worked together to protect the company that he was synonymous with for more than a decade.
After Tokyo Sports released the story on 12/4 that NOAH was firing Kobashi and that several wrestlers would not sign new contracts for 2013 because of it, all the key players got together to try and best manage the story for the good of the company and the wrestling business. The fact Kobashi would return at the show and make a major announcement wasn’t even announced until after the story had broken. There are major business issues with the company, but most of the people involved are long-time friends and were in contact every day about how to handle the situation. It was noted that if NOAH had gotten a TV deal back with NTV, which is something that apparently at one point they were in significant talks about, that everyone would have been on great terms and none of this would happen. The loss of Kobashi also signifies that any talk of regaining a network deal is dead, since Kobashi would have been the most important name to have on the roster from a network standpoint even if, at best, he could only work a few times a year in very limited fashion.
Kobashi, 45, was one of the greatest in-ring performers in pro wrestling history and was, with Keiji Muto, as one of the two biggest stars still active in Japanese wrestling. When the big three promotions got together on August 27, 2011, for the “All Together Now” show with all the biggest stars, which sold out at Budokan Hall, the emotional high point of the show was Kobashi wrestling and teaming with Muto, and the double moonsault finish. It was obvious with everyone together, that while the current generation stars have their following, due to the difference in exposure levels, they can’t match their predecessors.
Kobashi’s career is a case study of being so dedicated to having the best match night-after-night that one destroys their body in the process. His knees were in bad shape by the time he was in his mid-20s, but continued, at 260 pounds, to use the moonsault in all of his big matches for many more years. During the 90s, Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada and others combined to make All Japan arguably the best pro wrestling company during much of that decade, particularly in Tokyo where they once sold out more than 200 consecutive events. But the style destroyed everyone, and unlike the prior generation stars who were able to wrestle into their 50s and 60s, Misawa passed away, as did Steve Williams, Terry Gordy, Gary Albright and Doug Furnas, although the style was not the reason for all of the early deaths. But nearly everyone involved in that era had careers shortened due to the punishment they took in putting on those classic battles.
When Pro Wrestling NOAH was formed, the idea was to use Jun Akiyama, who was younger and healthier, as the big star, with Misawa and Kobashi working underneath as legends. But business wouldn’t allow for that, and Misawa and Kobashi both had to go back to being singles main eventers to keep the company strong. Even though it was feared his career was over after multiple knee and elbow surgeries and more than a year out of action, Kobashi not only returned, but had a three year run from 2003 to 2005 where NOAH was able to recreate the Budokan Hall feel of All Japan with the great main events and sellout crowds. Kobashi went about as long as champion as he could, but as soon as he lost the title, business did start to go down.
The reality was that none of the younger talent, because they never had the exposure of being on network television and in the main events when wrestling was so much more popular, were able to carry the promotion on their own. The result was struggling at big shows. There were a number of factors that put NOAH down, and not creating new stars in recent years was an issue, but that paled in comparison to the general market conditions.
The reality is once they lost their network money, and Misawa passed away, the dye was cast. Kobashi’s career nearly ended a second time after contracting cancer in 2006. While he came back and drew after that point, that took so much out of him physically that he was never close to the same. He would come back, working a limited schedule, and relying almost exclusively on chops, until he would wear out his elbows, need surgery and try and come back.
Kobashi said that he would like to do one last match on 2/26, which would be the 25th anniversary of his debut. The match was not officially announced, but is expected. It would not be a Pro Wrestling NOAH show, but a show promoted by Kobashi himself, likely at Budokan Hall, the scene of most of the biggest matches of his career. There has been a lot of speculation about the match, with those close to the situation saying they are looking at doing a tag team match and the names looked at as being involve would be picked from Jun Akiyama, Go Shiozaki, Masahiro Chono, Muto, Tamon Honda, Yoshihiro Takayama, Minoru Suzuki and Yuji Nagata.
Kobashi’s speech took the talk away from questions on who would and wouldn’t stay with the promotion when contracts expire in a few weeks. Nothing more has been said, but the people expected to leave, Jun Akiyama, Atsushi Aoki, Go Shiozaki, Kotaro Suzuki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru all were on the losing side of their matches at Sumo Hall.
With all the curiosity over the previous few days, the show drew about 6,000 fans to Sumo Hall, well above what the companies big shows have been doing.