*UPDATED* AYUMI KURIHARA RETIRES... is it too late to catch up?

Ayumi Kurihara retires.

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Kenta Kobashi Retires...

As of the date of this writing, Kenta Kobashi has just retired.

Perhaps one of wrestling's best athletes and toughest individuals, Kenta Kobashi has carved himself out a huge chunk of the pro-wrestling world.

According to Wikipedia:

Championships and accomplishments

• All Japan Pro Wrestling

• AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championship (4 times) – with Tiger Mask II / Mitsuharu Misawa (1), Johnny Ace (2) and Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (1)
• AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship (3 times)^[1]
• AJPW Unified World Tag Team Championship (6 times) – with Mitsuharu Misawa (2), Johnny Ace (2) and Jun Akiyama (2)
• Champion Carnival (2000)
• World's Strongest Tag Determination League (1993–1995) – with Mitsuharu Misawa
• World's Strongest Tag Determination League (1998, 1999) – with Jun Akiyama
• One Night Six Man Tag Team Tournament (1999) - with Jun Akiyama & Kentaro Shiga^[22]
• January 2nd Korakuen Hall Heavyweight Battle Royal (1993)^[23]

• Pro Wrestling Illustrated

• PWI ranked him #4 of the 500 best singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 1996, 2000, and 2004
• PWI ranked him #33 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the "PWI Years" in 2003^[24]

• Pro Wrestling Noah

• GHC Heavyweight Championship (1 time)^[1]
• GHC Openweight Hardcore Championship (1 time)
• GHC Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Tamon Honda
• One Day Six Man Tag Team Tournament Winner (2002) - with Kenta and Kentaro Shiga^[22]

This man has faced perhaps the best of the best in this crazy world of professional wrestling, and even one particularly nasty opponent outside of the ring as well.

Kenta Kobashi combined powerful holds with deadly strikes to create an offense that was nigh-impenetrable. His toughness both in the ring and out of it was, and is something to be admired.

Not to mention the man takes one hell of a wedding picture:

I first became aware of him through playing Virtual Pro 2 on the Nintendo 64, a game that was a close cousin to the WWF Wrestlemania 2000 that we got stateside. I was struck by his moveset... deadly strikes, vicious chops, a hellacious lariat, a tough moonsault (which took a nasty toll on his knees) and suplexes that could turn your neck into an accordion.

Today I'd like to take this time to look back at his awesome career with some of my favorite matches with Kobashi. Despite my efforts, I cannot for the life of me decide which one is better than the other, so I present this in (mostly) chronological order.

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