Hammer Reigniting: The Decline and Return of KENTA
WWE, it seemed, was the only force strong enough to snuff out a Burning Hammer.
1.
KENTA lay hoisted atop the shoulders of his mentor, Kenta Kobashi, in front of almost seventeen thousand fans at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan arena. KENTA was about to have his head dropped squarely on the canvass beneath. KENTA’s shoulders would be pinned to the mat, the referee would count to three, and KENTA would lose.
And it was going to be the most glorious moment in KENTA’s young life.
2.
To appreciate the magnitude of this moment for KENTA, it is first necessary to understand the history of All-Japan Pro-Wrestling (AJPW). AJPW ranks among Japan’s most prominent professional wrestling promotions. In the early 1990s, AJPW stood at the very pinnacle of pro wrestling (or “puroresu”) in Japan, and arguably even in the world.
By this point in history, AJPW had perfected its so-called “King’s Road” style. In brief, the King’s Road style of pro wrestling is deeply rooted in the symbolism of a wrestler’s move-set. Signature maneuvers, especially “finishers,” are of course an important part of pro wrestling in all its forms across the globe. In King’s Road, however, these special maneuvers are conceptualized as being organized in a hierarchy, of sorts. Wrestlers in AJPW in the 1990s had multiple finishing moves that were effectively “tiered.” In this schema, a move that could finish a mid-card opponent would not suffice for dispatching a contender.
Take for example Mitsuharu Misawa, an enduring star in AJPW throughout the 80s and 90s. Misawa could typically finish a lower-tier opponent with his double-underhook powerbomb, which he’d labelled the “Tiger Driver” to complement his trademark “Tiger Suplex.” For opponents of the highest tier, Misawa was more likely to resort to the Emerald Flowsion, a rarely seen move which involved dropping his opponent directly on his head with considerable force. Though the matches had predetermined finishes as per pro-wrestling precedent, AJPW performers were often heedless of injuries, and would deal out (and endu) dangerous head-drops.
The highest of the high-tier moves in AJPW was (and is) the Burning Hammer. The Burning Hammer is the atomic bomb of wrestling moves. It involves shouldering one’s nemesis in an Argentine Backbreaker, and then cavalierly dropping them sideward and onto their head. The Burning Hammer was innovated by perennial fan-favorite Kenta Kobashi (not to be confused with KENTA). It is a move of last resort. It is the move that Kobashi resorted to on October 24, 1998 in order to finally score a pin-fall over Misawa, his former tag-team partner and long-time rival, after many failed attempts.
One year less a day later, on October 23, 1999, Kobashi used the Burning Hammer for a second time, again for purposes of putting away Misawa. By this point, the rare and episodic usage of the Burning Hammer started to afford the move a mystique. It would be over a year before Kobashi used the Burning Hammer again, this time to finish off another former tag-partner in Jun Akiyama.
By 2000, All-Japan had fallen from the summit of Japanese puroresu. This was due in part to the difficulty of sustaining a main-event scene in which the talent was effectively in an arms-race of dangerous finishers, exposing themselves to increasingly injurious move sequences. More tangibly, AJPW’s fate was sealed by a mass exodus of talent led by Misawa. The master of the Emerald Flowsion had formed a new company, Pro Wrestling Noah, and the Burning Hammer would not be extinguished therein.
On March 1, 2003, Misawa and Kobashi squared off for the GHC Heavyweight title, Pro Wrestling Noah’s paramount championship. After being dominated early on, Kobashi fought back and utilized the Burning Hammer to score his first significant singles win over his arch-rival and capture the new top prize in Japanese pro wrestling.
On July 10, 2004, Kobashi resorted to the Burning Hammer for a fifth time, again against Jun Akiyama. Within two months, Kobashi used the Burning Hammer on Akira Taue, another former AJPW mainstay. By now, the simple fact that Kobashi had to resort to the Burning Hammer underscored the ascendancy of his opponent. Even to lose to Kobashi via the Burning Hammer was a win for a wrestler’s career.
3.
KENTA was born Kenta Kobayashi (not be confused with Kobashi) in Soka, Japan on March 12, 1981. Soka is a city of approximately 250,000 located in the landlocked prefecture of Saitama. Here, Kobayashi combated the inherent ennui of small-city life through sports, taking fondly to baseball as a youth. He also tried his hand at martial arts, with kickboxing emerging as his combat sport of choice. Though Kobayashi was small in stature, professional wrestling beckoned to him.
Quite unlike American wrestling promotions, Japanese puroresu presented boundless opportunities for smaller men, sustaining strong “Junior Heavyweight” divisions. These divisions launched many smaller-statured wrestlers who would go on to find stardom in America, including Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho. Moreover, Japanese pro wrestling has always been captivated by performers with backgrounds in legitimate martial arts — that is, the “shoot-fight” disciplines. This fascination informed the development of the “Strong Style,” a type of Japanese wrestling often contrasted with “King’s Road.” Strong Style is based largely on strikes and is synonymous with New-Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), All-Japan’s perennial competitor. As an athletic junior heavyweight with a kickboxing background, Kobayashi had scads of potential.
Kenta Kobayashi entered into training under two Japanese wrestling legends. One was Yoshihiro Takayama, a wrestler who dabbled in MMA and emphasized the shoot-fighting style within pro-wrestling. The other was Kenta Kobashi, the inventor of the Burning Hammer. Kenta Kobashi became Kenta Kobayashi’s mentor. Takayama wielded plenty of influence, too. Drawing from both their styles, Kobayashi emphasized strikes as per Takayama and fighting spirit as per Kobashi.
Kenta Kobayashi debuted in All-Japan in 2000, taking on future teammate and rival Naomichi Marufuji. Kobayashi didn’t stay in All-Japan for long, however. Later that year, he was part of the mass exodus to Misawa’s Pro Wrestling Noah.
Here he took on the name KENTA, stylized in all-caps to distinguish himself from the legendary wrestler who had trained him. Soon enough, KENTA became distinguishable — notorious even — by way of his strikes, the power of which more than made up for his small stature. His kicks looked especially legitimate, in large part because they were. Japanese Strong Style does not pull punches or, for that matter, kicks. Strong-style strikes typically land with considerable impact. While finishes are, again, predetermined, Strong Style wrestling is far from “fake.” KENTA’s chosen finishing move was a perfect synthesis of Takayama and Kobashi, blending Strong Style and King’s Road. This maneuver, dubbed the “Go 2 Sleep,” involves hoisting an opponent up onto the shoulders and then dropping him down face-first into a fast-rising knee.
Soon KENTA was welcomed into Kobashi’s faction, “The Burning.” From there, the accolades came in quick succession. In May of 2002, KENTA reached the finals of the eliminator tournament for the prestigious GHC Junior Heavyweight championship. In July 2003, KENTA teamed with Marufuji, and together they became Noah’s first-ever GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag-Team Champions. Their reign lasted just short of two years. By this point, KENTA had come into his own as a singles competitor, defeating Yoshinobu Kanemaru to capture the GHC Junior Heavyweight title. KENTA would hold the belt for almost a year, enduring six impressive title defenses.
It was during this title reign that KENTA would face his most formidable challenge to that point. It would not be for the belt, but it would still be a litmus test of KENTA’s star power. The challenger was not from among his peers in the Junior Heavyweight division. His opponent would be a heavyweight, and one of the greatest at that.
His opponent would be his mentor, Kenta Kobashi.
4.
Kenta vs. KENTA is one of the all-time great wrestling matches in Japan, or anywhere else, for that matter.
The contest took place at Pro Wrestling Noah’s Navigate for Evolution event on March 5, 2006 at Tokyo’s famed Nippon Budokan hall. In terms of the oft-cited “big-fight feel” — that sub-audible thrum preceding high-profile prize-fights — this match registered on the Richter Scale. The stadium tremored with anticipation. Yet KENTA remained perfectly still as he awaited his opponent’s entry, hands on knees, his eyes stony and narrowed. The brash youth would not be intimidated by the gravitas of the legend who had mentored him.
Kenta Kobashi was a shell of his former self, doddering down the entry ramp. His All-Japan days were long behind him. Still, the spectators started a chant of “Ko-ba-shi” as his quixotic piano-heavy theme music played.
KENTA showed the veteran little in the way of respect. At the sound of the bell, he hit Kobashi with rapid-fire strikes, sending him to the mat. When Kobashi was down, KENTA peppered him with more kicks. Continuing the disrespectful display, KENTA threw in a kick to the face. Soon after, KENTA landed a Tiger Suplex — an homage to Kobashi’s rival Misawa.
Kobashi came back with a release half-nelson suplex, dropping KENTA directly on the top of his head. KENTA shook it off quickly and started back on the attack. He landed a number of impressive moves, including a Frankensteiner off the apron to the outside.
Kobashi, it seemed, was a step behind his much younger opponent. Gradually, though, Kobashi mounted an offense. Indeed, “gradual” seemed the only pace at which he could work. Soon enough, Kobashi cornered KENTA and hit him with an accelerating paroxysm of open-handed chops, reddening the chest of the youth. KENTA stormed back with rapid-fire strikes of his own. The match became a back-and-forth affair, a serve-and-volley of chops and kicks from either man. Kobashi hit a pair of powerbombs, the first one into the turnbuckle and the second sending KENTA from the corner to the center, ending with a jackknife pin. Kobashi scored a 2 count — 2.9 to be more precise. Upon kicking out, KENTA struck back with a small-package pin, getting a 2.9 of his own.
From there, the pace jerked into high-gear. KENTA hit a German Suplex. Kobashi rushed back with another half-nelson suplex. KENTA sold it only minimally and kneed Kobashi decisively. Kobashi attempted a superplex but KENTA countered with a powerbomb of his own. Kobashi’s high-tier offense was no match for KENTA, who had an answer for everything. KENTA landed a barrage of strikes and then set up his much-heavier mentor on his shoulders for the Go 2 Sleep. Kobashi fought out of it awkwardly — possibly a botch, but in any event a consequence of his advancing years and declining stamina. KENTA once again moved to put Kobashi away, landing a hard knee strike. He then set up for his signature Busaiku Knee, a vicious running knee strike. Kobashi countered with an explosive lariat, stirring the crowd. He had, apparently, one last move left in him.
Then Kobashi lifted KENTA onto his shoulders. The crowd roiled in recognition. That cruciform shape etched out by the two wrestlers was as evocative as any religious icon. Kobashi teetered over and landed the Burning Hammer, dropping KENTA on the top of his head. The crowd ignited in deafening cheers. The referee’s three-count was perfunctory, for the verdict had already been rendered. Kobashi was the victor. KENTA had been defeated, but he was not a loser.
The seventh-ever Burning Hammer had been required to put KENTA away. Only the most powerful move in Japanese wrestling could beat KENTA. KENTA was now only the fourth man to take the Burning Hammer, placing him in a club with Misawa, Akiyama, and Taue, three of Japan’s all-time greats. From Kobashi, it was the consummate gesture of respect to an opponent who had showed him little of it throughout their match. It was tantamount to convocation summa cum laude from Kobashi’s tutelage. Kobashi had made his student into a bona fide star. KENTA was necessarily in the conversation for being an all-time great. At minimum, he had now fully arrived on the Japanese wrestling scene.
In the immediate aftermath, KENTA received medical attention. His stony gaze had been replaced with a fluttery-eyed fugue. Indeed, wrestlers with King’s Road and Strong Style sensibilities know how to sell a finish. On that night, KENTA was carried off on the back of one of his seconds, but there was no telling how far his career would go from here.
5.
After the loss to Kobashi, KENTA kept ascending steadily. He eventually lost the GHC Junior Heavyweight title, but then reoriented his focus toward the Heavyweight crown.
In the meantime, he and his new tag team partner, Taiji Ishimori, wrestled a series of matches in the United States in 2007 that were heralded by critics worldwide. With Ishimori, KENTA captured his second GHC Junior Heavyweight tag title. On the singles side, he defeated Bryan Danielson (known to WWE faithful as Daniel Bryan) for his second GHC Junior Heavyweight championship. As champion, he embarked on a cross-promotion title unification match with his former partner Marufuji, now All-Japan’s World Junior Heavyweight Champion. This match went to a sixty-minute time-limit draw, and while there was no winner, both participants received plaudits for their performance. In 2011, KENTA picked up a third GHC Junior Heavyweight tag-title, this time with Yoshinobu Kanemaru. In October of 2012, KENTA won his first ever GHC Tag Team Championship — the heavyweight tag titles — along with a new partner Maybach Taniguchi, defeating TNA mainstays Magnus and Samoa Joe.
Just months later in January 2013, Kenta received a shot at Takeshi Morishima for the GHC World Heavyweight title. In a grueling bout, KENTA incapacitated the burly, baby-faced Morishima and got the victory. KENTA had now arrived as a world champion.
And what a champion he would be: KENTA became the first wrestler to defend the title eight times in a calendar year. He added a ninth defense and ended up holding the title just two weeks short of a year before losing it back to Morishima.
After Morishima lost the belt to legend Yuji Nagata in short succession, KENTA received the first title shot against the new champion. He lost an unforgettable match, and soon after held a press conference to make a monumental announcement.
KENTA was leaving NOAH for the biggest stage of them all: WWE.
6.
When KENTA arrived in the WWE, expectations were high. One of the premiere wrestlers of Japan was coming to the largest sports-entertainment company on earth. Could the presence of an undeniable international talent provide the morale boost that WWE needed? The demise of World Championship Wrestling in 2001 had left WWE with no competition, and WWE’s product had grown stagnant. KENTA brought hope to a cadre of wrestling fans, both casual and hard-core, who had tuned out WWE on account of the milquetoast, middle-of-the-road content Vince McMahon and family had been churning out for well over a decade.
But KENTA’s arrival also occasioned some justifiable skepticism. The man who took the seventh and final Burning Hammer, the finisher of all finishers, was now going to a wrestling promotion where any given “finisher” could be attempted or even used as many as four or five times in a match (as per Brock Lesnar, whose “F-5” maneuver is often spammed heedlessly in main-events). And how would super-stiff KENTA adapt to the rigid McMahon standard whereby even the most accomplished wrestlers were rebranded — or better yet gelded — as “entertainers” for WWE TV?
In typical WWE fashion, KENTA received a new moniker: Hideo Itami, or “Hero of Pain.” He made his first appearance on NXT, which is technically WWE’s “minor-league” show, even though it typically outperforms the major brands, Raw and SmackDown (at least in a critical sense). KENTA/Itami was greeted with considerable fanfare by the astute NXT crowd, many of whom were familiar with his successes in Japan. Itami defeated Justin Gabriel in his first match, looking impressive in the process. WWE writing staff immediately tried to get Itami into a feud with the Ascension, a semi-inspired 21st century homage to the Road Warriors/Legion of Doom. Soon Itami found himself on a team with Finn Balor, a talented international star who’d made KENTA’s double foot-stomp his own. This storyline culminated in a singles match between Itami and Balor in a tournament for the vacant NXT championship. Itami lost the bout. Itami also earned a spot in the Andre the Giant Battle Royal at WrestleMania 31 in March, and he was eliminated by the eventual winner, The Big Show a.k.a. Paul Wight a.k.a. The Giant a.k.a. Captain Insano.
By May, Itami/KENTA was sidelined with a shoulder injury. Complications related thereto kept him out of action for more than a year’s time.
When Itami returned in June of 2016, much of the fanfare had disappeared. In October, he was injured again, this time hurting his neck after WWE trainee Riddick Moss botched a powerslam. WWE creative had been building toward a tag alliance between Itami and fellow Japanese megastar Kota Ibushi for the upcoming Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, but on account of the neck injury, this went up in smoke.
When Itami/KENTA returned, he started a program that had him feuding with Kassius Ohno — that is, the rebranded indie darling Chris Hero. KENTA would play the heel, spoiling his match with Ohno by resorting to a low blow and losing by disqualification. Soon enough, the WWE writers had Itami demanding respect from the fans. Fan respect wasn’t the problem, however. It would have been more honest had the WWE writers been demanding respect for themselves.
Despite KENTA/Itami’s increasingly obvious struggles, it was announced in late 2017 that he was going to be called up to WWE’s main roster. This wasn’t necessarily a blessing. By this point, NXT standouts too numerous to name had lost most or all of their momentum upon being brought up to Raw and SmackDown. Moreover, KENTA/Itami would be part of 205 Live, the Cruiserweight division which WWE aired with an apparent indifference. Plenty of talent floundered in 205 Live. Though he entered into the Cruiserweight title picture, Itami was adrift in an ocean of talent. Though he turned good again, he became just another face in the crowd.
It hardly helped Itami’s case when he injured Brian Kendrick on the Christmas episode of Raw. Itami/KENTA’s irrepressible Go 2 Sleep left Kendrick with fractures in his nasal bridge and orbital bone, shelving the rebranded Leonardo Spanky for two months.
Though Itami had been billed as a potential WWE Championship contender, he only ever came close to the Cruiserweight championship. In a fatal four-way match for the title at the Royal Rumble, he was pinned by the incumbent champion Buddy Murphy.
Over the better part of two decades, WWE had squandered an obnoxious amount of marquee talent. And after almost five years with Hideo Itami/KENTA in its employ, it appeared WWE could add one of Japan’s best to that list as well. The man lit by the Burning Hammer appeared to have flamed out.
7.
In February of 2018, I found myself holed-up in Saskatoon, Canada, an industrial city that interrupts some of the most void and banal prairie on this planet. I was visiting friends, but it was hardly a vacation. The temperature was flirting with minus forty (the place where Celsius and Fahrenheit meet, incidentally), and there was little to be gained by attempting to leave my lodgings.
But WWE was in town for a house-show, and my friends had an extra ticket. Knowing that I was at least conversant with professional wrestling (if not sports-entertainment), they invited me to come along. I took them up on their kind offer. The seats were just three rows removed from ringside, which sweetened the deal. We were close enough to see the expressions on the faces of the wrestlers.
After a pair of decent intro matches, Hideo Itami’s music hit. I hadn’t studied the card in advance, so I had no idea I’d be seeing KENTA — the last man to take the Burning Hammer — in the flesh. I watched in awe as Itami very determinedly made his way to the ring.
Itami wrestled TJ Perkins that night. The two went through a fairly paint-by-numbers cruiserweight match, with some commendable back-and-forth flourishes. But it wasn’t exactly KENTA vs. Kenta Kobashi. In the end, Itami got the three count after employing the attenuated version of the Go 2 Sleep he’d adapted for WWE’s anything-but-strong style. The crowd seemed mildly enthused.
After the match, Itami/KENTA lingered in the ring for a long time, half-sitting, half-laying, often casting his stony gaze down the aisle. Perhaps he was measuring the distance between Soka and Saskatoon, and whether or not he’d really come that far. Here he was back in a landlocked city of 250,000. The man who’d sold out main events in Tokyo found himself performing the same match night after night on the undercard for modest house-show crowds. Had he been told of his eventual fate on the night eleven years and eleven months earlier, as he lay straddled across Kobashi’s shoulders, what would he have done? Would he have countered the Burning Hammer?
As I contemplated KENTA, I thought of those opening lines from W.P. Kinsella’s novel Shoeless Joe (perhaps better known in its film adaptation, Field of Dreams): “My father said he saw him years later playing in a tenth-rate commercial league in a textile town in Carolina, wearing shoes and an assumed name.” But KENTA, unlike Shoeless Joe Jackson of the 1919 Chicago White Sox, had done no wrong. He was only guilty of being the best in the world.
In time, Kenta picked himself up dolorously, as if he had lost the match. Perhaps it was a sense of incongruity that had given him pause. You could lose a match in Japan and then win for years because of it, but you could win a match in WWE and still feel like you’d lost it all.
Here he was performing an attenuated bastardization of his style in a small city distinguishable only by an insufferable cold that no small fire could melt. Looking into KENTA’s eyes from ringside, the fire seemed to have been fully extinguished. WWE, it seemed, was the only force strong enough to stub out a Burning Hammer.
Perhaps my remembrances seem too affected. Perhaps my impressions are too dramatic. But almost a year to the day of that house show, KENTA requested his release from WWE. In a subsequent interview with SI.com, KENTA said through a translator that “I’ve had ridiculous past feelings here in America, and I want to get rid of that humiliation. […] I’ll always remember the humiliation in America.”
For the record, I think he felt humiliation in Canada, too, and I witnessed it firsthand.
8.
The reasons why KENTA did not succeed in WWE have been enumerated and elucidated in countless post-mortems. We need only retread them briefly here. Some claim the moves KENTA had innovated in Japan, namely the G2S, the Busaika Knee, and the Double Foot Stomp, had already been appropriated by WWE talent — CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, and Finn Balor, respectively. Others say WWE couldn’t fully accommodate KENTA’s stiff style. Some say the problem had to do with injuries, both to and from KENTA. All of the above factor into KENTA’s lack of success.
But even though he may have been humiliated, something still flickered in KENTA. He returned to Japan with a purpose. In mid-2019, he appeared in New Japan Pro Wrestling. New Japan may not have been the biggest promotion in the world, but by this point it was almost inarguably the best. Certainly, NJPW had conquered Japan, and KENTA seemed intent on conquering NJPW.
In his first NJPW match, KENTA beat Kota Ibushi. He then followed with a winning streak over high-tier opponents, among them the megastar Hiroshi Tanahashi, the nefarious EVIL, and the massive Texan Lance Archer. It took the prodigious five-time IWGP champion Kazuchika Okada to end KENTA’s run. KENTA soon turned heel and defeated Tomohiro Ishii to win the NEVER Openweight title — one third of New Japan’s “Triple Crown.” KENTA held the title for 127 days, and, after losing it in early 2020, he set his sights on the IWGP United States Championship.
Returning to America in August 2020, KENTA beat three quality opponents in the inaugural New Japan Cup USA tournament, earning in the process a shot at the US title. This seemed to prefigure a match with Jon Moxley, who had captured the title at the outset of 2020, and who had in his own right felt stifled during his years in WWE as “Dean Ambrose.” However, the COVID-19 pandemic was in full effect, and international travel complications made it nigh impossible for Moxley to defend the belt. Moreover, Moxley had plenty to contend with defending the World Championship of All Elite Wrestling (AEW), the new major promotion in the United States. In the meantime, KENTA bided his time by defending his “Right to Challenge” contract and the briefcase that contained it.
On February 3rd, 2021, a six-man match on AEW Dynamite featuring John Moxley was interrupted by a masked, hooded individual. The mystery man took to the ring and assaulted Moxley. He slung Moxley across his shoulders, and by the time he brought the reigning US champion down face-first into his rising knee, the identity of the assailant became obvious. When the mask and the hood were pulled back, it was, of course, KENTA.
This set up an epic main event on the February 10th episode of Dynamite. KENTA and uber-heel AEW Champion Kenny Omega would face John Moxley and Lance Archer in a falls-count-anywhere, tornado tag-team match. And it was nothing less than an American rebirth for KENTA. Even though he was technically heel, he entered to rousing cheers from the small, pandemic-tempered crowd in Jacksonville, Florida. For an instant, KENTA’s trademark scowl broke, and he conceded a smile as he walked out onto American network television again, “Right to Challenge” briefcase in hand.
When the match commenced, KENTA promptly brained Moxley with the briefcase, and the melee was underway. The match didn’t disappoint. No one held anything back. Everyone was their own brand. The highlight came when KENTA countered Archer’s attempt to powerbomb him through the announcer’s table. Instead of putting Archer through the table, KENTA played against expectation and sprinted away, leaping off the entrance ramp and double-stomping Moxley through a table. In one singular episode of AEW Dynamite, KENTA had created more compelling TV than he had in his entire WWE tenure.
He and Kenny Omega won the match, but in the end, Moxley was KENTA’s priority. KENTA pounded Mox with mounted punches on the outside as the show went off the air.
This was all building, of course, to an IWGP US Championship Match on NJPW Strong, New Japan’s American webcast. This, too, was an explosive contest — featuring two immensely talented virtuosos who’d become absolute powder kegs on account of having their fighting spirit neutered in WWE. While Jon Moxley prevailed, KENTA looked better than ever.
So while that final Burning Hammer may have been reduced to embers, it had not burned out after all. Of late, it seems to have been reignited in KENTA. No amount of sports-entertainment could snuff the flame. KENTA versus Moxley will doubtlessly be the first of many barn-burners to come, and KENTA will win a championship in the United States. In this way, he could be a torchbearer for King’s Road and Strong Style in America.
