20 AJPW Matches you must see before you die

8. Kenta Kobashi vs. Steve Williams – August 31, 1993

Although the bulk of the match is your typical Japanese contest with stiff strikes and painful-looking submissions, it’s the last five minutes that really make it special. That’s because this is the match in which Kobashi took three of the most vicious Backdrop Drivers ever seen in a wrestling ring. Steve Williams called this his favorite match of his entire career and it’s one of many that helped elevate ‘Dr. Death’ to a near-mythical level as a gaijin wrestler in Japan. He shows incredible toughness and pain tolerance, which was amazing given Kobashi’s legendary chops (at times they sounded like gunshots going off).

Kobashi took three super-high-angle Backdrop Drivers right onto the top of his head, and on the second one, you can clearly hear the ‘thud’ of his head landing a split second before the rest of his body. Yet astonishingly, he was actually moving immediately afterward. How he managed to do is anyone’s guess.

All in all, a true classic that earned its 5-star rating.