5 Best Wrestling Matches of 2004

1. Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama - NOAH Depart, July 10, 2004

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJHqvmqrdf4&t=1270s

There is 12 years of bitter rivalry behind this match. Akiyama’s first match was against Kobashi. He was Kobashi’s partner for a time in All Japan, and the two of them had critically-acclaimed matches together. They were even stablemates in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

But most importantly, Akiyama was initially pegged to be to NOAH what John Cena is to WWE: its ace and central figure, the person around whom the promotion could be built. Yet somehow, that didn’t work out, and the spot of ace went to Kobashi, a man who, in Akiyama’s eyes, was too old and unfit to carry the company forward.

So when Akiyama finally got his shot at Kobashi’s GHC Heavyweight Championship, it was going to be a war.

As expected of the match labelled the Match of the Year in 2004 by both the Wrestling Observer and Tokyo Sports, this match had everything: pure babyface fire from both wrestlers, tests of strength, amazing chain wrestling and technical reversals, savage strike exchanges, an excited crowd, and some of the most vicious moves ever seen inside a wrestling ring.

Not only did Kobashi and Akiyama hit all of their strongest moves inside the ring, but they also hit them outside of it as well. Kobashi hit Akiyama with a vertical suplex from the ring apron to the floor, and then later, Akiyama HIT KOBASHI WITH AN EXPLODER SUPLEX FROM THE TOP ROPE ONTO THE FLOOR! It’s easily the most vicious move of the year in 2004, yet somehow Kobashi survived that move unscathed. He is the ultimate ironman in professional wrestling, seemingly impervious to pain.

Akiyama was tough as well, surviving a wide array of dangerous moves from Kobashi, including one of the most vicious-looking Brainbusters ever unleashed in a wrestling ring. Yet even after surviving such crazy moves, both men kept kicking out at two.

Watching this match will make you think, ‘How were they able to kick out of this? They must be superhuman.’ Yet these two managed to put on such a phenomenal performance while also getting 58,000 people in the Tokyo Dome to lose their minds. Nothing in either NOAH itself or in any other promotion came close to this brutal, dramatic and spectacular wrestling match.