Japanese wrestling veteran Kuniaki Kobayashi has passed away. He was 68 years old.
Kobayashi, who is not related to KENTA “Hideo Itami” Kobayashi or Shozo “Strong” Kobayashi, wrestled for more than three decades.
He began his career in New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 1973 when he was 17 years old, after training in the dojo for about a year.
Standing at six feet tall and weighing around 231 pounds, Kobayashi was able to fill dual roles as both a junior and full-fledged heavyweight. During the 1980s, Kobayashi, like many before and after him, went on foreign excursion to North America, where he found steady work for two years in both the United States and in Mexico. It was around that time that he found a regular tag partner in fellow NJPW dojo graduate Bad News Allan Coage.
“ [Kobayashi ] started with New Japan the same time I did. We were wrestling against each other in Acapulco, Mexico,” Coage recalled on his now-defunct website. “I threw him out of the ring and then grabbed him and ran him right out of the building onto the street, we beat each other all over peoples cars. Some of my wildest matches in Mexico were against him. He’s a great guy inside and outside of the ring. I always consider him a friend.”
In Los Angeles, Kobayashi was known as Kid Koby, and beat Diamond Timothy Flowers for the NWA Americas Heavyweight title in July 1982, holding it for a month and dropping it to Black Gordman.
As a junior heavyweight specialist during the 1980s, Kobayashi was lucky enough to face off against two of the most important smaller wrestlers of his time, those being the first to Tiger Masks.
The first, Satoru Sayama, was a junior heavyweight revolutionary that changed the landscape of the wrestling business by focusing more on speed, acrobatics, and flash, all of which stood out so much more in an era still dominated by slower and more rugged heavyweights.
The second generation Tiger Mask was, of course, Mitsuharu Misawa, with whom Kobayashi had many head-turning bouts throughout the mid-1980s that helped All Japan maintain a strong footing after they purchased rights to the Tiger Mask character from rival New Japan.
Through the battles, Kobayashi earned the nickname Tiger Hunter.
After a short stint in All Japan, Kobayashi returned to New Japan where he stayed for the remainder of his career. During that second stint, which began in 1987, Kobayashi would have standout performances with the likes of Shiro Koshinaka, Keiichi Yamada (better known as Jushin Thunder Liger), Nobuhiko Takada, Hiroshi Hase, and Owen Hart.
Though he was far from the most decorated of wrestlers – he only won All Japan’s and New Japan’s junior heavyweight title once each, a far cry compared to the multiple title reigns of many of his contemporaries – Kobayashi still found regular work for well over a decade and shared the ring with some of the most important smaller workers of the past five decades.
Not only was Kobayashi a reliable hand in NJPW’s junior heavyweight division during its second, post-Sayama boom period, but he was also an incredibly tough man who wrestled through at least two separate bouts of cancer. He underwent two surgeries in 1992 and 1993, respectively, to combat colorectal cancer and then another bout with liver cancer in 1999 slowed him down to the point that he had to retire from fulltime competition around 2000.
According to a translated post from an apparently family member, Kobayashi died from pancreatic cancer on September 9, 2024. NJPW confirmed the news, and in its release, added, “The thoughts and utmost sympathies of all at New Japan Pro-Wrestling are with Kobayashi’s family, friends and fans.”
For his dedication to pro-wrestling, Tokyo Sports bestowed him its Service Award in 2000, as a special thanks from beyond the confines of a single promotion for all that he did for the wrestling business.
Still, Kobayashi remained close to pro-wrestling in New Japan, first as a color commentator and then as a caretaker for the New Japan Dojo. He also made some special legend appearances between 2011 and 2013 in special commemorative matches with Satoru Sayama, and his last appearance inside a wrestling ring was at NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 11 event in which he appeared in the opening New Japan Ranbo gauntlet elimination match and was eliminated by the fourth iteration Tiger Mask. And in another moment of symbolism, Kobayashi appeared as a ringside guest/manager in Jushin Liger’s final match at Wrestle Kingdom 14.
