The Story of Jake "The Snake" Roberts in ECW

At ECW’s November to Remember ‘98 from New Orleans, Tommy Dreamer was in need of a mystery partner to face Justin Credible and Jack Victory. While there are many names that Tommy could have picked, he ended up choosing someone completely unexpected, someone who had only shown up in ECW once before. A legend whose appearance seemed random to some, but ended up fitting into a story. I’m talking about Jake “The Snake” Roberts, someone who seemed like they would fit into ECW like a glove, a cole miners glove if you will, but ended up not staying for very long.




In this video, we’ll look at the short time in ECW of Jake “The Snake” Roberts. We’ll look at how and why he came to be there, what he did on screen and behind the scenes, and what it meant for another legend more accustomed to ECW.




As usual, I’m going to be using the newsletters to see what was reported at the time, but you’re also going to hear from both Jake Roberts himself and others from Jake’s podcast, the Snake Pit, and maybe even some other sources.




When asked about his time in ECW In December 2023, Jake Roberts made note that it was very brief. “I was in ECW only for two instances, and each time, for a few hours.” He goes on to explain that he knew Paul Heyman already having worked with him in WCW, another company Jake was only in for a short while. “Paul and I spoke extensively about him managing me. That was something tossed around quite a bit between us, and then I left.” Whether this meant that Jake would have been part of the Dangerous Alliance or not we’ll never know. That would have been interesting though, because as far as I know, Jake in his in ring days was never part of a faction. Would he have stood out in a group like the alliance, or would he have been better as a lone snake? I wonder if Paul, dubbed the “psycho yuppie” at the time, would have acted as some kind of business manager making deals for Jake, or maybe a sort of handler for him. One thing that is clear though is that Jake certainly didn’t need anyone doing the talking for him. Perhaps we’ll never know.




Before showing up in ECW, the last time he had wrestled on a major show was as a part of the 1997 Royal Rumble match. Jake left WWF a couple of months later, with his last match there being a March 1st house show in Louisiana where he would defeat the Goon. A week before this at the February 24th Raw from the Manhattan Center, ECW would invade the show that night, and backstage is where Tommy Dreamer would meet Jake Roberts for the first time. In January 2024, filling in for Jake on The Snake Pit, Tommy Dreamer would tell the story in more detail, saying that Jake used him to block the he and Jack Lanza were smoking, as Vince hated it. *clip* In the same podcast, Tommy also talked about how he used to watch Jake in the early days of his career, as a lower card wrestler in Mid-Atlantic Wrestling, where he described Jake as “an underneath talent that would always have a good match.” It wouldn’t be too long though from that night in Manhattan, that Tommy would actually get to share the ring with Jake, only briefly.




According to the Pro Wrestling Torch, Jake was fired midway through March “after missing work without notice.” It turns out though that past actions had also contributed to this, as the Observer in the same week reports a bit more information. “Two weeks back he took a rental car while on the Texas-Louisiana tour and disappeared for two days including missing a shot. It was just a few weeks back when he was fired, but then re-hired the next day for something similar. I guess his nine lives were up this time. He’d been working in the office helping write television besides working as an occasional in-ring performer when needed.” There had also been an incident a few weeks earlier where Jake, Diesel and Razor Ramon were sent to a AAA event, but this was not their fault “as the airport in Madero was fogged in”, so they couldn’t get their flight. How topical. Even after being fired, Jake would continue to work for AAA, still teaming with Diesel and Razor, as the three had been a pretty regular trio there. This turns out to be nowhere near as cool as it sounds. If you were keen eyed, you might have noticed that it was actually the fake Razor and Diesel. Jake would work indies in the US as well, until getting a surprising phone call.




Hardcore Heaven 1997




At Hardcore Heaven 1997, only ECW’s second ever pay per view, Jake Roberts would make his first appearance for the promotion. He would interfere in a match between Tommy Dreamer and Jerry Lawler, which was part of the long running ECW versus Lawler and the WWF feud which would carry on throughout the year. Jerry was as involved as he was not just because of his constant mocking of ECW on Raw at this time, but also because the feud had bled over into USWA in Memphis, where Lawler regularly appeared. On June 7th, Tommy Dreamer would actually show up in Memphis at the TV studio where USWA was filmed, and would go after Lawler, looking like more of a threat than he ever has in his entire career.




During the match, as Tommy had devious plans for Lawler with the ring post, the lights would go out in the War Memorial Auditorium. When they came back on, Ravishing Rick Rude would attack Dreamer with a trash can, leaving him laying. Rude had appeared for ECW before, but it was still an odd sight to see him there. He throws Tommy into the ring for Lawler to pin him, but Dreamer kicks out at two while Rude disappears. A little later on, Tommy goes for a Piledriver, and the lights go out again. When they come back on, Jake Roberts is standing in the ring, and clotheslines Dreamer. Jerry Lawler looks like he has seen a ghost, calling back to their feud in WWF a year earlier. In Tommy’s Snake Pit episode, he tells a story of hearing the sound of someone getting winded while the lights were out, alleging that Jake had taken the opportunity to get a cheap shot in at Lawler, but in a separate Snake Pit episode Jake denies this, while laughing wryly. Regardless, Jake and Jerry are clearly not friends, but Tommy still gets hit with a DDT. Jake then blasts Lawler with a clothesline and leaves. Lawler again tries to cover Tommy who kicks out, and rather confusingly, Jake applauds this as he walks away. Joey Styles exclaims “Jake is clearly here for personal reasons,” as an attempt to explain what was going on. The match continues with the lights going out a third and final time, with Sunny being the last surprise. All of this was designed to build Tommy up as the heart and soul of ECW, battling against all odds. Tommy Cena would eventually overcome all of the interference, and would win the match.




At the start of this video when I quoted Jake referring to his time in ECW as brief, and he wasn’t at all kidding. In the week after the pay per view, the Torch would report that “Jake Roberts arrived just in time to appear on the PPV as a surprise, about 15 minutes before they would have had to do the angle without him.” Wade Keller isn’t clear about this, but he makes it sound like Jake arrived at the building well into the event being underway. He continues, “Originally Roberts was going to be the final surprise, not Sunny, but ECW either (a) decided at the last second Sunny was a bigger deal, (b) were worried about Roberts’s recent track record and didn’t want to put too much heat on him, or (c) were upset with his late arrival and his immediate conduct backstage and decided to downplay him a bit.” To give the other side, this isn’t quite how Jake explains it on his podcast. From what he said in February 2024, the arrangements seemed to be very last minute, but he claims he was at the building a fair bit before the show started. He also says that he was flown in specially, and that he was paid well by Paul Heyman to appear. *clip*




Before Jake left the ring, he approached the camera and made quite a perplexing statement, made even more confusing by his recent positioning of himself as a religious man. Here is what he said quoted word for word on the Snake Pit. *CLIP* Jake would note in the retelling of the story that he found himself in a lot of trouble when he got back to the locker room, and to this day doesn’t know why. Perhaps he wasn’t familiar with ECW’s previous issues with religion, as less than a year earlier at High Incident, Raven and the Sandman had gone too far in depicting a crucifixion. It makes sense that upon hearing Jake’s comments that were said right into the camera, Paul didn’t want a repeat of what happened in the previous October.




If you’re wondering how ECW explained Jake’s motivation after Hardcore Heaven, well, they didn’t. In the following episode of Hardcore TV there was barely any mention of Jake, only in a brief recap where they showed a still image of him there. Tommy Dreamer didn't mention him in his promo either. I wonder if Jake being so late to the show was the reason for this? Maybe they didn’t have the time they wanted to film a follow up for TV, and Jake wasn’t going to be at the next taping. While Rick Rude would appear on the show a week later with Shane Douglas, and Sunny would return to ECW with Chris Candido, Jake wouldn’t come back for a few months, leaving everything vague and unexplained. When he did, nothing would be made clearer then either.




Terry Funk’s Wrestlefest




While maybe not technically an ECW appearance, and Jake himself doesn’t seem to consider it one, there is a match that Jake had around this time which deserves a mention. On September 11th 1997, Terry Funk’s WrestleFest would take place in where else but Amarillo Texas. While the show was promoted officially by Terry and his wife Vicki, and it included talent from WWF, ECW and FMW. “It was billed as 50 years of Funk–as Dory Funk Sr. came from Indiana to Texas in 1947 and eventually became the biggest wrestling star and owner of the territory based in Amarillo until his death in 1973. It was also billed as the final match for Terry Funk in his home town where he started wrestling in 1965.” If you’re curious, it would not be Terry’s last match in Amarillo, as he would have two more there. In 2000, he would wrestle Lance Storm on a WCW house show, and in 2002 he would face Greg Valentine for the XWF.




There seems to be quite a lot of grey area as to whether this can be called an ECW event though, and it’s easy to see why. As noted it was promoted in name by Terry and his wife, but the ECW crew produced it, and it was promoted for several weeks in advance on Hardcore TV, with the home video also being promoted on the show afterwards. As well as this, a couple of ECW matches on the card would later air on Hardcore TV. During the show, Paul Heyman would take the microphone and thank Terry for all he had done for ECW. He would present him with his own world title belt, dubbing him the “lifetime Heavyweight champion”. ECW’s fingerprints were all over the show, but it can also be called an independent event. I’m sure Paul Heyman would have loved for it to be known as his, as it drew nearly four thousand fans, which at the time would have by far been the largest crowd ECW ever drew, though they would top this two months later at November to Remember ‘97. Dave noted in his coverage that “Heyman and Funk will try to promote another show in Amarillo in early 1998 which would be a total ECW card.” This planned event would not take place.




If you ever wondered what it might look like if Bret Hart competed in ECW, this is as close as we ever got, as he would face Terry Funk in the main event. Not only that, but Bret was the WWF champion at the time, and wanted to be there out of respect for Terry Funk. Mick Foley also appeared as his Mankind persona to face Sabu. This would be the only time ever that Foley wrestled Sabu using his WWF name and not Cactus Jack.




Just before the main event though, Jake Roberts would compete in a six man tag, teaming up with former WWF team the Headhunters, against Hakushi, Hayabusa and future ECW world champion, Masato Tanaka. As best I can tell, this would have been Tanaka’s first ever match outside Japan. In the Observer, Dave would say that “Roberts got the biggest pop of anyone not named Funk. Although he was overweight and laughing his way through the match, in no way did he hurt the match.” If you’d like a peek behind the curtain at how frustrating it can be to reference both the Observer and the Torch, Michael Daugherty’s review of the event for the Torch states that “Roberts appeared to have slimmed down a bit since leaving the WWF.” Which one is it lads?




In what was perhaps a questionable decision, “The Japanese worked as the faces, but the crowd due to the recognition of Roberts, cheered them.” Despite this, Hayabusa would get the win, pinning Headhunter A after a move from the top rope. This would be the penultimate match that Hayabusa would ever have in the US, with his last being at ECW Heat Wave ‘98, teaming with Hakushi against Rob Van Dam and Sabu. For reasons we’ll get into very soon, it’s very interesting that Jake would be a part of Terry Funk’s sort of not quite a retirement show. That’s because this wouldn’t be the last we’d see of Terry Funk.




November to Remember 1998




Jake Roberts would spend the end of 1997 and most of ‘98 largely working independents. Notable matches include an ungodly number of clashes throughout the year with the One Man Gang for a promotion called Bad Boys of Wrestling, and a tag team match in Kent England opposite future British wrestling great Doug Williams for a promotion called NWA Hammerlock. This is the same place that trained Finn Balor and Zack Sabre Junior among others, and got them their starts in wrestling.




At one point it was thought that Jake was actually set for return to WCW, which certainly seemed possible given that none of the people who were in charge when Jake was there the first time still had power. In and around March of ‘98, Raven would repeatedly reference “The Snake” in promos, making it sound like Jake was coming in. They certainly convinced Dave Meltzer, who wrote in the Observer on March 23rd that “Raven again brought up The Snake and they wouldn’t be bringing up his name if he wasn’t coming in. Hell, they don’t even bring up Ric Flair or Bret Hart’s name and they are in.” Ultimately this never led anywhere, and Roberts would not appear. In April 2023, Raven would actually address this on an episode of The Snake Pit, saying that he was essentially paying tribute to one of his influences, and that Jake wasn’t actually coming in. *clip*




This next one might seem a bit pointless, but you’ll see why I’ve included it in a minute. In June a match would be promoted for World Pro Wrestling in Fort Smith Arkansas pitting Jake against Brian Knobs “being billed as a WWF vs. WCW match.” I bring this up partly because of the novelty of neither wrestler working for either company at the time, and partly because a few of the other names on the card caught my eye, like this one. You read that one out loud cos I’m not doing it.




And now we come to November to Remember 1998, and the mystery partner that I talked about at the start of this video. It seems that in the lead up to the pay per view, Paul Heyman hadn’t yet secured a surprise partner for Dreamer, and wouldn’t until almost bell time. According to Tommy Dreamer on the Snake Pit, he discovered who his partner was going to be on the morning of the event, and he did in the strangest possible way. While hung over having partied the night before in New Orleans, Tommy says he answered the phone to Paul, who requested that he source quote, a “ten foot boa,” because Jake was going to be on the show. *clip* Tommy goes on to say that he never even tried to find such a snake, or any snake for that matter, but he told Paul that he had tried. *clip*




On thing that is very noticeable about Jake as he walks to the ring is his interesting attire. Jake by this time had not completely begun wrestling in his street clothes, as he wore ring gear in the Terry Funk promoted event, however on this night Jake didn't exactly look like he was ready for a wrestling match. That’s because similar Hardcore Heaven the previous year, “Jake Roberts missed his flight to get to the PPV. They had to charter a plane at the last second and he arrived literally a minute before he walked out onto the rampway for his match.” A contributor for the Torch who reviewed the match wasn’t at all keen on the clothes Jake walked into the building wearing, asking “why couldn’t they give him an ECW shirt to wear instead of that goofy one he showed up in?” In Tommy’s defence, he claims on The SNake Pit that he offered Jake an ECW short that he refused. The reason he turned this down might become more clear by the time we get to the end of the video. The shirt he is wearing in case you were interested is a Wigan Warriors rugby shirt. As Tommy said in the clip I played earlier, Jake was actually living in England around this time, and so getting him to New Orleans wasn’t as easy as sending a plane across state lines like the first time. He would move there some time in the late 90’s, and would remain part of the UK wrestling scene until he moved back to the US in late 2004, even promoting his own shows and running a wrestling school based in St. Albans, Hertfordshire. In the end, it’s probably for the best that Tommy didn’t manage to bring a ten foot snake to the show, as Roberts being so late and having a strange boa thrown onto him definitely doesn’t sound like the best idea, but you can bet ECW would have tried it.




While Jake would never be seen in ECW again, his appearance would fuel a story development that would play out over the next few months. At the beginning of the pay per view, while Joey Styles is doing his usual introduction to the show, Terry Funk enters through the crowd. He makes his way to the ring from the very top of the arena. Once in the ring, Terry who at this point is cheered by the fans, goes on a tirade about how he wasn’t invited to the show, about how he is Tommy Dreamer’s Father figure, and he rages about not being chosen as the mystery partner. He tells us that years ago Tommy asked Funk to be his mentor, and he accepted, but he’d been waiting for weeks to be called, but he never was.




It seems that going into the pay per view, the fans were fully meant to believe that Tommy’s partner could only possibly be one man, Terry Funk. On the episode of Hardcore TV a week before the show, Joey Styles outright tells us that it’s got to be Funk. Joey says quote, “Now come on, we all know every time in the past when Tommy has needed help, he reached out to his Father-figure, his mentor.” He then cuts to a video package of the last time Dreamer and Funk teamed up for a match in December ‘97 for FMW. While footage plays of the two defeating the Dudley Boys to the tune of Desperado by the Eagles, is a voiceover from Tommy telling us that Terry Funk is his mentor with the subtlety of a sledgehammer through a window.




Tommy comes out and tries to smooth the situation over by explaining himself, but Terry is having none of it. While not on the microphone, we can hear Tommy say “you wanted a lighter schedule and that’s fine,” implying that he thought he was doing the right thing. Funk does a pretty masterful job of entering the ring a hero, and leaving it completely detestable through what he says, and more would play out later on in the night.




As Tommy walks out to the ring later in the night to the familiar tune of “Man in the Box”, he stops on the walkway and Jake Roberts slinks in behind him. While Jake doesn’t exactly do nothing in the match, there are times early on where he is alone in the ring on his own while Dreamer and Justin brawl outside, and he’s not exactly very active. For most of the match once it settles down, Jake is in the corner waiting for the tag while Tommy fends off not just Justin, but his whole entourage. In the wrong corner for a fair bit of it too. Once Jake gets in, he and Tommy go after Justin and Jayson Knight, who noticeably does a lot in the match despite not being officially in it. It turns out that there is a reason for this, as early on in the match, Jake throws Victory over the top rope, who lands badly and according to Dreamer, “his knee explodes”. By this point the match seems if you’ll pardon the pun, snake bit. A bit later on you can see Jack on the apron favouring his knee, and he does little in the match after this. Tommy says on the Snake pit that Jayson had been listening when the match was being put together, and so managed to fill in all of Jack’s parts perfectly.




When it looks like it might be time for the DDT, more of Justin’s weird collection of ally’s, the One Man Gang and Rod Price run in. To intercept them, out come New Jack and John Kronus, bringing with them a collection of weapons. While an absolute brawl takes place, Jake can be seen lying on the apron, at one point having what looks like a full conversation with Jack Victory. The match at this point breaks down into chaos, as Kronus hits a 450 splash, and referee Jim Molinaux begins to count for a pin before realising he is not actually in the match. Once Jake gets up, he goes to the wrong corner, until he remembers that he is the legal man and gets back in. Of all people to take the DDT, it’s Nicole Bass, who also gets hit with a low blow. Tommy Dreamer brings a ladder in, perhaps foreshadowing the stairway to hell match he and Justin would have in January at Guilty as Charged. Jake DDT’s Justin onto it, and pins him to win. The match is, quite frankly, bowling shoe ugly as JR would call it, I'd argue fun though. To be fair to all involved though, Tommy claims in his Snake Pit episode “He shows up during the show, and I’m trying to put the whole match together without my partner there not knowing what he wants to do. Again, I also have to deal with Jake the Snake, who I don’t really know.” I don’t know what that must be like, but it certainly doesn’t sound like an easy task. Tommy refers to the match as “all mess ups and ad-libbed,” and also one of his “least favorite matches of all time,” but you can say that there were a lot of circumstances that made it the way it was. The match did give us a truly rare sight, a Tommy Dreamer win against Justin Credible. True to the nature of Tommy’s entire career though, he wouldn’t be able to celebrate for long.




After the match as Jake and Tommy are leaving, Terry Funk comes back. He first rants about Jake Roberts being the mystery partner, to which Jake throws his hands up and leaves. No matter how much Terry shouts at him, Tommy refuses to fight, so Terry attacks him from behind, leaving Tommy laying. Joey Styles then explains to us that Terry left ECW for the WWF, and then left there to film a movie, and so Tommy wasn’t at fault for not asking him, as Tommy is helped away.




In the newsletters, the critical reception to Jake being the mystery partner was not complimentary. The Torch would print various takes ranging from confusion as to why Jake was booked, to disgust that he was not in as good shape as Hollywood Hogan in WCW at the time. Those last ones are a bit galling as it’s not like Hogan was having classics in 1998 either. The Observer wasn’t much kinder, referring to Jake as a “relic”, and also complaining about the use of Mabel, who rather weirdly was brought in as a guest member of the Full Blooded Italians. I’m not sure it’s completely fair to put them in the same category. You could argue that Tommy picking Jake made storyline sense, as Terry was perhaps even more upset by him choosing another veteran and not himself.




Ending




In June 2023, Jake was asked if there was ever supposed to be more planned for him in ECW, and he simply answered “no.” He elaborates that everything he was supposed to do there was a one off, and he doesn’t seem to be gutted about that either. When asked his opinion on ECW as a whole, sometimes he has stated that it was quote “a bit much” for him, and other times he has said quite emphatically that he is not a fan of ECW’s product. *clip*




Not only that, but Jake doesn't sound too fond of the ECW fans either. In 2022, he referred to them as “kids who were allowed to be out of control,” though he also goes on to say “I appreciated how much they loved their wrestling.”




When I think about what Jake could have done in ECW, assuming he was going to stay out of trouble, and had he wanted to be there a bit more, I think of all of the people that he could have been a valuable mouthpiece for. Jake didn’t care for the in ring product or the tone of ECW, so I doubt he’d have gotten in the ring much, but his mind for wrestling could have been so valuable, especially when paired with some of the newer talents who were coming in around the time of Jake’s last appearance there.




It’s hard to imagine that he would have been another Terry Funk, someone who at least in ECW lore is said to have wanted to help everybody he came into contact with, but as we’ve seen in wrestling over the years, few veterans are that generous. Let me know in the comments who you would have paired Jake up with as a manager and why, or even what story ideas you think would have been good for the Snake.





Sources:

Pre ECW

Snake Pit Ep 53 December 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAJM7L-C-tw

PWT MAtch 22nd 97 Jake fired https://vip.pwtorch.com/2017/03/11/vip-1997-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-432-mar-22-1997-cover-story-on-bret-hart-snapping-after-loss-to-sid-foreshadowing-major-wm-main-event-angle-coverage-of-wwf-msg-tv-special-with/

WON Mar 24th Jake fired https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-24-1997-wrestling-observer-newsletter-future-mma-takes-turn/

WON March 10th Madero airport https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-10-1997-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wrestlemania-xiii-line-joe/




HH97

PWT Aug 23rd 97 Jake at HH97 https://vip.pwtorch.com/2017/08/14/vip-1997-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-454-august-23-1997-analysis-of-ecws-second-ever-ppv-hardcore-heaven-97-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-wcw-more/

Feb 9th 2024 Snake Pit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4i9hFmuji8




Funk’s WrestleFest

WON Sept 22nd 97 https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/sept-22-1997-wrestling-observer-newsletter-huge-issue-w-fritz-von/

PWT Sept 20th 97 Jake lost weight https://vip.pwtorch.com/2017/09/09/vip-1997-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-458-september-20-1997-michaels-pulls-another-stunt-at-raw-tapings-uswa-in-turmoil-with-jerry-lawler-being-sued-austins-tenuous-in-ring-future/




N2R 98

WON March 23rd 1998 Jake WCW bound https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/march-23-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-wcw-turmoil-ufc-16-tons/

April 28th 2023 Raven on the Snake Pit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsfHc9PiXyQ

WON June 1st 1998 Jake vs Knobs https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/june-1-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-observer-awards-preview-tons/

PWT Nov 7th Match review https://vip.pwtorch.com/2018/11/03/vip-1998-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-519-november-7-1998-coverage-of-jesse-ventura-being-elected-governor-of-minnesota-detailed-report-on-the-ecw-november-to-remember-ppv-coverage/

PWT Nov 14th Missed flight, goofy shirt https://vip.pwtorch.com/2018/11/10/vip-1998-back-issue-pro-wrestling-torch-520-november-14-1998-cover-story-on-first-major-signs-of-wcw-spiralling-downward-mitchell-coverage-of-jesse-ventura-election-keller-updates-on/

Jake in the UK https://www.facebook.com/groups/ProfessionalWrestlingHistoricalSociety/posts/24622141724073321/

WON Nov 9th Match review https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/november-9-1998-wrestling-observer-newsletter-jesse-ventura-wins/




Ending

Jun 6th 2023 Not having any more to do https://youtu.be/U5BPPRc8sMI

Jake shoot interview - Hannibal TV, February 26th 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcELdQf2XCw

Apr 28th 2022 Jake not liking ECW fans https://youtu.be/4xWfsLlP_7A

 

The US Tour of Kenta Kobashi - Everywhere He Nearly Went

                                 

Just over twenty years ago in Manhattan, New York, one of indie wrestling’s legit dream matches took place. Noah’s legend Kenta Kobashi, known for some of the most stunning strong style matches ever, would face Samoa Joe, young in his career, but racking up big matches at the time. There are already some great videos out there about Joe vs Kobashi, and to be clear, this video isn’t about that match. It’s about the matches and appearances that could have happened, that might have been on the cards, but in the end weren’t.


In this video, we’ll look at the US excursion of Kenta Kobashi. We’ll look at how the tour came about, including all of the promotions he did, and nearly did work for. Then we’ll look at how he ended up at Ring of Honor, up to the announcement of his match with Samoa Joe.


You’ll hear about what was reported at the time by both the Torch and the Observer, but you’ll also hear comments from Gabe Sapolsky from an interview recorded years later.


Kenta Kobashi was thirty eight years old and seventeen years into his career in 2005. He was very much an active full timer though, competing in over a hundred matches in Noah alone that year. On July 18th 2005, he had a match that had a lot of people talking at Noah’s Destiny event, against Kensuke Sasaki. The match was so well regarded, it caused CM Punk of all people to rave about it on his Live Journal page, at the same time chastising everyone who didn’t see it as a classic. I promise that's a thing that happened, and I wish Punk kept up his blogging these days.


Despite Kobashi’s many accomplishments, one thing he had not done so far in his career was wrestle a match outside Japan. He had wrestled for an American company though, sort of. On April 13th 1990, Kenta wrestled at the Tokyo Dome, on a show co-promoted by All Japan, New Japan and WWF. He and Masanobu Fushi lost a tag team match early on the card to Tito Santana and Jimmy Snuka, on a night where Hulk Hogan versus Stan Hansen would be the main event. Though Kobashi had wrestled plenty of Americans, from the Rock and Roll Express, to Cactus Jack to Vader in his Noah days, he was yet to go there himself. That would be set to change in the Summer of 2005.


The US Tour


The first mention of Kobashi possibly going to the US is reported in the July 4th Wrestling Observer. It’s also claimed that he wouldn't be coming alone. “Kobashi, KENTA (that’s the other Kenta) and Marufuji are coming to the U.S. from 9/21 to 9/24 for a Harley Race scouting camp at Race’s school in Eldon, MO. They will probably wrestle on a WLW show, and there is talk of them doing a Pro Wrestling Iron show that week in Northern California as a TV taping.” In 1999, Harley Race founded World League Wrestling, an NWA territory and wrestling school in Missouri which is still running today even after Harley’s passing, currently run by his son Leland. He would hold an annual training camp that would take place in September. Each year, different representatives from Pro Wrestling Noah would be sent for this camp, and in 2005 it was the turn of Kobashi, KENTA and Marafuji. It seems that Harley had managed to keep good relationships with virtually everyone in the business, as a 2008 article from Slam Wrestling details the camp, promising that “representatives from the WWE and NOAH” would be present. “The cream of the crop will be invited to participate in a wrestling card at the end of the camp, which will be filmed by both NOAH and the WWE. “So it’s the opportunity to perhaps be seen in front of worldwide audience,” Race noted — a pretty rare opportunity indeed.” If you thought as I did upon hearing that WWE being involved sounded strange, here is an article from wwe.com that I found advertising Harley’s training camp, even mentioning Kenta Kobashi as scheduled to attend. While there is no date or author listed on the page, the dates in the article match when Kobashi was set to be there in 2005.


WWE’s involvement wouldn't end there though. After Kobashi’s visit to the US, reports would come out of Japan about a meeting between Kobashi and a WWE office employee who was at the Harley Race camp. That WWE employee was at the time their EVP of talent relations, John Laurinitis. While on the surface a meeting like that might sound strange, the two did have history together. Ahead of the meeting Dave Meltzer would point out “It could be just for Japanese p.r. Kobashi & Johnny Ace were a regular tag team nearly 15 years ago with All Japan, feuding with Dan Kroffat & Doug Furnas.” He later notes that the two likely won’t have seen each other in a few years, as Ace stopped going over to Japan, possibly when he joined WWE. While the two were together, Johnny Ace would tell Japanese press “that they’d love to have Kobashi face their top stars like Angle, HHH and Undertaker,” though Dave reasoned, or possibly hoped, “Most likely nothing will transpire, because NOAH needs Kobashi and he’s a lifer with the company.” In another interesting thought, Ace also told the press “he’d like to set up a meeting with Vince McMahon and Mitsuharu Misawa.” Despite Ace putting this out into the universe, I doubt we were going to see Misawa come in at Wrestlemania 22 to try and stop the streak, but it probably would have been better than the Mark Henry match.


While he was there, Kenta Kobashi would have a match for World League Wrestling, making this, not his ROH matches that took place later in the week, his actual US debut. He would face Wade Chism, a staple of WLW shows, and Harley’s champion at the time. Wade was a trainee of Harley Race, and seemed to make WLW his main promotion, though he did go over and wrestle a tour with Noah and also had a WWE match on Velocity. In a 2011 interview with Missouri Wrestling Revival, Wade claimed that Harley said he had big plans for him, which seemed to be accurate. Wade would win several tag team titles most notably with another WLW trainee, Trevor Murdoch, and was also a five time Heavyweight champion for the promotion. While the fans in Eldon Missouri were unlikely to get a five star classic that night, the Observers report said that “Fans were giving Kobashi a standing o just for the chops. Chism didn’t do much, but came off good just for taking it.” Also on the card, KENTA would compete in a tag team match, and earlier in the evening, a young Kenny Omega would wrestle, just a few months before briefly appearing in WWE developmental promotion Deep South wrestling.


On this night, standing in the ring, Harley would take the opportunity to really show Kobashi the utmost respect. “Race, who was nicknamed Mr. Pro Wrestling in Japan, told Japanese reporters that he’s giving his nickname to Kobashi because he deserves it.” This wasn’t all though, as after Kobashi’s match, Harley would tell the crowd about the Mr. Pro Wrestling name, and then “presented Kobashi with one of his old NWA world title belts and declared him the greatest wrestler in the world.” From the reports of fans who were there, Kenta wore the belt in the ring, then politely took it off and handed it back to Harley Race.


So that’s the reason why Kobashi was heading to the US to begin with, but let’s take a closer look at the other promotions that were in the running to have Kenta appear for them. Pro Wrestling Iron was a school and promotion founded in 2002 in Haywood California, by two wrestlers very familiar with Pro Wrestling Noah, Michael Modest and Donovan Morgan, and a third owner Frank Murdoch. Morgan and Modest had begun wrestling as a tag team in Noah in 2001. They and Murdoch started their own company after leaving local rival APW on bad terms. PWI, not that one, had a strong Japanese influence because of the promoters and their ties to Noah. They would feature Noah talent such as Bison Smith, who was their champion for close to seven hundred days, and were even able to promote a handful of Mitsuharu Misawa’s few US matches. Misawa had previously wrestled a few US matches in 1986 when he was portraying the second version of Tiger Mask, so you could say that his 2002 match for Pro Wrestling Iron was his US debut under his own name. Despite a booking with Kobashi on the cards in July, Pro Wrestling Iron would close its doors in September, before Kobashi’s tour would happen. Each of the three owners would have their own reasons for this. “Modest bought a home in upstate California which is hours away from Hayward. Morgan, who said he’s gotten burned out on wrestling, recently got married and is moving to Florida. Murdoch is getting out of wrestling.”


Another promotion that was talked about early on was one you might not expect. “They are also said to have interest in working a TNA PPV, although at press time no talks have happened with either side”. On the surface, a Pro Wrestling Noah talent shouldn’t have been able to turn up in TNA, because they at the time had a strong link with New Japan, one that would only get stronger in the coming years. TNA would from time to time bring in big names from New Japan for appearances on their pay per views. In October, they would welcome Jushin Liger for a match with Samoa Joe at Bound For Glory, and they would bring in future Ace, Hiroshi Tanahashi in January for a match with AJ Styles. Starting in 2006, New Japan would be represented in TNA’s World X Cup tournament, with the team of Jushin Liger, Black Tiger IV, Minorou Tanaka and Hirooki Goto being sent that year.


A couple of weeks later in the July 18th Observer, Dave Meltzer provides more detail on the idea of Kobashi appearing for TNA, and the potential challenges. “NOAH officials have said that TNA can use Kobashi as long as it’s in between tours. The hold-up there is political, because TNA is aligning itself with New Japan, and that alliance may prevent the booking.” Only this year in August 2025, Jeff Jarrett addressed these reports on his My World podcast. When Conrad reads the Observer to him, Jeff never actually names Noah or directly addresses the chance to bring Kobashi in, but says that he wanted TNA to have one promotion they were working with in Mexico and one in Japan, implying that they were happy enough to just work with New Japan. *clip*


Dave also noted in the Observer that it seemed at the time like the political issues could have been avoided however, and that would have been through the olive branch of professional wrestling, Harley Race, who was said to be on good terms with both Noah and TNA, having had a history with both. As well as Harley’s links with Noah and WWE through his training camps, his good relationship with TNA may well have come through them both being NWA affiliated at the time. On June 19th 2002, Harley would appear on TNA’s first ever event, in the very first segment, as part of a parade of NWA legends that would be brought to the ring. In fact, Harley is one of the very first faces seen on that broadcast, and is given the task of making the NWA World title feel important for it was put on the line in the main event. Unlike TNA and Pro Wrestling Iron, Kenta Kobashi would actually make it to Harley’s training camp, and I’ll cover that when I get to it in the timeline. Before we do though, there is one question left to answer, how did Ring of Honor come to be involved?


According to ROH’s booker at the time Gabe Sapolsky, he made a phone call, apparently at this very desk, to Harley Race upon hearing that Kobashi would be in the country. *clip 1* Gabe says that Harley was initially surprised about the request, not expecting anyone to want to book him, perhaps not knowing how aware American fans were of Kobashi’s work. *clip 2* A few weeks later after the announcement of Kobashi going to ROH had been made, the Observer mentions that there were also “attempts to get him booked on 10/7 and 10/8 for FIP in Florida”, with Full Impact pro being ROH’s sister promotion of sorts. These bookings are never mentioned in any reporting again, and they might have fallen through due to scheduling. On the date of one of the FIP shows, Kobashi wrestled for Noah in Korakuen Hall. Another thing that Gabe mentioned is that booking Kobashi quote, “wasn’t cheap”, so I imagine that extending his US trip by a few weeks would have been very expensive for FIP. *clip* If you’re curious, Full Impact Pro did have a guest of honour that weekend, a very different one, as Sean Waltman would wrestle a main event match against Jimmy Rave, which I bet had a ton less chops than Kobashi vs Rave would have had.


Timeline


July 8th - The Announcement

Now that I’ve covered all of the promotions that were potentially involved, let’s look at the timeline leading up to Kenta Kobashi’s Ring Of Honor matches. On July 8th ROH would present Sign of Dishonor from Lake Grove New York, not exactly close to where Kobashi’s match would take place, which might be important in a bit. It was also the company's first ever event in the Long Island area. This show would actually take place one after Death Before Dishonor 3, where CM Punk would surprisingly win the ROH title, when it was known that he was WWE bound. The name of the show comes from the opening segment, where Punk would come to the ring uncharacteristically wearing a suit, and would sign his WWE contract on the Ring of Honor World Championship belt. It was later on this night where the official announcement was made that Kenta Kobashi would be coming to ROH. Unfortunately for the company though, according to coverage in both the Torch and the Observer, This wouldn't necessarily get the reaction that Gabe hoped for.


“The announcement didn’t get a huge pop from the fans in attendance, but his appearance is likely to draw a new group of veteran fans who maybe otherwise wouldn’t attend a live ROH event or purchase an ROH tape. It’s a marketing strategy ROH often uses where they bring in a known draw among a core group of fans, hoping to hook them on the rest of the product in the process.” Gabe had actually used this strategy with the very show the announcement was being made on, as Long Island local Mick Foley would appear, getting involved in CM Punk’s storyline. You could conceivably guess that there may have been more casual fans than normal in, especially for the promotions first time in the area, supported by the following show on the night after. “The reaction was huge the next night in Manhattan for the same announcement. Right now Kobashi is only booked on 10/1, but they are working on a second date for him.”


In the Observer Dave Meltzer would write that the entire show, not just the Kobashi reveal would suffer from a lower than expected crowd reaction. “The Lake Grove show was said to be a disappointment as far as crowd heat, but the crowd of 750 was really strong and it was attributed to doing a lot of angle stuff for casual fans who didn’t know the storylines and weren’t internet fans, which explains the totally different Kobashi reactions.”


July 23rd The Homecoming (Philadelphia announced)

The next time there would be any new developments on Kobashi would be a couple of weeks later at their next show in Philadelphia. On this night it would be announced that the second date that ROH were trying to add had been finalized, and so he would also be wrestling on October 2nd. This announcement would lead to some questionable booking, and some even more questionable reasoning from Gabe that were printed in the August 1st Observer.


From the National Guard Armory in Philadelphia, the company would present The Homecoming, where in the main event for the ROH World title, CM Punk would go to a sixty minute draw with Christopher Daniels, and we all know how much wrestling fans love time limit draws. Besides this, many fans were left unhappy with the sheer number of heel wins on the night. Gabe, it seems, felt he could get away with this just the once for a very special reason, Kenta Kobashi was now booked for the next show in Philadelphia. “Gabe Sapolsky felt they needed the screwjobs to get some heels over and felt Philadelphia was an okay place to do it, because Kenta Kobashi is on the next show, so he figured everyone would come back.” While it’s generally not considered good booking practice to annoy your fans knowing they will come back anyway, at least he did this just for the one show, and not let's say for about ten years.


As we got into August, Gabe was openly considering potential opponents for Kobashi. While Samoa Joe was the choice of many, Gabe also seemed to be considering Low Ki for the second match, but this wasn’t going to come without some difficulties. There were some merits to picking Low Ki, “there would be no issues as to finish, since both work for NOAH and Low Ki isn’t going to refuse a job for Kobashi.” While the two had met in three separate tag team matches that same year, a singles match between the two would have been more difficult to book, “because of the size difference making it hard to work a match, in the sense they can work together, but in NOAH, Kobashi is a legend and Low Ki is just a junior heavyweight undercard guy, so how much can he give him? In a tag, they can work it better, with the idea of a heavyweight and a junior heavyweight on each team.”


Possibly less so today than back then, given how many wrestlers we see move up into the heavyweight ranks, there was a perception between the two divisions that a heavyweight would fair better against a junior, therefore it might make the match less appealing or competitive. Because of this and other issues around the idea of Kobashi losing, Dave calls a tag match with Joe possibly involved “an easier political deal.” Gabe also explains that having Kobashi work two singles matches with high expectations on them would also have been a mistake. Ultimately, the idea of a Kenta vs Low-Ki singles match would be nixed, and a tag team match was considered the better option. *clip*


From the time of the initial announcement, there was already a lot of talk about who Kobashi would wrestle when he arrived in New York. Even at this point, “There is a push for Kobashi’s opponent to be Samoa Joe.” More opponents were discussed, but Joe was the one person that everyone seemed to come back to. Not a lot would come out officially though, and Gabe said years later that this was because the deal came extremely close to falling through several times. *clip*


Match announced

On August 29th 2005, Kenta Kobashi’s matches for Ring of Honor would finally be announced. On October 1st in New York he would face Samoa Joe, and on the next night in Philadelphia, he would team up with Homicide against Samoa Joe and Low-Ki. We’ll get back to the tag match in a minute because there’s a lot going on there, but the singles match with Joe was considered something of a dream match.


By mid 2005, Samoa Joe was six years into his career and twenty six years old. Despite this he was already something of a legend to ROH fans, having already held the Ring of Honor championship for nineteen months, a record unbroken to this day. Much like Kenta Kobashi, he too was racking up classic matches, only his list was far shorter so far.


While already respected by ROH fans, by mid-2005 he was also just starting to make a name for himself in TNA. On June 19th at Slammiversary, Joe made a very impressive debut, beginning a seventeen month undefeated streak that would eventually end when Kurt Angle arrived in the promotion. At the same time, much like Kobashi, Joe had been racking up highly regarded matches, even some that are still talked about today. On September 11th 2005, he would be one third of a famous triple threat match at Unbreakable against AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels. For eighteen years, this would be the only five star match that TNA ever promoted, until Bound for Glory in 2023.


Despite the eleven year experience difference, Joe and Kobashi were both collecting five star match ratings. I promise that star ratings don't normally get a lot of attention on this channel, but just bear with me for a minute. Between the years 2003 to 2006, Dave Meltzer awarded five five star ratings, and every one of those matches included either Joe or Kobashi. By the time of their match in October 2005, Kobashi had previously earned seventeen five stars, while Samoa Joe had just two. Very soon they would both have one more.


Ending


Odds are that if you’re watching this channel you know all about the classic match that would take place in the Grand Ballroom of the New Yorker Hotel. You’ve likely even seen it for yourself, from Kobashi breaking his usually stoic demeanour at the sound of the fans cheering loudly for him, to Joe’s chest ending up looking like something out of a horror film. What if Kobashi had done more in the US though? What if he had appeared for TNA, if he looked like a fish out of water at ROH, imagine what he would have looked like in the Impact Zone competing in the X-Division? What if he’d gone on a tour of the indies, facing spirit squad members and other freshly ex-WWE talents of the time. While it’s an interesting thing to guess about, it’s likely for the best that the ROH matches stand out, that the US matches Kobashi had remain few and special. Still, I wouldn't have minded seeing a really weird match somewhere though.





Sources:

WON July 4th Coming over for Harley Race/TNA https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-4-2005-observer-newsletter-wwe-completes-draft-lottery-brock/

WON Sep 5th 05 Iron closes https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-5-2005-observer-newsletter-pride-final-conflict-recap-chris/

WWE article about Harley’s camp https://www.wwe.com/inside/news/archive/race1

Harley and noah https://www.google.com/amp/s/slamwrestling.net/index.php/2008/08/22/race-noah-camp-a-unique-opportunity/amp/

WON July 18th Booking first announced - Harley Race, TNA and FIP https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/july-18-2005-wrestling-observer-newsletter-death-shinya-hashimoto-wwe/


Timeline

PW Torch July 23rd 2005 - Official announcement https://www.pwtorch.com/artman2/members/uploads/2/871TorchNewsletterPDF.pdf

WON Aug 1st Gabe not concerned with upsetting fans as they will come back for Kobashi next time https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-1-2005-obsever-newsletter-muhammad-hassan-character-banned-upn/

WON Aug 8th Gabe not announcing opponents for a while - Low Ki https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-8-2005-observer-newsletter-bret-hart-meet-wwe-over-dvd-business/

WON Aug 29 Match announced - Low Ki https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/august-29-2005-observer-newsletter-summerslam-recap-fedor-vs-mirko-cro/

FFD Sep 5th Match Announced - tag confusing https://members.f4wonline.com/newsletter-search?post_date=08012005+09012005

WON Sep 21 Advertised for Japanese TV https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-21-2005-observer-newsletter-spike-wwe-counterprogram-one/

Wade Chism interview https://missouriwrestlingrevival.com/2011/05/29/10-quick-hits-from-former-wlw-champion-wild-wade-chism/

WON Sep 26 Johnny Ace meeting Kobashi https://members.f4wonline.com/wrestling-observer-newsletter/september-26-2005-observer-newsletter-wwe-unforgiven-stacked-raw/