Strong Kobayashi

[KinchStalker]

Strong Kobayashi (ストロング小林)

Real name: Shozo Kobayashi (小林省三)
Professional names: Shozo Kobayashi, Fukamen Taro, Strong Kobayashi, Korean Assassin
Life: 12/25/1940-12/31/2021
Born: Hongo, Tokyo, Japan
Career: 1967-1981; 1992 (one-off return)
Height/Weight: 187cm/125kg (6’2”/275 lbs.)
Signature moves: Bearhug, Canadian backbreaker, brainbuster (vertical suplex), atomic drop
Promotions: International Wrestling Enterprise, New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Titles: IWA World Heavyweight [IWE] (2x), IWA World Tag Team [IWE] (3x: 1 w/Toyonobori, 1 w/Great Kusatsu, 1 w/Haruka Eigen), NWA North American Tag Team [NJPW] (2x, w/Seiji Sakaguchi)

Strong Kobayashi was the only ace in IWE history that was completely homegrown, but in one of the biggest scandals of 70s puroresu, he quit the company and challenged Antonio Inoki at the height of his career.

Shozo Kobayashi was born on Christmas day, 1940, in Tokyo’s Hongo district. Bombing raids would see his family evacuate to the Oto district, where they remained after the war. According to Shozo, he had been scouted for sumo during junior high, but he refused. After completing high school, he took a job with Japan National Railways. Shozo would be inspired by Rikidozan to take up bodybuilding as a hobby: little did he know, this would lead him to be even more like Rikidozan. Shozo was scouted at a bodybuilding competition in late 1966. In attendance were IWE president Isao Yoshiwara, wrestler Matty Suzuki, and IWE announcer Yazuo Hasegawa. The latter was the one to first notice Shozo, and Yoshiwara and Suzuki scouted him on the spot. Kobayashi’s signing was announced on November 1. Alongside Sueo Inoue and Yasuyuki Fujii, he was trained by Matty.

Kobayashi as “Fukamen Taro” in summer 1967.

Kobayashi would be called upon to wrestle before he made his proper debut as himself, working the IWE’s summer 1967 tour under a mask as Fukamen Taro. There had been plans to hold a fan vote to decide a ring name, but these were canceled when the TBS network took over and rebranded the company. Kobayashi debuted as himself on the first TBS broadcast on January 3, 1968. Kobayashi refused an invitation to work in the States from the Great Togo, after the booker had left the promotion high and dry for refusing to pay his exorbitant fee. Instead, Kobayashi’s first dates abroad would be in England that autumn, as a replacement for the injured Masao Kimura. Kobayashi would be the second homegrown talent to be elevated in a tag title run with one-time JWA ace Toyonobori, when the two won the IWA World Tag Team titles from Monster Roussimoff (that is, Andre the Giant) & Ivan Strogoff in Paris on May 18, 1969. That October, he won his first singles gold, a “US Heavyweight'' title created for the IWE, from Buddy Colt. Early in the new decade, he challenged Verne Gagne on his own soil for the AWA World Heavyweight title. After a return to Europe in September 1970, Kobayashi toured with the AWA in early 1971 and was booked as a top competitor. He worked well enough that Gagne reportedly wanted him to stay longer than he did, but after a (likely fictitious) match against transitional IWA World Heavyweight champion Bill Miller, Kobayashi returned home as the new ace in May 1971. 

Kobayashi whips Monster Roussimoff (Andre the Giant) in the 4th IWA World Series final.

Over the next two years and four months, Kobayashi mounted 25 consecutive defenses of the title; this put him over the 21-defense record that Giant Baba had attained in one of his NWA International Heavyweight title reigns, but Baba would claim the record again with the 38 consecutive defenses of his first PWF Heavyweight title reign. Kobayashi fought off a broad range of stars from the AWA, Europe, and elsewhere, and his July 1973 defense against Rusher Kimura was the first native vs native top title match since Rikidozan vs. Toshio Yamaguchi in January 1955 (even counting the light and junior heavyweight titles of the late-50s and early-60s JWA, this was the first such matchup in a decade). On top of this, he won the 4th IWA World Series tournament in 1972, defeating Roussimoff in the final, and began a second IWA World Tag title reign alongside IWE booker Great Kusatsu that July.

However, as has been alleged by IWE alumnus Goro Tsurumi, Kusatsu made Kobayashi’s job quite difficult. Kobayashi was the best bet the company had, but he struggled to lead the organization to prosperity, particularly as their television deal got worse and worse, and the arms race between Giant Baba & Antonio Inoki began. Kusatsu harassed the ace backstage, allegedly forcing Kobayashi to drink his own urine on one occasion, and knocked him down the card on house shows. (An analysis of IWE financials conducted by the Showa Puroresu fanzine [issue #48] concluded that due to the company’s incentive pay structure, Kobayashi was essentially paid the same as Kusatsu and Kimura by the second half of 1973.) Kobayashi himself would state that “someone” had influenced Yoshiwara to start giving him the cold shoulder. Kusatsu’s spite seeped into major bookings, as Rusher Kimura won the 5th IWA World Series, and Kobayashi’s world title reign ended shortly after to Wahoo McDaniel. He won it back at the end of the tour, but it was a humiliation nevertheless.

Around this time, NJPW sales manager and strategist Hisashi Shinma learned from Kosuke Takeuchi that Kobayashi was unsatisfied with the IWE. He would spend about three months making daily secret visits to Kobayashi's home. Two months after winning his belt back, Kobayashi turned in his notice and relinquished his titles on the last date of the first tour of 1974. Twelve days later, he declared free agency and challenged both Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki. Baba’s attempts to stop Kobayashi from working with New Japan, in which he tried to use his connection to Monthly Pro Wrestling editor-in-chief Hisao Fujisawa, were futile. Meanwhile, Yoshiwara stated in a March 8 press conference that Kobayashi had breached his contract and demanded a transfer fee from NJPW. This is where the Tokyo Sports newspaper stepped in. Tokyo Sports had worked closely with the wrestling industry for several years; one cannot sell an evening sports paper on reheated baseball scoops, and the fact that some morning papers had gotten smart to the business and snubbed pro wrestling in their coverage by the time Tokyo Sports had entered the scene gave them a readymade niche. In autumn 1973, they had gone beyond their usual practices by paying Karl Gotch & Lou Thesz’s booking fees for a tag match against Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi. Now, they would give New Japan another stimulus by footing the 10-million yen bill for Kobayashi’s transfer. Kokusai could not risk alienating such a power player, so they shut up and took the money. Kobayashi was free to wrestle Inoki as a representative of the paper. Before their match, Tokyo Sports permanently raised its price from twenty yen to thirty. (They would raise it to forty yen two years later to coincide with Inoki vs. Ali.)

Kobayashi shakes hands with Inoki in a press conference. Standing in the background is the man who made it happen, Tokyo Sports president Hiroshi Inoue.

On March 26, 1974, Kobayashi and Inoki wrestled one of the most important matches of 70s puroresu. The “forbidden battle” gave World Pro Wrestling its first 20% TV rating, and in some people’s view, damaged the IWE through its result. After this, Kobayashi wrestled abroad for most of the year. On top of numerous appearances for the WWWF, he worked in the Florida territory from May through July as the Korean Assassin, a masked gimmick which saw him managed by Gary Hart. He worked as a tag partner of Pak Song at this time, and had a chance encounter with Giant Baba when Baba came to the territory to try and collect Hart's bounty on Dusty Rhodes. Baba asked him to join All Japan, which Kobayashi could have still done at this point, but he instead stuck with New Japan due to a feeling of debt towards Tokyo Sports. After a second match with Inoki in December, Kobayashi began work full time for them in the new year. This would be as a freelancer until he officially signed around the Golden Fight Series tour, after a third singles loss to Inoki in the second NJPW World League tournament.

In early 1976, Inoki relinquished the NWA North American Tag Team titles to transition into a greater focus on his singles career, which included different-styles fights. This left a spot for Kobayashi to become Seiji Sakaguchi’s new tag partner, and the two won a tournament for the vacant belts on February 5. Sakaguchi & Kobayashi would be NJPW’s top tag team for three years. Their first reign ended 363 days later to the team of Tiger Jeet Singh & Umanosuke Ueda; this match saw an angle wherein the heels broke Kobayashi’s arm in the second fall to lose it by disqualification but won the match and the titles by third-fall forfeit. This angle set up a one-night-only Inoki-Sakaguchi reunion, which was booked to spice up NJPW’s two-night stint at the Kuramae Kokugikan on March 31 and April 1, 1977. However, the reunited Golden Tag Team failed to regain the belts, and Singh & Ueda held onto them for nearly six months until Kobayashi recovered. Kobayashi’s second reign, which lasted until a loss to Hiro Matsuda & Masa Saito in April 1979, would be his last period as a top star before he began winding things down due to back pain. On November 25, 1978, Kobayashi appeared (alongside Kuniaki Kobayashi) in his original promotion for an undercard match, a stunt which saw the IWE lose their partnership with All Japan and switch to an even more asymmetrical one with New Japan. After the loss of the NWA North American tag titles, which allowed Riki Choshu to move up the card as Sakaguchi’s new partner, Kobayashi’s last major matches were interpromotional affairs against his old coworkers. He lost to Rusher Kimura by countout at the Tokyo Sports show of August 26, 1979. In summer 1980, Kobayashi & Haruka Eigen held the IWA World Tag Team titles for two weeks before dropping them back to Animal Hamaguchi & Mighty Inoue. That December, Kimura successfully defended the IWA title against Kobayashi on New Japan turf.

Kobayashi as Monster in Choudenshi Bioman.

The last match of Kobayashi’s full-time career was on October 16, 1981, when he and Yoshiaki Fujiwara lost to Hulk Hogan & Dick Murdoch. The following year, Kobayashi began acting and took the stage name Strong Kongo (ストロング金剛), after his character Kongobo in the film Iga Ninpacho (Ninja Wars). While he would appear for the Inoki/Kimura hair vs. hair match in September 1982, and garnered heat when he gave Animal Hamaguchi a pair of scissors during the outside brawl, Kobayashi never made the comeback that some expected he would. A plan for him to join Kokusai Ketsumeigun was apparently in place. He is seen grouped with the faction in posters from the time, and Kobayashi was initially announced as Rusher Kimura's partner in the 1982 IWGP Tag League tournament, but this would be canceled due to Kobayashi's back pain. On August 26, 1984, Kobayashi received an official retirement ceremony at a New Japan show in Fussa, Tokyo. Kobayashi continued to work in film and television thereafter, particularly for NJPW network TV Asahi. Popular with children for his villainous roles, he is remembered for his role as a guard in the Honeycomb Maze in Takeshi’s Castle, one of the most influential game shows in modern television history, as well as his turn as Monster in Choudenshi Bioman. On March 1, 1992, Kobayashi returned to the ring to team up with Sakaguchi against old foes Singh & Ueda, in a New Japan 20th anniversary show. He had given away his ring gear to fans and friends over the years, so he wrestled barefoot wearing the single pair of trunks he had left. After the death of his mother in 1995, Kobayashi phased out of the entertainment business to cherish his free time. When he was profiled in the early 2000s, Kobayashi was in good health despite requiring a cane due to his bad back. However, a serious spinal injury made him paraplegic in his last years. While in the care of his relatives, Kobayashi had refused to be interviewed, but his family worked to make him reconsider and “leave a legacy of Strong Kobayashi’s presence in the wrestling world” and were successful. In 2021, Kobayashi was admitted to a nursing home, and died from a lung condition on New Year's Eve.

Miscellaneous

• Dave Meltzer’s obituary claims that Kobayashi’s contract had a long no-compete clause. This conflicts with the Showa Puroresu fanzine, which claims the contract did not specify the length of the terms. While Kokusai receives credit for being the first puroresu promotion to actually sign its wrestlers to contracts, this oversight suggests that they assumed the contract would automatically renew in perpetuity. Four years later, as a legal analyst told Gong magazine, this same issue showed up in Ryuma Go’s contract, which was even less valid since he had signed it when he was 17. I suppose these aren’t mutually exclusive but it makes one wonder if the truth was somewhere in the middle.
• As Isao Yoshiwara laid on his deathbed in 1985, Kobayashi reconciled with his old boss. During their talk, which lasted three hours, Yoshiwara called him the greatest wrestler he had ever produced.