History Wrestling / KentaKobayashi

* BashBrothers: With Naomichi Marufuji, Atsushi Aoki, Taiji Ishimori and Ricky Marvin in NOAH, and with Finn Bálor in NXT.

* UrExample: He and Naomichi Marufuji are the first to hold the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships, defeating Wrestling/JushinThunderLiger and Takehiro Murahama in the finals of a tournament on July 16, 2003.

* CharcterCatchphrase: "Show me respect!" / "Respect me!" See DudeWheresMyRespect below.

* CatchPhrase: "Show me respect!" / "Respect me!" See DudeWheresMyRespect below.

Kenta Kobayashi (born March 12, 1981), better known simply as KENTA, is a Japanese {{professional wrestl|ing}}er and former kickboxer. Kobayashi is best known for his fourteen year stint in Wrestling/ProWrestlingNOAH, where he was a former Global Honored Crown Heavyweight, Junior Heavyweight, Tag Team and Junior Heavyweight Tag Team champion. He made occasional appearances Wrestling/{{All Japan|ProWrestling}}, Wrestling/{{New Japan|ProWrestling}}, Wrestling/DragonGate, The Brazilian Wrestling Federation, Peru's Leader Wrestling Association, Xplosion Nacional de Lucha Libre in Chile, Wrestling/{{AAA}} in Mexico, the German westside Xtreme Wrestling and NOAH's fellow Global Pro Wrestling Alliance members Wrestling/ProWrestlingZero1, Wrestling/HarleyRace's World League Wrestling and Wrestling/RingOfHonor before he joined Wrestling/{{WWE}} in 2014. He adopted the name Hideo Itami and formed a successful tag team with fellow puroresu superstar [[Wrestling/FergalDevitt Prince Devitt]], who was now known as Finn Balor.

He has the distinction of being one of just two Japanese members of Bullet Club (the other being Wrestling/TaijiIshimori) who isn't a part of the "House of Torture" sub-group led by [[Wrestling/EvilWrestler EVIL]].

* TagTeam: KENTA's won the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title belts three times with Naomichi Marufuji, Taiji Ishimori, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru as his partners. He's also won the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Title belts one time with Maybach Taniguchi, though aside from getting the belts off of Wrestling/{{T|otalNonstopActionWrestling}}NA-affiliated Wrestling/SamoaJoe and [[Wrestling/NickAldis Magnus]], this didn't end up so well.

* TagTeam: KENTA's won the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title belts three times with Naomichi Marufuji, Taiji Ishimori, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru as his partners. He's also won the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Title belts one time with Maybach Taniguchi, though aside from getting the belts off of [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]]-affiliated Wrestling/SamoaJoe and [[Wrestling/NickAldis Magnus]], this didn't end up so well.

* TagTeam: KENTA's won the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title belts three times with Naomichi Marufuji, Taiji Ishimori, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru as his partners. He's also won the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Title belts one time with Maybach Taniguchi, though aside from getting the belts off of [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]] affiliated Wrestling/SamoaJoe and [[Wrestling/NickAldis Magnus]], this didn't end up so well.

* TagTeam: KENTA's won the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title belts three times with Naomichi Marufuji, Taiji Ishimori, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru as his partners. He's also won the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Title belts one time with Maybach Taniguchi, though aside from getting the belts off of [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]] affiliated Wrestling/SamoaJoe and [[WrestlingNickAldis Magnus]], this didn't end up so well.

* TagTeam: KENTA's won the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title belts three times with Naomichi Marufuji, Taiji Ishimori, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru as his partners. He's also won the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Title belts one time with Maybach Taniguchi, though aside from getting the belts off of [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA affiliated Wrestling/SamoaJoe and [[WrestlingNickAldis Magnus]], this didn't end up so well.

* HateSink: He was already catching a fair bit of vitriol just joining NJPW as switching between Japanese Promotions is generally frowned upon as it is.[[note]]What really didn't help was the timing, his debut coming 4 days before the 10th anniversary of Wrestling/MitsuharuMisawa's death. As a NOAH mainstay it was seen as a genuine betrayal by some of their fans.[[/note]] Then he joined the BulletClub by turning on Katsuyori Shibata and the hate grew exponentially. But THEN he [[spoiler: attacked Tetsuya Naito during his Wrestling/{{L|osIngobernableDeJapon}}IJ Roll Call right after he achieved his double champion dream in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom]] and...well, as commentator Kevin Kelly put it, "He is now the most hated wrestler in the entire world."

*** Itami and Austin Aries have a short feud in 2016 but nothing came out of it and Itami was again removed from a televised event after another injury.

** Finn Bálor made his NXT debut in 2016 helping Itami to fend of the Ascension. Few years later, Itami returned the favor by making his debut on RAW to help Balor against Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas. Few ''more'' years later, KENTA returned to Japan by going to NJPW… and in only a few short months joining the Bullet Club, welcomed by several friends of Prince Devitt as well as his own former NOAH tag team partner Taiji Ishimori.

* DudeWheresMyRespect: The reason for FaceHeelTurn, claiming that nobody has a speck of respect for a deserving man.

** He would turn heel again at the 2019 G1 Climax finals by betraying his best friend Wrestling/KatsuyoriShibata and joining the Bullet Club.

* HateSink: He was already catching a fair bit of vitriol just joining NJPW as switching between Japanese Promotions is generally frowned upon as it is.[[note]]What really didn't help was the timing, his debut coming 4 days before the 10th anniversary of Misawa's death. As a NOAH mainstay it was seen as a genuine betrayal by some of their fans.[[/note]] Then he joined Wrestling/BulletClub by turning on Wrestling/KatsuyoriShibata and the hate grew exponentially. But THEN he [[spoiler: attacked Wrestling/TetsuyaNaito during his LIJ Roll Call right after he achieved his Double Champion dream in the Main Event of Wrestle Kingdom]] and...well, as commentator Kevin Kelly put it, "He is now the most hated wrestler in the entire world."

* TagTeam: KENTA's won NOAH's junior heavyweight tag team title belts three times with Naomichi Marufuji, Taiji Ishimori, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru as his partners. He's also won the Heavyweight tag team title belts one time with Maybach Taniguchi, though aside from getting the belts off of Wrestling/{{TNA}} affiliated Wrestling/SamoaJoe and Magnus, this didn't end up so well.

* UnnecessaryRoughness: Itami's recent loss to Wrestling/BobbyRoode in an NXT Title match has brought out something of a dark side, demonstrated fairly clearly in an NXT episode several weeks later where he fights Oney Lorcan, beats the crap out of him, then nails him with ''three'' consecutive GTS's (where Lorcan was completely defenseless after the first and Itami refused to pin him.) And he probably would have done more if [[Wrestling/ChrisHero Kassius Ohno]] hadn't intervened.

* WhamShot: After the main event of the "Beach Break" special episode, KENTA makes his AEW debut by attacking [[Wrestling/DeanAmbrose Jon Moxley]], whom he is scheduled to face at the end of February for the IWGP United States Championship at NJPW Strong.