A little backstory... my friends mom was very good friends with someone who worked at ROH around 2003-2006, so she would take us to shows and we'd get free tickets and hooked up with DVDs, pretty much on a monthly basis. Sometimes this would result in us being around the venues early, helping the wrestlers build the ring, and making runs to the airport to pick up or drop off some guys.
Well, this one day in October 2005 we we're given quite the task, as we had to pick up Kobashi from the airport. Being that my friend and I were both 16-year old wrestling nerds at the time, we were pretty excited. We get to the airport, and low and behold there's Kobashi and his translator waiting for us. They hop in my friends mom's mini van with us, and we had one of the most awkward car rides ever as I would try to lighten the mood and make jokes that probably weren't funny, especially to a man who knew no english.
The translator tells us that they're very hungry since they haven't eaten in hours, so we go to one of America's finest dining establishments- Wendy's. I don't know how I had the balls to snap this picture of him on my crappy 2005 camera phone, especially since he could've crushed me into oblivion, but I must have uploaded the picture on the old ROH board because I saw it pop up in some Kobashi highlight reel on youtube a few years ago. After a quick google search I was happy to see that my picture was still alive and it gives my friend and I something to crack up at 10 years later.
Holy crap- it's been 10 years since Joe vs. Kobashi?! Where does the time go?
Kobashi's translator also told us that Kobashi had broken a tooth. I think this was before we got to Wendy's, but he asked for super glue to fix it. Go figure, one of Japan's top wrestlers of all time doesn't want a dentist, or any sort of medical treatment. He just wants to super glue his tooth back together so he can eat his Wendy's, and take a mini-van ride with us to NYC so he can wrestle Samoe Joe in front of 1,000 crazy fans. Good times.
Speaking of which- where can I watch this match again? With ROH not selling old DVDs, I have no clue where I can find this. Any help is appreciated!