March 1, 2003, saw the Kenta team with Naomichi Marufuji for the first time at Korakuen Hall against Makoto Hashi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru in a winning effort. They began teaming regularly as the two entered into a tournament to christen the first GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions during the company’s Accomplish Our Third Navigation tour; they went on to win the tournament by defeating junior heavyweight veterans Jushin Thunder Liger and Takashi Sugiura at Hakata StarLite Hall on July 16, 2003. While defending the tag team title, Kenta continued his venture in hopes of winning the GHC Junior Heavyweight title once again later that month.
return for Kenta’s performance, he won a series of matches for the next year. Kenta wrestled on the First Navigation tour and won over Juventud Guerrera. That same night, he lost to Yoshinari Ogawa and Jun Akiyama. The final match of the series was against Marufuji in October. In that time as champions, they have defended their title seven times: El Samurai and Ryusuke Taguchi (who also beat Kenta at Noah’s first Tokyo Dome show), Yoshinari Ogawa and Kotaro Suzuki, Suzuki and Ricky Marvin, Marvin and Suwa (who also beat Kenta), and Takashi Sugiura and Kendo Kashin – with Kanemaru ending their reign in June 2005 after almost two years.
Kenta traded blows with SUWA, which led to a confrontation with his opponent. The resulting match went from normal to disqualification due to an assault on the referee, meaning he was able to fight for the Junior Heavyweight Title one more time against Yoshinobu Kanemaru at Destiny 2005. After two defenses, Kenta and Katsuyori Shibata beat Suwa in July 2006, and Kotaro Suzuki as himself, Mushiking Terry.[16] With help from Katsuyori, Kenta also started challenging for the GHC Tag Team Championship.
On March 5, 2006, Kenta faced a major challenge from Kenta Kobashi and lost following a Burning Hammer. This was followed by a loss of the Junior Heavyweight title as well on June 4 to Takashi Sugiura. This saw Kenta shift his attention to the GHC Heavyweight Championship, challenging Naomichi Marufuji and losing in a match that was widely praised.
Post-retirement (2013–present)
On March 17, 2013, Kobashi made an appearance for All Japan Pro Wrestling to promote his retirement match. Before the main event, Hase announced that he would be resigning as Pacific Wrestling Federation (PWF) chairman to focus on the National Diet and that Kobashi would be replacing him, after his retirement on May 11. On September 8, Kobashi appeared as a color commentator at All Japan splinter promotion Wrestle-1’s inaugural event. On October 27, it was confirmed that Kobashi would not be joining All Japan when Dory Funk Jr. was announced as the new PWF chairman.
On February 14th, Yoshihiro Kobashi announced that he would be establishing his own independent promotion under the “Fortune Dream” brand starting on June 8th. The first event featured wrestlers from various promotions including All Japan Pro Wrestling, Big Japan Pro Wrestling, Kaientai Dojo Pro Wrestling Zero1, and New Classic Sports.
On May 10, 2015, Kobashi attended a GHC Heavyweight Championship match between champion Minoru Suzuki and challenger Naomichi Marufuji. This meant that the Suzuki-gun stable could not interfere in any capacity.
