pressured to appear on every show at least until Kobashi returned. He defeated Marufuji at Great Voyage at the Budokan on December 10 to win his third GHC Heavyweight Championship. Misawa held the GHC Heavyweight Championship for 448 days, his longest championship reign since his fourth Triple Crown reign, and made seven successful defenses throughout 2007. The first of these was on January 12, when he defeated Takeshi Morishima. On April 28, he defended against Takuma Sano. Bison Smith challenged Misawa on June 3, and Taue challenged on July 15. In late August, it was announced that Misawa would be on the November 2 and November 3 Ring of Honor (ROH) Glory By Honor cards in Philadelphia and New York City respectively. On September 29, Misawa defeated Marufuji in a rematch for the GHC title, and on October 27, Misawa successfully defended against Samoa Joe in a Budokan show with 14,000 people in attendance. The following week, Misawa traveled to the United States for the ROH appearances. On the first night, he teamed with Kenta Kobayashi to face Morishima and Marufuji, wrestling to a thirty-minute time-limit draw. The following night, he defended against Kobayashi. Despite having reportedly contracted flu, this match was considered by some to have been Misawa's best in years, and Meltzer stated in 2009 that it was Misawa's final singles match "in the **** [four-star] range". On December 2, Misawa and Akiyama wrestled Kobashi and Takayama, in Kobashi's return match. This match, which was held before a Budokan sellout crowd of 17,000 people (reportedly the venue's all-time attendance record), and which Misawa won with an Emerald Flowsion to Kobashi off the middle rope, was awarded Match of the Year by Nikkan Sports and Tokyo Sports. Misawa himself was awarded Wrestler of the Year by Tokyo Sports, and received the Nikkan Sports MVP award as determined by fan voting. On March 2, 2008, Misawa was defeated by Morishima for the GHC Heavyweight Championship. After this, Misawa still felt obligated to work every Noah event; while Kobashi had returned, by this time the company was struggling too much to handle losing Misawa on their cards. His injuries were accumulating, including osteophytes on his neck which caused pain during simple tasks, such as brushing his teeth and touching the collar of his gown, and a visual impairment in his right eye which was discovered in 2007. Misawa had also long