NJPW’s Tomoaki Honma returning to the ring
Fifteen months after suffering a career-threatening injury, Tomoaki Honma is set to return to the ring.
Honma appeared at this morning’s Best of the Super Juniors block finals and announced that he’ll be returning at NJPW’s Kizuna Road show on June 23rd in Yamagata, which is where Honma is from. Honma later issued an open challenge for anyone to face him and Togi Makabe, his regular tag team partner.
Honma suffered a cervical vertebrae injury while taking a draping DDT from Jado during a six-man tag on March 3rd, 2017. The match was stopped right away and Honma was stretchered out of the ring. He began to regain movement in his arms and legs in the days after the injury and spent three and a half months in the hospital as he underwent surgery and continued to recover.
Dave Meltzer wrote last November that Honma, whose goal was always to wrestle again, was back training for a return and taking bumps at NJPW’s gym.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.