Tomoaki Honma, 40, a popular New Japan wrestler, suffered a career threatening injury on 3/3 on a show in Okinawa.
Honma took a routine move, a draping DDT from Jado, during a six-man tag with Honma & Togi Makabe & Michael Elgin vs. Honma & Togi Makabe & Jado. The finish of the match would have almost surely been Jado losing. After the move, Jado went for a near fall and Honma couldn’t kick out and he was able to tell them something was wrong. Medical personnel came out and Honma was able to talk and move his head, but unable to move the rest of his body.
He was carried out on a stretcher and rushed to Intensive Care in a local hospital. Honma was unable to move for some time. He was moved out of ICU on the afternoon of 3/6. Because of his situation, that any movement could affect his spinal column and make things worse, he’ll be staying at the hospital in Okinawa for a while as opposed to being moved to a hospital in Tokyo.
Honma was suffering from swelling on his spinal cord, which limited his movement, as well as damage to the C-3 and C-4 vertebrae. He started to regain some mobility in his arms and legs. His hands were very weak but he was able to hold small objects and bend his elbow by 3/6, and move his legs a fair amount. But he was unable to sit up on his own in bed.
Honma was saying that he would return to wrestle at some point, but it’s far too early to tell if that’s possible, although one New Japan official described it to us as that he “dodged a bullet.”
“With an injury between the third and fourth vertebrae, there are cases where people are unable to recover,” noted New Japan trainer Takeshi Misawa in an official company statement prior to the anniversary show. “That said, I’m very happy to see him progress day-by-day, and we just have to monitor things from here and see how it goes.”
“Right now, we just have to wait for him to recover on his own. It may well be that down the road he has surgery, much like Manabu Nakanishi did, but that’s not something we’re thinking of now, that’s for down the line.”
Honma started his career as a death match wrestler with Big Japan in 1997, and as a trivia note, is believed to have been the wrestler who came up with the idea of using light tubes in death matches. He left the company after a dispute with management in 2000, and worked all over Japan before joining New Japan in 2007.
While a great worker, Honma was mostly used in prelims losing with the idea that death match guys and Big Japan guys aren’t at the major league wrestling level of New Japan. He made his name in a sensational match with Masato Tanaka at Korakuen Hall for the IC title, where he lost, but tore the house down. He became a favorite on the undercard after that.
However, he was fired by New Japan in 2012 for personal problems and not brought back for another year. There was also a situation at the end of 2015 where his girlfriend, former wrestler Kiyoko Ichiki, complained that he beat her, but he claimed he was just diffusing the situation and she was the one beating him and threatened legal action against her. New Japan investigated and felt he was not at fault, and plans for him to win the tag team tournament that year weren’t changed.
A big turning point was the 2014 G-1 Climax tournament. Honma was not even scheduled for the tournament, but Kota Ibushi had to pull out due to an injury. Honma took his place and lost every match, but had tremendous matches that the crowd went crazy for. The losing streak worked, in particular a match with Katsuyori Shibata that was among the best matches of the year. The crowd was at such a fever pitch that it was, in hindsight, a match he should have won. But nobody knew that going in and the tournament is meticulously planned and you can’t change finishes in the middle without throwing everything out of whack.
From that point on, he was a star. He had two fantastic matches with Tomohiro Ishii over the Never title in 2015, including a ***** match of the year candidate. After he and Makabe won the 2015 tag team tournament, they followed on January 4, 2016, winning the IWGP tag team titles from Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows, before losing to Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa on February 20. He was also voted best technical wrestler in 2015 by Tokyo Sports.
Honma had problems with his neck before, missing several months of action in 2006. His style was extremely punishing, with a willingness to take crazy amounts of abuse, similar to Ishii, to get a match over. His specialty is the diving head-butt, or the kokeshi, however he didn’t land on it like Harley Race, Bryan Danielson or Chris Benoit, all of whom had problems from it, as he landed more on his shoulder and side than flat, which in theory wouldn’t be as much punishment on the neck.
It’s hard to know for sure if it was just a routine move that ended up with tragic results, or a botched landing. The match wasn’t televised or taped that we are aware of and we’ve heard conflicting stories whether the move was or wasn’t done botched. Given his prior neck problems and style with 20 years in the ring, it would appear likely that the prior neck damage long-term played a part in this as opposed to one move.
Honma’s spot in the New Japan Cup will be taken by Yuji Nagata, who will face Tanga Roa in the first round on 3/11 in Nagoya.