What’s the story?
According to eWrestling News, Tomoaki Honma, who suffered a cervical spine injury during a match on March 3 has now successfully undergone surgery earlier this week. Honma posted the following message online:
“Surgery was a success and now I’m starting the rehabilitation process (right now I’m raising and lowering my knees, etc). From here on out, I’m going for it! Thanks everyone!”
Honma suffered the injury at the New Japan Road show that took place at the Okinawa Prefectural Budokan.
In case you did not know...
The 40-year-old wrestler is known to New Japan fans for his lengthy career and his signature move of diving headbutts. Honma was part of the Big Japan dojo before he started wrestling professionally, and spent the first few years of his career in a number of death matches.
One of the most popular wrestlers on the entire New Japan roster, Tomoaki Honma had a meteoric rise in his popularity during the G1 Climax in 2014, a tournament that saw Honma come out without a single win to his name. With every passing defeat, Honma seemed to grow in popularity, and every successful Kokeshi of his has been met with vigorous applause.
Honma is also a former IWGP Tag Team Champions with Makabe and a two-time World Tag League winners. He has also earned a coveted Wrestling Observer five-star match against Ishii in 2015.
The heart of the matter
Honma injured his cervical vertebrae after receiving a middle-rope DDT from Jado. The accident occurred after Honma's foot got caught in the rope, thus changing the course of his landing. After the impact, Honma was able to speak and move his head but wasn't able to move his limbs.
However, the news of the surgery is positive overall. Honma will be in recovery and his return to the ring anytime soon is still uncertain.
What’s next?
New Japan Pro Wrestling is next scheduled to run a G1 Special event at the Long Beach Arena at the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center on July 1st and July 2. The event will be NJPW’s first step towards greater expansion in the United States.
Author’s take
For years fans have enjoyed Honma’s efforts inside the ring, lamenting every missed Kokeshi and celebrating when he manages to hit one. Whenever a professional wrestler suffers an injury, the fans sink into pure pessimism, and thus the news of his surgery comes as a relief to us.
We, here at Sportskeeda pray for Honma’s speedy recovery and keep our fingers crossed that everything turns out okay for him and his Honmaniacs.
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