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.