Togi Makabe will challenge Takashi Sugiura for the GHC Heavyweight Title on February 28th at Tokyo Nippon Budokan. Makabe is currently in NOAH with Honma as part of the Global Tag League ‘10, where they have one win (over Bison Smith & Keith Walker) and one loss (to Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi). Oddly though, it is their only non-tournament match that has caught most of the attention so far, when they defeated Sugiura & Atsushi Aoki, with Makabe pinning the GHC Heavyweight Champion.

Sugiura has lots of recent history with the “4 Heroes”, having dominated Hirooki Goto in their singles match series but having unavenged losses to Nakamura, Tanahashi, and Makabe. At Budokan, he’ll have his chance to avenge those two pinfall losses to Makabe and perhaps afterwards will turn his eyes to the top two of New Japan, Nakamura and Tanahashi.

NOAH, 2/28/10
Tokyo Nippon Budokan

- GHC Heavyweight Title: Takashi Sugiura (c) vs. Togi Makabe