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

Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma go to war in Pro Wrestling NOAH next January as one of eight teams involved in the Global Tag League. This will likely follow up in some way on Makabe vs. Yone at the Tokyo Dome as Yone is one half of the GHC Tag Team Champions with Takeshi Rikio. Makabe will take his GBH underling Honma with him and attempt to make an impact in NOAH, with Honma hopefully able to step up and take this big chance, and avoid being a liability for the Unchained Gorilla.

Competing teams, which will be split into two blocks, are:

- Takeshi Rikio & Mohammed Yone (GHC Tag Team Champions)
- Takashi Sugiura & Shuhei Taniguchi
- Kensuke Sasaki & Takeshi Morishima
- Go Shiozaki & Akitoshi Saito
- Yoshihiro Takayama & Takuma Sano
- Bison Smith & Keith Walker
- Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli
- Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma (New Japan)

–> “CIRCUIT 2009 NEW JAPAN BRAVE” <--
Togi Makabe stormed back into the New Japan ring today and finally made his presence felt after Toru Yano's betrayal at Sumo Hall and the subsequent GBH-minus-Honma and Nakamura alliance to rid the wrestling business of Makabe. It happened after Honma had been pinned by Ishii in a singles match and was receiving a GBH beatdown. Makabe hit the ring and ran off Yano to huge "Makabe!" chants. Makabe announced that from tomorrow on the second half of the Osaka double header, he would return to cooperate with Honma, possibly calling a halt to Honma's singles match series that he seems destined to lose each match of. But Makabe wasn't the only one to help Honma as Wataru Inoue -- feuding with Ishii for a long time now -- also hit the ring and helped out. Wataru seems to have common ground with Makabe and it looks like he could cooperate with Makabe and Honma against the Nakamura/GBH alliance.

Wild Child hit form today with instant revenge over the tandem that defeated them at Sumo Hall, as they defeated the team who will face TenKoji in a #1 contendership match for Team 3D's IWGP Tag Team Title, Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson. Omori, who suffered the humiliation of being pinned by the upcoming Anderson at Sumo Hall, struck down the American with an Axe Bomber.

NJPW, 4/21/09 (SXW)
Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium #2
1,400 Fans

1. Koji Kanemoto beat Kazuchika Okada (8:33) with an ankle hold.
2. Super Strong Machine, Jushin Thunder Liger & AKIRA beat Prince Devitt, Mitsuhide Hirasawa & Nobuo Yoshihashi (9:07) when AKIRA used a Musasabi press on Yoshihashi.
3. Black Tiger & Jado beat Tiger Mask & Taichi (12:50) when Jado used the Crossface of JADO on Taichi.
4. Tomohiro Ishii beat Tomoaki Honma (10:29) with a brainbuster.
5. Manabu Nakanishi & Takao Omori beat Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson (13:05) when Omori used an Axe Bomber on Anderson.
6. Shinsuke Nakamura, Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka beat Riki Choshu, Yuji Nagata & Wataru Inoue (11:05) when Nakamura used the Landslide on Inoue.
7. Hirooki Goto & Milano Collection AT beat Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ryusuke Taguchi (17:35) when Goto used the Shouten on Taguchi.