New Japan have today announced that due to a private issue, the company has terminated the contract of Tomoaki Honma. The company haven’t elaborated but it usually takes something quite serious for a Japanese wrestler to leave a company while under contract.

Honma had been with New Japan since early 2007 when he joined Makabe’s heel group GBH, and when Nakamura performed a coup d’état and took over GBH in 2009 (turning it into CHAOS), Honma was the only one who remained with Makabe and the two became fan favourites. I’ll post more details on his exit if they ever come to light.

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)