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born November 18, 1976 is a Japanese people professional wrestler primarily working for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). In NJPW, he is a former one-time IWGP Tag Team Champion and a two-time World Tag League winner with Togi Makabe.
After touring with various independent promotions such as IWA Japan, Onita Pro, and Rainbow Pro, Honma debuted in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) on November 24, 2001, against Nobukazu Hirai. Honma was invited by owner Motoko Baba to join the promotion and signed a full-time contract with the company in March 2002. In February 2003, he formed Turmeric Storm with Kazushi Miyamoto, but the team later disbanded on April 20, 2004, after losing a trial series.
In 2005, Honma became affiliated with Kensuke Sasaki's Kensuke Office agency in an effort to further improve his career. A severe neck injury kept him out of action throughout much of early 2006, but he returned in March of that same year. Honma announced his departure from AJPW on April 28, 2006, and became a freelancer. Throughout 2006, he worked for Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max and King's Road, where he reformed Turmeric Storm with Kazushi Miyamoto. On September 24, 2006, Tomoaki Honma and Jun Kasai won Apache Pro-Wrestling Army's WEW World Tag Team Championship from Takashi Sasaki and Badboy Hido. The team vacated the championship on February 20, 2007.
On December 23, 2011, Honma received a rare championship opportunity, when he challenged for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship in the main event of a NJPW show at Korakuen Hall, losing to champion Masato Tanaka at the end of a 23-minute bout. On March 28, 2012, New Japan announced that the promotion had released Honma from his contract due to a "personal problem". Following his release from NJPW, Honma returned to AJPW on September 8, 2012, where he remained for the rest of the year and much of early 2013. In March 2013, Honma began appearing in Pro Wrestling Noah, where he took part in the 2013 Global Tag League with Akitoshi Saito. The duo finished the tournament with one win and two points.
On December 9, Honma and Makabe defeated Los Ingobernables de Japón (Takaaki Watanabe and Tetsuya Naito) in the finals to win the 2015 World Tag League. On January 4, 2016, at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome, Honma won his first title in NJPW, when he and Makabe defeated Bullet Club's Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson for the IWGP Tag Team Championship. They made their first successful title defense on February 14 at The New Beginning in Niigata in a rematch against Gallows and Anderson. The following week, Honma took part in the NJPW and Ring of Honor (ROH) co-produced event, unsuccessfully challenging Jay Lethal for the ROH World Championship in the main event of the second show on February 20. Honma and Makabe lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) on April 10 at Invasion Attack 2016. On July 3, Honma unsuccessfully challenged Katsuyori Shibata for the NEVER Openweight Championship. From July 22 to August 13, Honma took part in the 2016 G1 Climax, where he finished with a record of three wins and six losses. In November, Honma participated on the Revolution Pro Wrestling (RPW) and NJPW co-produced Global Wars UK event, where he defeated Sha Samuels on the first night, but lost to Josh Bodom on the second night. In December, Honma and Makabe advanced to the finals of the 2016 World Tag League by winning their block with a record of five wins and two losses. On December 10, Honma and Makabe defeated the reigning IWGP Tag Team Champions Guerrillas of Destiny to win the 2016 World Tag League, becoming the first ever team to win the tournament in two consecutive years. On January 4, 2017, at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome, Honma and Makabe took part in a three-way match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, which was won by Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano.
On March 3, Honma was injured during a match, while taking a rope-hung DDT from Jado. Following the move, Honma could not get up and the match was immediately stopped, before he was taken backstage on a stretcher. Reportedly, Honma was able to speak and move his head, but not his arms or legs. The following day, NJPW announced that Honma had injured his cervical vertebrae. On March 6, it was announced that Honma had regained movement in his lower extremities and could grasp objects with his hands. Honma vowed to recover from the injury and return to the ring. On March 31, Honma announced he had successfully undergone surgery on his spinal canal. The following month, Honma stated he was looking to return to the ring in the fall of 2017. He was discharged in June after spending three and a half months in the hospital.
On March 19, 2019, he appeared in the first match of the New Japan Cup in a team consisting of Yota Tsuji, Ren Narita, and Shota Umino.
On October 28, 2020, Honma scored his first victory since returning from injury in 2018 when he pinned Gedo in a six-man tag team match after a Diving headbutt. He was teaming alongside Kota Ibushi and Hiroshi Tanahashi while also taking on Bullet Club (Jay White and Kenta Kobayashi).
In November 2015, Honma's former girlfriend of 18 years, fellow professional wrestler Kiyoko Ichiki, accused him of domestic violence over the past four years. Honma denied the accusation, instead claiming that he was abused by her and stating that he was seeking legal action against her for trying to damage his career.
Since August 2017, Honma has been married to a woman named Chie.
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