New Japan Pro Wrestling issued the following statement:

Tomoaki Honma was injured on March 3rd during his match in Okinawa, and immediately rushed to hospital.

He was diagnosed to have injured his cervical vertebrae. In order to recover, he will miss the scheduled March 6th IWGP Tag Team title match and his return to the ring is currently tentative. His tag partner, Togi Makabe, has also declined to compete on March 6th.

As a result, the IWGP Executive Committee has named Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima as the challengers.