On January 2 at Pro Wrestling NOAH’s annual NOAH The New Year event, Kota Ibushi returned to the promotion for the first time since 2012 to face Naomichi Marufuji. An exciting return for the 41-year-old wrestling star went awry when he sustained an injury mid match. Ibushi is no stranger to injuries, in October of 2021 while wrestling Kazuchika Okada in the NJPW G1 Climax finals he suffered an injury to his shoulder. That injury kept him out for 17 months due to setbacks in his recovery.ย
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He made his professional wrestling return at GCW Josh Barnett Bloodsport 9 against Mike Bailey last March. His matches have been sporadic since his return as he works on healing from his injuries. Most of his matches in 2023 were multi-man matches in AEW where he officially signed in November. Those matches include his most recent, a street fight where he teamed with Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega and Paul Wight against the Don Callis Family (Konosuke Takeshita, Kyle Fletcher, Will Hobbs) and Brian Cage.
At some point during the NOAH match, Ibushi went for a moonsault to the outside of the ring but when he landed he immediately grabbed his ankle.ย Sports Hochiย reported soon after that Ibushi had injuries to both of his ankles and he was taken to the hospital. While he was able to make it to the backstage area on his own he notified officials that he would not be able to go through with his post-match comments due to the pain. Ibushi apologized to fans on his social media on Friday, alleging he was scammed by a clinic and told fans to be careful. He relayed that at some point NOAH would release details of Ibushi’s injury but blames himself for the way the match turned out.ย
Ibushi later confirmed he would be getting surgery on his injuries. “Sorry for the delay in getting back to you,” Ibushi wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) account Friday night. “I’m sure NOAH will report back with more details, but I just wanted to let you know that the inside of my left ankle has been mixed up pretty messed up and I will be having surgery on the right ligament. I will have a release for you soon.”ย
On December 7, as promised, NOAH gave an update to fans that revealed Ibushi had been diagnosed with “a right tibiofibular ligament tear and a right ankle lateral ligament complex injury as a result of a more thorough examination than his initial diagnosis.” They also stated Ibushi is scheduled to undergo another detailed examination of his left leg.
Comicbook.com continues to wish Kota Ibushi the best in his recovery. Stay tuned for updates on his recovery.
