Shane Haste’s Dream Becomes A Reality As He Wins The GHC Heavyweight Title

By: Lewis Carlan

On August 25th 2007, White Raven Squad faction member Shane Haste won his first singles title when he became the Explosive Pro Wrestling Champion in Australia. After losing the title on Feb. 16 2008, Haste would go on a 17 year drought when it came to singles championships. He held numerous tag team titles over the years but it was that second singles title that Haste was unable to secure.

Haste’s long singles title drought came to a crashing halt on May 2nd at Pro Wrestling NOAH’s SPRING MAYHEM RYOGOKU 2026 as he challenged the GHC Heavyweight Champion Yoshiki Inamura for the title.

Inamura went into the bout with a tremendous amount of momentum on his side as he was coming off six straight successful GHC Heavyweight Title defenses. Haste didn’t allow the momentum get in-between him and his dream of becoming the GHC Heavyweight Champion.

Haste’s dream became a reality as he defeated Inamura at the 31:42 mark after hitting his Bomb Valley Death finisher which was enough to score a three count and enable him to emerge victorious. The 4,539 fans at Ryogoku Kokugikan were on the edge of their seats for much of the match. The two warriors shook hands following the bout as a show of respect.

After his victory, Haste was addressing the crowd when KENTA and the rest of the White Raven Squad entered the ring. Haste didn’t waste any time and revealed he wanted to defend his newly won GHC Heavyweight Title against KENTA. KENTA accepted and the two will meet for the GHC Heavyweight Title on May 13th at LEGACY RISE 2026 inside Korakuen Hall.

Photo Credit: Pro Wrestling NOAH

In other action at SPRING MAYHEM RYOGOKU 2026, OZAWA defeated Tetsuya Naito in their highly anticipated bout and Dragon defeated AMAKUSA to become the new GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion.

In a special tag team bout Naomichi Marufuji & KENOH defeated Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows.

Here are the full results for NOAH SPRING MAYHEM RYOGOKU 2026 courtesy of purolove.com:

• Atsushi Kotoge, Hi69 & Hajime Ohara defeaedt Yuto Koyanagi, Hiroto Tsuruya & Midori Takahashi (6:34) after a Texas Clover Hold by Kotoge against Takahashi.
• Eita defeated Katsumi Inahata (3:45) with the Imperial Uno.
• KENTA, Tetsuya Endo  & HAYATA defeated Mohammed Yone, Kazuyuki Fujita & Daiki Odashima (8:38) after KENTA’s Go 2 Sleep against Odashima.
  
• Handicap Match: Knüll defeated Kid Lykos & Kid Lykos II (4:22) with Mount Knull against Lykos II.
  
• 3 Way Match: Manabu Soya, Saxon Huxley & Yuki Iino defeaed Kaito Kiyomiya, Harutoki & Alejandro and Masa Kitamiya, Takashi Sugiura & Tadasuke (5:32) after Soya’s Passion IS vs. Alejandro.
  
• L.T.J vs. T2000X ALL-OUT BATTLE I: Alpha Wolf & Kai Fujimura defeated Angel Reyes & RYUSEI (7:29) after a package piledriver from Wolf vs. Reyes.
  
• L.T.J vs. T2000X ALL-OUT BATTLE II – No DQ Match: BUSHI defeated Jun Masaoka (11:44) with the MX.
• Special Tag Match: Naomichi Marufuji & KENOH defeated Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows (10:50) after an armlock package hold by Marufuji against Gallows.
  
• L.T.J vs. T2000X ALL-OUT BATTLE III: OZAWA defeated Tetsuya Naito (18:12) with a backslide.
  
• GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title: Dragon Bane defeated AMAKUSA (c) (14:33) with the Bane Twister – Title change (Failed 3rd defense -> 61st Champion).
  
• GHC Heavyweight Title: Shane Haste defeated Yoshiki Inamura (c) (31:42) with a figure-four jackknife hold – title change (Failed 7th defense -> 50th Champion).