{"id":216149,"date":"2026-05-07T13:59:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T18:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=216149"},"modified":"2026-05-07T13:08:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T18:08:46","slug":"top-pro-wrestling-noah-matches-of-the-week-spring-mayhems-dragon-bane-vs-amakusa-shane-haste-vs-inamura-ozawa-vs-naito","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/05\/07\/top-pro-wrestling-noah-matches-of-the-week-spring-mayhems-dragon-bane-vs-amakusa-shane-haste-vs-inamura-ozawa-vs-naito\/","title":{"rendered":"TOP PRO WRESTLING NOAH MATCHES OF THE WEEK: Spring Mayhem&#8217;s Dragon Bane vs. Amakusa, Shane Haste vs. Inamura, Ozawa vs. Naito"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-724610488\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>Pro Wrestling Noah had one of their biggest shows of the year \u201cSpring Mayhem\u201d in Ryogoku Sumo Hall on May 2.<\/p>\n<p>The main event saw Shane Haste defeat Yoshiki Inamura of NXT fame to become the third foreigner to hold the GHC Heavyweight Championship.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been an up and down career for Haste, who first made a name with Mikey Nichols as TMDK (The Mighty Don\u2019t Kneel) in Noah in the early-to-mid-2010s. They left for NXT in 2016, but weren\u2019t successful.<\/p>\n<p>Nichols left WWE and Haste had a brief main roster run as Shane Thorne and as part of the masked Retribution gimmick during the pandemic and was eventually released. He and Nichols reformed TMDK in NJPW and held the IWGP Tag Titles and expanded the TMDK group with Zack Sabre Jr. becoming the front man. He stopped getting booked in NJPW a little over a year ago and has been roaming the wrestling landscape since then.<\/p>\n<p>I saw him live back in February on an AEW show in Ontario, Calif. He was part of the losing side of a six-man match against Scorpio Sky and Top Flight. That\u2019s quite the career turnaround going from losing on ROH events to winning the GHC Title in the main event of Sumo Hall within a couple months. Top matches on the show saw:<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2022Ozawa pinned Tetsuya Naito with a backslide.<\/strong> Ozawa is similar to Naito from a decade ago. He\u2019s the charismatic cool heel who is really a babyface to the fans. Naito hasn\u2019t looked that good since joining Noah, but he was fine here. This was the most anticipated match coming in as it\u2019s the closest thing to a dream match Noah can put on right now. The match was just okay, but had good heat.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2022Dragon Bane won the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title from Amakusa.<\/strong> Bane now holds the Junior tag and singles titles. He\u2019s a luchador who came to Noah with his brother Alpha Wolf as a tag team. They were really good before Alpha turned heel to join the Team 2000 X heel stable that Ozawa is the leader of. Amakusa is a really good veteran wrestler that doesn\u2019t get much talk. This was my favorite match on the show.<\/p>\n<p><em>ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW&#8230;<\/em><\/p><div id=\"pwtor-3238639702\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Check out the latest episode of &#8220;Wrestling Coast to Coast&#8221; with Chris Maitland and Justin McClelland, part of the PWTorch Dailycast line-up: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/wrestling-coast-to-coast-maitland-mcclelland-discuss-create-a-pro-monumental-moment-featuring-bronson-vs-nemeth-mjf-vs-castor-more--71902536\">CLICK HERE<\/a> to stream (or search \u201cpwtorch\u201d on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wrestling Coast to Coast - Maitland &amp; McClelland discuss Create-A-Pro Monumental Moment featuring Bronson vs. Nemeth, MJF vs. Castor, more\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?episode_id=71902536&amp;theme=light&amp;playlist=false&amp;playlist-continuous=false&amp;chapters-image=true&amp;episode_image_position=right&amp;hide-logo=false&amp;hide-likes=false&amp;hide-comments=false&amp;hide-sharing=false&amp;hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>\u2022Shane Haste beat Yoshiki Inamura in a match that went 31 minutes.<\/strong> Inamura won the title in November of last year from Kenta when he returned from his NXT excursion. He now wears a cowboy hat and calls himself \u201cMr. Smack Daddy.\u201d It was a pretty good match, but didn\u2019t have that much heat as I don\u2019t think many fans thought Haste could win.<\/p>\n<p>After the match, Haste challenged Kenta for a match noting his only previous GHC Title match was a loss to Kenta in 2013. Haste did an emotional interview backstage taking about how it was his dream to be GHC Champion since first seeing Noah in the early 2000s when Kenta Kobashi was the champion.<\/p>\n<p>He said he gave up on that dream. He thought when he left Noah the first time that he was moving on to bigger and better things. But things went downhill and it broke him as a person.<\/p>\n<p>But winning the GHC Title validated him and thanked everyone who ever supported him. This was the type of interview that makes you like Haste and want to get behind him as a good person and sympathetic figure. The Japanese style backstage interview is a good avenue for this type of promo. It\u2019s just the winner speaking from the heart straight into the camera with no scripts or interviewer holding a mic and asking questions.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wade Keller Post-show (5\/6) - AEW Dynamite w\/Keller &amp; Kuester\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ekV_RSSzkaU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2088434186\"><div id=\"pwtor-2490579825\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Pro Wrestling Noah had one of their biggest shows of the year \u201cSpring Mayhem\u201d in Ryogoku Sumo Hall on May 2. The main event saw Shane Haste defeat Yoshiki Inamura of NXT fame to become <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/05\/07\/top-pro-wrestling-noah-matches-of-the-week-spring-mayhems-dragon-bane-vs-amakusa-shane-haste-vs-inamura-ozawa-vs-naito\/\" title=\"TOP PRO WRESTLING NOAH MATCHES OF THE WEEK: Spring Mayhem&#8217;s Dragon Bane vs. Amakusa, Shane Haste vs. Inamura, Ozawa vs. Naito\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,9,14,27,4488],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-results","category-results_japanliveevents","category-specialists","category-top-five-lists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2026\/05\/Screenshot-2026-05-07-at-1.06.40-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216153,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216149\/revisions\/216153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}