SUMMER EPIC 2026, Pro Wrestling NOAH’s latest major event, was held earlier today in Osaka at a first-time venue.
Today’s event was held at Intex Osaka Hall 5 in Osaka and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese & English. This was an exclusive ABEMA live broadcast in Japan so the live broadcast outside Japan was English only.
The announced paid attendance was 2088. They used only a small portion of the venue because it it a massive convention center-type space (reportedly the 3rd-biggest in Japan) but it sounds like a good number for the setup.
Pre-show:
Match 1: Atsushi Kotoge, Mohammed Yone, Hi69 & Hajime Ohara beat Katsumi Inahata, Yuto Koyanagi, Midori Takahashi & Hiroto Tsuruya. Kotoge pinned Takahashi.
Match 2: Tetsuya Endo & HAYATA beat RYUSEI & Black Menso-re. Endo pinned RYUSEI after God’s Right Knee.
Main show:
Match 1: GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Dragon Bane & Alejandro beat JACKY KAMEI & Riiita to retain the titles. Bane pinned KAMEI after Twisterbane. V4 for the champs.
Match 2: Yoshiki Inamura beat Kazuyuki Fujita.
Match 3: Alpha Wolf won a 7 man ladder match over Tadasuke, Jun Masaoka, Daiki Odashima, AMAKUSA, Kid Lykos 1 & 2. As a result, Wolf is in the N-1 VICTORY Tournament and, because he put his spot on the line, Tadasuke is OUT.
Match 4: Tetsuya Naito beat Kaito Kiyomiya. As a result, Naito gets the next GHC Heavyweight Championship shot after today.
Match 5: GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion Eita beat BUSHI to retain the title. V2 for Eita. Next up: Here comes the Team 2000X Gauntlet…starting with Kai Fujimura. That match will happen on 8/10 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
Match 6: GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Manabu Soya & Yuki Iino beat Masa Kitamiya & Takashi Sugiura to retain the titles. Soya pinned Kitamiya after Passion IS. V1 for the champs.
Match 7: GHC National Champion Naomichi Marufuji beat Kenoh to retain the title. V3 for Marufuji. Next up: KENTA. That match will happen on 8/9 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
Main Event: GHC Heavyweight Champion Shane Haste beat OZAWA to retain the title. V3 for Haste. Next up: As noted above, Naito. That match will happen on 8/9.
In post-event news/fallout, a new championship has been created, the GHC 200 Championship. Perhaps loosely inspired by championships such as the High Speed Championship, GLEAT’s G-RUSH Championship and the WWE Speed Championship, this is a title for matches that will have-no kidding-a 200 second time limit. An 8-man tournament will be held on 8/9 & 8/10 to crown the first champion with these special rules: 5 count count-outs, any draw in the tournament means BOTH are out, if nobody reaches the finals because of this rule there will be another tournament at a later date. For the Finals, if there is a time limit draw a discussion will be immediately held to determine the winner. In future title defenses, a time limit draw means the champion retains the title.
The 8/9 matches & participants: Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Yoshiki Inamura, Kenoh vs. Alpha Wolf, Tetsuya Endo vs. AMAKUSA, HAYATA vs. Masa Kitamiya.
Another new wrestler will debut on 8/10: Hiroya Namiki, a new rookie, will debut against Daiki Odashima. Namiki, 24, is about 5’10” and 77 kg/165 pounds and will be a Junior Heavyweight.
The next event is 7/26 at Ishikawa Industrial Exhibition Hall 3 in Ishikawa for a charity fundraiser event. There will be no live broadcast. On demand 7/28.