Shane Haste Didn’t Know His Agreement With NJPW Was No Longer In Effect Until He Told NOAH To Get NJPW’s Blessing To Bring Him In

Haste spoke highly of NJPW for fully paying out their agreement despite him not being under contract.

Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows recorded an extensive interview with new GHC Heavyweight Champion Shane Haste for the Talk’n Shop podcast.

While speaking about Haste’s run in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Haste credited them for paying out their full agreement despite him working only one date in 2025, and that was Battle in the Valley, which was stateside. Haste said NJPW honored the agreement even though he was not under contract.

“I didn’t know that I wasn’t with New Japan… well, a month after the deal ended (was when I found out)… The first few ones was per tours,” Haste said about his first deals with NJPW. “Then we did the year dates… and they’re like, ‘How would you like to get paid? Per month or per tour?’ Like a salary. Yeah, and that’s what we did for the last two or three years — two and a half years actually because I did a half a year one and a full year and then another full year, which obviously in 2025, did zero dates out of that… and they still honored that, without me putting any pen to paper. So I cannot be mad at all. They honored that. Every month, the money came through. I paid rent, and then I was able to do other bookings and other work too…”

He went on to speak about his return to Pro Wrestling NOAH. Haste said Zack Sabre Jr. may have facilitated things.

Haste shared that NOAH reached out to him, but as he mentioned in the first quote, he was not aware that his agreement with NJPW was no longer in play. He told NOAH to get NJPW’s blessing to bring him in. They later got back to Haste and told him it was fine, and it was because he was no longer with NJPW.

“NOAH reached out to me. I don’t know how random (it was). Zack (Sabre Jr.) might have helped. We had been talking about it for 2025, like, ‘Hey… me and Mike aren’t doing anything and you’re focusing on other people. Maybe we can do some excursions to NOAH… do that,’ and it never happened. NOAH randomly hit me up and I’m like, ‘Well, you’d have to speak to New Japan and get their blessing.’ They got back to me, they said, ‘Yep, New Japan said it was okay.’ Little did I know, it’s because I don’t work for New Japan anymore.”

The GHC Heavyweight Champion spoke highly of NOAH and said the level of trust he feels from them is above how he felt in WWE and NJPW.

“WWE never trusted me. They never put any stock into me. They never appreciated me. New Japan, we did stuff there but — we got championships, we got a few pushes. They used T.M.D.K. fairly well. But yeah, the appreciation I feel from NOAH, I’ve not felt that since my home promotion, EPW Perth.”

Haste’s first defense of the GHC Heavyweight Championship will be against KENTA at NOAH’s May 13th event.

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Talk’n Shop with an H/T to Fightful for the transcription.