(NOAH\IPW CHRONOLOGY) DAISUKE HARADA ~ IPW JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP

Won: Saturday 16th November 2019, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
2nd title reign 
Number of defenses: 2
Lost: 10th August 2020, "Noah The Chronicle Vol.3"
Total number of days held: 269 

Challengers
1. Yoshinari Ogawa (Harada withdrew the challenge)

2. HAYATA 

Using an avalanche Katayama German Suplex from the top turnbuckle (the clip that Noah GHC posted went viral), Daisuke Harada defeated Atsushi Kotoge for the IPW Junior Heavyweight title, and became the third champion. Since he already holds the GHC Junior Tag belts with Tadasuke, not only do RATELS now hold all the junior belts available in Noah, Daisuke Harada is now where he was when he first held the championship, holding two championships at once.

Despite the news of IPW going dark (and this is something that Noah must know about), Daisuke Harada hinted about the future of the belt on the 6th December in a post match promo in Yamagata. He said that the belt would "not remain silent", although he did not know if anyone now would challenge for it, and hinted that he himself may initiate things. This could mean that either someone will come for the belt and take it back to Britain, or else Noah will simply keep the belt on, it becoming the equivalent of the National Championship in the junior league, with the belt exclusively for juniors only.

Update
After offering Daisuke Harada a handshake after a match on the 18th April, NOSAWA Rongai announced that he was making an open challenge to any junior wrestler both inside and outside of Noah for the belt. Daisuke Harada had no say in the matter, but is pretty speechless at NOSAWA'S audacity.

VS YOSHINARI OGAWA
The belt lay dormant for four months, with Daisuke Harada dutifully carrying it to the ring, and winning Global Junior League 2020 in the meantime. As the reigning GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion was Yoshinari Ogawa (who has hated RATELS since before time began), he stalled on the issue of giving Harada a title match, and it wasn't until 22nd February that he made a decision. If Harada wanted a title match, then he was going to have to put the IPW Junior Heavyweight belt on the line. Harada agreed to this saying that he would always defend the belt, and if Ogawa wanted to challenge for it, then it was fine by him. He would not run and hide. A title challenge with conditions has been made and accepted, and now all we need do is wait for the date, which will probably be early March at the Yokohama Bunka Gym.

The Coronavirus pandemic put an end to the event, which was rescheduled for March 29th at Korakuen Hall, where for the first time in Noah's history a show would be held with only four matches, and all of those matches would be championship matches only. The IPW championship was not going to be among them as much to Ogawa's fury, Daisuke Harada withdrew from putting it on the line. Harada's reasoning was that in Noah's 20th anniversary the GHC Junior with all its history should be honored in its own match, but Ogawa saw it as Harada being "chicken" and wanting the belt only to pose with. Ogawa said he wanted the belt because he wanted to take it to England to challenge Chris Ridgeway, and while I think this is probably Noah's plan in the long run to jettison the belt which is now defunct, Ogawa does not seem to realise that there isn't really anywhere that he could do this in England partly because IPW has gone dark, partly because many other promotions have gone out of business, and partly because the belt and its short history, is only really understood by Noah fans.

Update

IPW were planning to relaunch, but they announced in June 2020 that following the depth of the abuse scandals that was revealed in British Wrestling, some of which involved former IPW wrestlers, they could not in good faith reopen the promotion as its name was sullied. 

VS HAYATA

Not content with defeating Daisuke Harada and Tadasuke to retain the GHC Junior Heavyweight tag titles on the 19th July at Korakuen Hall, and getting the win himself via Headache, and splitting up RATELS, HAYATA decided that he was going to take the last thing that Daisuke Harada had, the IPW Junior Heavyweight. An empty title of a now defunct foreign promotion the belt may ne, but that wasn't going to stop HAYATA from taking it. HAYATA made his challenge in typical untypical fashion - typical in that he crammed himself into the corner of the ring to do it, untypical that he requested the microphone and spoke on it, and typical that he only spoke a few words, "Next, IPW". 

Title match has been set for the 10th August 2020 at Noah's last show at the Yokohama Bunka Gym before it is torn down. 

The match between the two former friends was very bitter. Daisuke Harada came creeping to the ring almost as he suspected that HAYATA was probably going to try and jump him before the bell rang as he had done this in their other singles matches before when a title was on the line, but HAYATA knew he was expecting that and he made no move. Years of working together, seconding each other, and even in Osaka Pro when they didn't really know each other, had taught both of them to know each other very very well. As well as he thought he knew HAYATA, Harada knew he had to fear and overcome just one move that HAYATA used to devastating effect, and that was the dreaded Headache. Harada kicked out of it once, but not the second time. 

NEXT CHAMPION: HAYATA