Shingo Takagi


Shingo Takagi is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he is the current NEVER Openweight Champion. He also held the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship with Bushi and Evil, making him the first person to hold both NEVER titles at the same time. He is part of the stable Los Ingobernables de Japon.
Takagi first became known for his work with Dragon Gate, where he competed from his debut in 2004 up until 2018. He was known as the promotion's top heel for many years, and went on to become one of the most decorated wrestlers in the company's history, winning the Open the Dream Gate Championship, the top championship in Dragon Gate, four times. He was also known as the leader of the villainous VerserK stable through its many incarnations, and for his long-lasting rivalry with BxB Hulk, with whom he main-evented several prominent Dragon Gate events. He has also spent an extended amount of time with American promotions such as Full Impact Pro, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla and Ring of Honor.
On October 8, 2018, Takagi made his surprise debut in NJPW as the foreshadowed sixth member of the Los Ingobernables de Japon stable. Originally performing in the Junior Heavyweight division, he went on to be undefeated as a singles competitor and overall unpinned and unsubmitted until June 2019, winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship once with fellow Ingobernable Bushi. He moved to the Heavyweight division later that month. Takagi signed a full time contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling in April 2020.

Professional wrestling career

Dragon Gate (20042018)

Shingo Takagi debuted in October 2004 as the first graduate of the Dragon Gate dojo. He was also trained by Animal Hamaguchi. Takagi won the 2005 Wrestling Observer Rookie of the Year award.
In Dragon Gate, Takagi became a member of the Blood Generation stable. On May 10, 2007, shortly after forming the stable New Hazard, Takagi – along with BxB Hulk and Cyber Kong – defeated the Typhoon team of Cima, Susumu Yokosuka, and Ryo Saito for the Dragon Gate Open the Triangle Gate Championship. They held the championship until July 13, 2007, when the team were forced to vacate the championship as BxB Hulk had sustained a jaw injury. Takagi and Kong replaced Hulk with Jack Evans, and challenged for the vacant championship against the Muscle Outlaw'z team of Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino, and Magnitude Kishiwada, but were unsuccessful.
On May 14, 2008, Takagi and Kong turned on Hulk shortly before a scheduled Open the Triangle Gate Championship defense against Genki Horiguchi, Gamma and Yamato of the Muscle Outlaw'z, citing Hulk as a weakling. Takagi and Kong then joined up with Genki, Gamma, Yamato and Yasushi Kanda, ending both New Hazard and Muscle Outlaw'z and forming Real Hazard, a new faction. Takagi then teamed with Gamma and Yamato to win the newly-vacant Open the Triangle Gate Championship, defeating Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino and Hulk. On June 28, they lost the Open the Triangle Gate Championship to Kenichiro Arai, Taku Iwasa and Shinobu of the Tozawa-juku faction.
The following day, he fought BxB Hulk to a one-hour draw in a number one contender's match for Cima's Open the Dream Gate Championship. They were immediately scheduled for a rematch on July 27, but this time the Open the Dream Gate Championship was on the line as Cima had to vacate the championship due to a neck injury. On July 10, doubt was already cast over his standing in Real Hazard when he stopped them and Tokyo Gurentai members from trying to give Cima an unwanted haircut. This caused tensions to stir between him and the others, especially with Kong. On July 27, Takagi defeated BxB Hulk to win the Open the Dream Gate Championship. After the match, Takagi apologized to Hulk and retracted his statement about him being weak. Soon after, Kong attempted to attack Cima, who was at the announce table, but Takagi stopped him. After a brief argument, Real Hazard attacked Takagi and kicked him out of the group for showing compassion towards Hulk and Cima, but he was saved by Typhoon.
Typhoon offered him membership in the faction, but he turned it down. He later teamed with Dragon Kid, a Typhoon member, in the Summer Adventure Tag League Tournament, and the pair reached the finals before they were beaten by Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino. Following this, Takagi changed his mind and joined Typhoon. Takagi's membership caused tension within the faction, and led to Susumu Yokosuka challenging Takagi to a match on November 16 for the Open the Dream Gate Championship. Takagi retained, and then tried to banish Yokosuka from Typhoon as punishment. Ryo Saito tried to stop him, and then Cima was called out. Takagi gave him a lariat before he could say anything, resulting in his banishment from Typhoon. After that, Takagi announced that he would not be participating in the annual King of Gate Tournament.
Takagi began teaming with Akira Tozawa and Taku Iwasa after the faction they had been members of, Tozawa-juku, had disbanded, with the trio officially forming a new faction on December 19. On December 28, Takagi lost the Open the Dream Gate Championship to Naruki Doi, who had won the King of the Gate Tournament. On January 11, 2009, Dragon Kid joined the new faction, with Takagi called the faction Kamikaze. On February 15, Takagi, Iwasa and Dragon Kid won the Open the Triangle Gate Championship, but lost the championship to Cima, Gamma and Kagetora on April 15. When Yamato left Real Hazard, he joined Kamikaze, reforming his team with Takagi. The duo won the annual Summer Adventure Tag League Tournament in August, and then the Open the Twin Gate Championship the following month. They held the titles until December 27, when they lost them to Cima and Gamma.
On March 22, 2010, Takagi and Cyber Kong defeated Cima and Gamma to regain the Open the Twin Gate Championship. Takagi participated in the 2010 King of Gate tournament and beat Dragon Kid in the finals on April 14, 2010. This allowed him to contest Open the Dream Gate Championship match against his stablemate and champion Yamato at the Dead or Alive PPV on May 5, 2010, but Yamato retained the title by making Takagi submit. Takagi and Kong would lose their Twin Gate title to K-ness and Susumu Yokosuka on May 13, 2010. Takagi then renewed his old feud with former tag partner BxB Hulk, leading to a Hair vs Hair match at the Kobe World Pro Wrestling Festival 2010 on July 11. Takagi won the match and shaved off Hulk's hair.
After returning from an injury, Takagi disbanded Kamikaze on May 13, 2011 and the following day joined forces with Masaaki Mochizuki's new stable, Junction Three, to battle Cima's Blood Warriors. After Junction Three was disbanded in February 2012, Takagi, alongside Yamato, joined up with Dragon Gate Nex Member Chihiro Tominaga, and the debuting Super Shenlong III and formed -akatsuki- on April 19, 2012. On July 22, 2012, Takagi and Yamato defeated Jimmy Kagetora and Jimmy Susumu to become the 22nd Open the Twin Gate Champions. They lost the title to Don Fujii and Masaaki Mochizuki on September 23, 2012. Takagi and Yamato won the title for their third time together on May 5, 2013, by defeating BxB Hulk and Uhaa Nation. They lost the title to Akira Tozawa and BxB Hulk on June 15, when Yamato turned on Takagi. On July 21, Takagi defeated Cima to win the Open the Dream Gate Championship for the second time. On August 1, -akatsuki- was forced to disband, after losing to Mad Blankey in a five-on-four tag team match. On August 23, Takagi lost the Open the Dream Gate Championship to Yamato in his first defense. In order to continue his battle with Mad Blankey, Takagi formed a new stable named Monster Express with Akira Tozawa, Masato Yoshino, Ricochet, Shachihoko Boy and Uhaa Nation. On December 22, Takagi and Tozawa defeated Naruki Doi and Yamato to win the Open the Twin Gate Championship. They lost the title to Eita and T-Hawk on July 20, 2014. On August 31, Shingo, Tozawa and Uhaa Nation unsuccessfully challenged for the Open the Triangle Gate Championship against Cyber Kong, Naruki Doi and Kzy with Shingo getting pinned after Kong hit him with the Cyber Bomb. Shingo and Tozawa lost in the Summer Adventure Tag League semi-finals against T-Hawk and Eita. On December 28, Shingo unsuccessfully challenged for the Open the Dream Gate title against BxB Hulk. On August 16, 2015, Takagi defeated Masato Yoshino to win the Open the Dream Gate Championship for the third time. Shortly afterwards, Takagi was kicked out of Monster Express after turning on his then-stablemates Yoshino and Shachihoko BOY. Takagi would then form a new heel unit with the remnants of Mad Blankey, becoming the co-leader of the unit alongside Naruki Doi. On September 23, 2015, the new unit was named VerserK. On February 14, Takagi lost the Open the Dream Gate Championship to Jimmy Susumu in his fourth defense. He would regain the title from Susumu on March 6, becoming the first four-time champion. On July 24, 2016, Takagi lost the championship to Yamato. On January 18, 2017, Takagi, along with fellow VerserK teammates T-Hawk and El Lindaman won a special One Day 6 Man Tag Tournament, defeating Kotoka, Masato Yoshino and Ben-K.

Ring of Honor (20062008)

Shortly after becoming a member of Blood Generation, Shingo began wrestling for Ring of Honor in the United States. He made several ROH appearances before becoming a regular wrestler in ROH in late 2006. He became one half of the ROH World Tag Team Champions alongside Naruki Doi on March 3, 2007, by beating the Briscoe Brothers in Liverpool, England. The two lost the championship back to the Briscoes at All Star Extravaganza III on March 30.
Shingo had his final official ROH match at "Good Times, Great Memories" on April 28, 2007, unsuccessfully challenging Takeshi Morishima for the ROH World Championship. He challenged the Briscoe Brothers for ROH World Tag Team Championship unsuccessfully at ROH's Live in Osaka show with his partner Susumu Yokosuka on July 17. At Wrestlemania weekend in 2008 at "Dragon Gate Challenge II" and "Supercard of Honor III", he and BxB Hulk wrestled The Age of the Fall, and El Generico and Kevin Steen respectively in his last two ROH appearances.

Other promotions (20062009)

Throughout 2006 and 2007 Shingo appeared in several American promotions, including Full Impact Pro and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla. On February 27, 2007, Shingo won the Southern Thunder Pro Wrestling Texas Heavyweight Championship by defeating Texas Renegade. On September 5, 2007 he made his Hawaii debut for Action Zone Wrestling teaming with Sabaki in a losing effort to AZW Tag Team Champions Devilshock. On March 8, 2009, he won his first wrestling tournament in Germany by emerging triumphant at wXw's annual wXw 16 Carat Gold Tournament. In 2009, he began wrestling for Dragon Gate USA.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2018–present)

After Hiromu Takahashi was injured, Tetsuya Naito began to tease that a new member would be joining Los Ingobernables de Japon. On October 8, 2018 at King of Pro Wrestling, Takagi made his surprise New Japan Pro-Wrestling debut as the sixth member of the Los Ingobernables de Japon stable, and teamed up with Naito, Bushi and Sanada to defeat Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, Yoh and Sho of Chaos.
He would go on to compete in the Junior Heavyweight division, and would stay both undefeated in singles matches and overall unpinned and unsubmitted until June 2019; during this period, he suffered only three defeats in 72 consecutive matches, all of which were tag team matches in which a partner was pinned. He and Bushi went on to form a tag team competing in the junior heavyweight tag team division; they competed in the Super Junior Tag Tournament, winning five of their seven matches and advancing to the finals at Power Struggle where they lost to Roppongi 3K in a Three-way tag team match also involving Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado of Suzuki-Gun. On January 4, 2019 at Wrestle Kingdom 13, the duo defeated both defending champions Kanemaru and El Desperado and Roppongi 3K to capture the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, Takagi's first title in NJPW. Their first defense took place at The New Beginning in Sapporo, where they successfully defeated Suzuki-Gun members El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. They dropped the titles to Roppongi 3K on March 6 at NJPW's 47th Anniversary Show.
Starting on May 13, 2019, Takagi took part in the Best of Super Juniors tournament for the first time. He won block A by winning all nine of his matches and scoring 18 points; this set up a new record for most victories within the same block, as well as a new record for most points scored at the tournament. He eventually lost in the finals against Block B winner Will Ospreay on June 5, marking his first defeat in New Japan as a singles competitor. The match received considerable acclaim, with Dave Meltzer giving it a rare five and three-quarter out of five rating and calling it "the best junior heavyweight match I’ve ever seen and one of the best matches in any division”.
At Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall on June 9, after a victory over heavyweight Satoshi Kojima, Takagi stated his intent to move from being a junior heavyweight, and become an openweight, wanting to take on the best in both the Junior division and heavyweight division and declared himself an entrant for the 2019 G1 Climax. where in the tournament, he finished with a record of 4 wins and 5 losses, failing to advance to the finals. Following defeating Hirooki Goto on the final night of the B Block, Takagi announced he would move on from being an openweight wrestler, to being a heavyweight wrestler. Throughout September, Takagi would continue to battle Goto, eventually facing him in a rematch on the Destruction in Kobe show, losing to Goto.
On January 5, 2020 at Wrestle Kingdom 14, Takagi, Bushi and Evil defeated four other teams in a Gauntlet match for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. The following night in a tag team match where he and Evil took on Hirooki Goto and Tomohiro Ishii, Takagi would pin Goto, before asking to face Goto in a rubber match for Goto’s newly won NEVER Openweight Championship. On February 1 at The New Beginning in Sapporo, he defeated Hirooki Goto to win the NEVER Openweight Championship, making him a double champion and the first person to hold both NEVER titles at the same time. At New Japan Road in Korakuen Hall, Takagi made his fist successful title defense against Tomohiro Ishii. On February 25, Takagi was announced for the 2020 New Japan Cup and was set to face Will Ospreay in a Best of the Super Juniors 26 Finals rematch. However, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, New Japan Cup, and further events were cancelled. In April of 2020, it was announced that Takagi had signed a full time contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling, ending his stint as a freelancer. Following New Japan’s return to producing wrestling shows, it was announced that Takagi would compete in the tournament, with his new opponent being Sho of Roppongi 3K.

Championships and accomplishments

Winner Loser LocationEventDateNotes
Shingo Takagi BxB Hulk Kobe, JapanKobe Pro-Wrestling Festival 2010