I’m sort of making up my own narrative for Takagi’s career here, because what actually happened involves the weird lull that is the World Tag League at the end of the year. But from my point of view, Takagi was challenged by Hirooki Goto to have a rematch from their G1 Climax tournament match. From there, a rivalry with Goto led to Takagi joining the NEVER division.
NEVER started as a sort of NXT type thing for NJPW, but it didn’t really take off. Two years after the concept debuted in 2010, the NEVER Openweight Championship began. Rather than being an up-and-comers title, it became more of a strong style belt. The matches were thankfully shorter than IWGP main events, but the talent involved in them meant that the quality was quite high. Takagi fit like a glove. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
September 22, 2019 – Kobe, Hyogo
Hirooki Goto def. Shingo Takagi
From Destruction. This built so well off of their previous match, but not at all in a way that you can’t enjoy this match without seeing their go from the month before. Takagi brought the fight here much in the same way that Goto did in August, and though Goto did a better job of countering Takagi’s offense to keep his own wits about him than Takagi did when Goto assaulted him throughout their previous match. I said of their G1 match that it was clear why these two were made rivals, and that’s even more apparent in this fight. Though their moves aren’t particularly similar, their general styles almost completely mirror each other. I thought I heard Kevin Kelly say that Takagi had his own version of Goto’s GTR ready to use, but he never got the chance. Goto stuck it out through the big Pumping Bomber to hit the Shouten Kai, the Ushigoroshi, and the GTR for the win at 20:27. That was a rather definitive win for Goto that had Takagi looking for victories outside of the singles ranks for the rest of the year. ****¼
I’m skipping the rest of Takagi’s 2019, because it was filled with filler multi-man matches and a run through the World Tag League that was apparently completely uneventful. He teamed with El Terrible in the tournament. They lost more than half of their matches. I did take a look at some of his matches outside of Japan around this time period, though.
Fast forward to Wrestle Kingdom 14, a two-night event. On the first night, Los Ingobernables del Japon lost an eight-man tag match to Suzuki-gun. Takagi let that be the end of a lousy three month period and rebounded the following night on the pre-show.
January 5, 2020 – Tokyo, Japan
Shingo Takagi, EVIL & BUSHI def. Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Robbie Eagles, Taichi, El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens {NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship Gauntlet Match}
From Wrestle Kingdom 14. This pre-show match. The crowd is still filing in. When I’m doing projects like this, I’m always torn over whether or not to spend time watching the portions of a gauntlet match that don’t feature the subject I’m focusing on. Usually, and now, I decide to waste my time. The Bullet Club and CHAOS start. Ishii pins Owens with a brainbuster after a very short but spirited match. Suzuki-gun is out next. They have the same style of match. This one ends with Eagles rolling Kanemaru up for the win. LIJ are out next. I’m just now realizing, and only because the commentators called it out, that the referee is a white guy. That’s pretty neat that even the referees from the LA Dojo make it to Japan. Things thankfully slow down for a bit. Wait, nevermind. They can’t help themselves. That last minute of this match goes super fast and ends when EVIL pins Ishii with Darkness Falls. Except Ishii kicked out anyway and confused everyone. The champs are out last. I’m surprised that Yano took of his shirt, because at least one person from every other team (BUSHI, Fale, Kanemaru) kept their shirts on. The champs get in a bit of their comedy stuff, but not a ton. Takagi survives all of Taguchi’s arse-enal (see what I did there?!) and distracts the referee so that BUSHI can mist him. Takagi follows with the Pumping Bomber and MADE IN JAPAN for the win at 19:34. I dunno, it was fine. It had no meaning but it was a well-paced twenty minutes and a fine way to get all these guys on the show. Plus, Takagi won a title. ***
January 6, 2020 – Tokyo, Japan
Shingo Takagi & EVIL def. Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto
From New Year Dash. Kevin Ford told me that this was meant to be a preview of what the NEVER singles division would look like that year, and kind of was, minus changes because COVID happened. Do you like lariats? This match has a lot of them. It was a real Big Japan Strong Championship type beat-em-up. To my surprise, EVIL came out of this looking the best, even though it was Takagi who pinned the NEVER Openweight Champion Goto to win the match at 16:28 with the Last of the Dragon. Given that this likely played into the decision to give EVIL a run on top, I have to dock it points. This stole the show that night, though with the benefit of hindsight it’s little more than an exciting strong style tag. It doesn’t need to be any more than that to build hype for Takagi vs. Goto, though. ***¾
February 1, 2020 – Sapporo, Hokkaido
Shingo Takagi def. Hirooki Goto {NEVER Openweight Championship Match}
From The New Beginning. I love a threematch, though it’s been a while since I watched the first two matches in the series (I took a break from reviewing Takagi matches after the New Year Dash match) so I might not pick up some of the connective tissue. The whole match was exciting and competitive, even if I had a touch of “this all feels a bit too familiar to be surprising,” to it. That is, until the finish. Goto hit a few variations of the GTR, but when going for the original version Takagi started hitting him with flailing punches. I was thinking that the strikes didn’t look nearly strong enough to stop Goto from hitting the move. But then my expectations were subverted when it turned out that they were bait. Goto took the bait, grabbing Takagi’s arm to stop the annoying strikes, but Takagi used the new positioning to hit MADE IN JAPAN. That got a two-count and the Last of the Dragon got the win at 20:10. After the match, Takagi said that the NEVER Openweight Championship should be considered the number one title in New Japan now. ****
February 6, 2020 – Tokyo, Japan
Shingo Takagi, EVIL & BUSHI def. Hirooki Goto, Robbie Eagles & Tomohiro Ishii {NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship Match}
From later in the New Beginning tour. In theory, this was an opportunity for Goto to get a chance at NEVER division revenge here, but in actuality, Takagi looked right through him and spent most of the match antagonizing Ishii. I really like that everyone on the champion team has entrance masks. There were more than a few callbacks to the New Year Dash tag team match in this, and for the most part they worked to get the crowd hyped up. The final one was a little too cute for me, seeing Ishii hit Takagi with a lariat, then EVIL hit Ishii with one, then Goto hit EVIL with one and then the cycle repeating itself with no one trying to defend against the move. But that’s just one spot in an otherwise wild match. Takagi and Ishii’s exchanges were brutal. EVIL and Goto’s were filled with almost labyrinthian paths through counters to attacks. Eagles became the focal point of the final stretch. The commentators kept wondering if his attacks on BUSHI’s leg would lead to him becoming the first Australian-born wrestler to win a title in NJPW. It was not to be, as BUSHI cheated by misting Eagles to escape a very convincing Ron Miller Special (leglock). My only other gripe with the match (in addition to the over choreographed lariat bit) is that BUSHI’s MX finisher uses the knee. The same knee that had just been under attack for an extended period of time. And BUSHI didn’t flinch after using it to win the match at 21:44. Had those two things not happened, this match would have been outrageously good, but even with them left in it was still pretty great. ****
February 20, 2020 – Tokyo, Japan
Shingo Takagi def. Tomohiro Ishii {NEVER Openweight Championship Match}
From New Japan Road. Ishii beat EVIL the night that Takagi won the NEVER title, which I guess is how they justified this title shot. Or maybe it was a particularly gnarly headbutt that Ishii gave to Takagi in their NEVER six-man tag match. There’s some weird revisionist history going on on commentary here. While connecting the two through their connections to Genichiro Tenryu, the commentators try to make the case that Takagi wasn’t popular in Dragon Gate because he didn’t conform enough to the house style. Neither the cause nor the effect in that claim are true. It may be true that Takagi got tired of the style and left for that reason, but he fit incredibly well in DG and was a top guy for the majority of his long run there. Issues with him being the tippy top guy had less to do with his style and more to do with how he was booked. This was very, very hard-hitting, but at times felt like it was descending into parody. Whereas their first match was about Takagi proving he was strong enough to beat a stubborn heavyweight, this turned into a nonsensical dick measuring contest. It’s one thing to have a bit here or there where both wrestlers egg each other on to hit them, but for half of the match to be filled with it is silly. I also don’t understand why this was longer than their first match given that Takagi had more in his arsenal with which to beat Ishii than he did the first time around. Maybe it was because he spent so much of the match just letting Ishii chop at his throat. Still, he now had his version of Goto’s GTR, which he used very effectively. After hitting that, he hit a gnarly Pumping Bomber and the Last of the Dragon for the win at 27:04. Entertaining for what it was, but what it was wasn’t as important-feeling as their G1 match. ***¾
February 21, 2020 – Tokyo, Japan
Shingo Takagi, EVIL & BUSHI def. Colt Cabana, Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi {NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship Match}
Same tour, same building, following night. If I’m understanding correctly, Yano stole the champs’ belts before the match, and Takagi is pissed off about it. The challengers retrieve the missing titles from under the ring and then stall forever. This felt like it was an hour long. The comedy wasn’t funny, and nobody was working hard because it was a nothing comedy match. This was the semi main event? Weird. The best stuff was between Cabana and EVIL, and even that was just average. Taguchi tried to block BUSHI’s mist with a title belt, but BUSHI just stood there and waited for Taguchi to lower it and then hit the mist anyway. That’s not clever, that’s nothing. BUSHI got he BUSHI roll for the win at 14:14. They actually stayed in Korakuen Hall for a third night in a row and did a retirement show for Manabu Nakanishi the following night. Takagi’s six-man tag (not for the titles) that night was supposedly quite good, but it wasn’t the main event and it was pretty short, and this review is already long, so I’m skipping it. *¾
A week later, New Japan went on a four-month hiatus because of the COVID pandemic. Upon their return, Takagi entered the New Japan Cup and was paired against an old rival in the first round.
June 22, 2020 – Tokyo, Japan
SHO def. Shingo Takagi {Opening Round Match}
From the New Japan Cup. I forgot that New Japan did empty arena shows before the clap-only shows. How long am I going to have to endure this? I think only this match, actually. On commentary, Kevin Kelly said that the only good thing about there not being any fans is that you can really hear the impact of the strikes these guys throw. The truth is, they were clearly hitting each other harder than usual to make up for the fact that there was no fan energy. I appreciate that. I also appreciate Kelly’s exhaustive effort to add emotion to the quiet room. You could hear the Japanese commentators doing the same. Takagi looked to have this one locked up with the usual, but SHO kicked out of MADE IN JAPAN and the Pumping Bomber, then countered the Last of the Dragon to an armbar. A weakened Takagi fell victim to a cross arm piledriver and the Shock Arrow at 17:06. And so SHO gets a shot at Takagi’s title after the tournament, which he got knocked out of in the next round by Takagi’s stable-mate SANADA. ***½
Parallel to Takagi’s journey, his stable-mate EVIL beat his other stable-mate SANADA in the finals of the New Japan Cup tournament. Then, EVIL turned on LIJ and joined the Bullet Club.
July 12, 2020 – Osaka, Osaka
Shingo Takagi def. SHO {NEVER Openweight Championship Match}
From Dominion. SHO seemed to be burrowed deep in Takagi’s head early on and was able to control the Dragon for a while because of it. Takagi put an end to that about five minutes in with a whip into the guardrail and some gnarly strikes. He blocked the spear here (which he also did in their tournament match), but SHO was able to come back and successfully hit the spear much more quickly this time. Takagi looked to be in trouble, as SHO was able to hit German suplexes seemingly at will. Takagi made the mistake of grimacing after a lariat, so SHO went to work on the arm. Takagi made due, responding with a headbutt, the stolen GTR, and the Last of the Dragon at 20:07. These two have unreal chemistry, and even with just claps from the crowd their magic was found again in this match. I loved it. ****¼
Later that evening, EVIL beat Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships.
July 25, 2020 – Nagoya, Aichi
Shingo Takagi def. El Desperado {NEVER Openweight Championship Match}
From Sengoku Lord. Desperado had stolen Takagi’s title belt in the run up to this match. It had been less than a year since Yano did the same thing with Takagi’s NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship, which I don’t think was long enough ago to warrant it happening here. Desperado counters the Noshigami to a leglock and then works the leg for the rest of the match. It’s not particularly exciting, and a lot of the spots feel recycled from the SHO matches. In particular, the way Takagi blocks Desperado’s spear and then later can’t block it feels played out. Takagi retakes control by blocking a low blow and quickly hitting the Pumping Bomber and the Last of the Dragon for the win at 17:03. Takagi’s selling was good, but not to the point that it ever felt like he was in real danger of losing. For that to have happened, the match would have needed a few more minutes of Desperado getting him in leg submissions. I wasn’t game for that anyway, so I’ll be satisfied with this slightly above average effort. ***
On August 1st, the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championships were vacated because of EVIL’s no longer being a part of LIJ. There’s your reason for darkening this post with mentions of EVIL. Takagi, BUSHI, and SANADA tried to win back the belts for LIJ in a small tournament, but lost in the semifinal round to CHAOS by count out. Apparently the finals between CHAOS and Hiroshi Tanahashi/Kota Ibushi/Master Wato is a fun match. But Takagi’s lack of success in the tournament would be a sign of things to come.
August 29, 2020 – Tokyo, Japan
Minoru Suzuki def. Shingo Takagi {NEVER Openweight Championship Match}
From Summer Struggle in Jingu. Ah, the baseball stadium show. I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, it’s always fun to watch a couple of tough guys throw haymakers at each other. On the other, it gets very repetitive the moment you think about the fact that they’re taking turns. I get that Suzuki’s gimmick is that he likes to see how hard he can get hit without going down, but why does Takagi play into that and do the same? That’s a terrible strategy for retaining your title. I guess logically then the result makes sense, as Takagi gets knocked senseless, gets choked to near unconsciousness, and then gets hit with the Gotch-style piledriver and loses his title at 14:56. Mixed bag, but the crowd dug it and at the very least they fully went for it. ***¼
Later that night, Takagi’s buddy Naito recaptured the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (and Intercontinental Championship) from EVIL.
When this series returns, Takagi tries to get back on track in the G1 Climax tournament.