“The pines were roaring on the heights
The wind was moaning in the night
The fire was red, it flaming spread
The trees like torches blazed with lightThe bells were ringing in the dale
And men looked up with faces pale
The dragon’s ire, more fierce than fire
Laid low their towers and houses frail”
-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
“Misty Mountains Cold”
In wrestling, there are matches that become legend, and there are wrestlers who become legendary. Shingo Takagi is no exception. He’s a brutal force with the force of armies and the resolution of a fighter. Know this, and know that he is a wrestler to root for. For this is his gift he has so been bestowed with.
When I first started familiarizing myself with New Japan Professional Wrestling, I didn’t quite know Shingo Takagi. It took a while, as it always takes me a while to get into anything. And, he just seemed like another name. Oh, how foolish I was. How very, very foolish.
As my ventures into other facets of professional wrestling brought me deeper to its depths (send help), my preconceived notions would be challenged at every turn. One night at the Tokyo Dome, however, those notions about him were challenged. I watched a match he had with Will Ospreay during 2019’s Best of the Super Juniors, the only match I’ve seen from that event, and what an impression.
Entering with a hooded robe and a dragon mask, there was a mysterious aura about him, replaced at the removal of his chosen garb and an odd sense of nostalgia washed over me. I did not get into Japanese wrestling until adulthood, but his image took me to the days when there were tough, silent Japanese men with the gut and the meat that signifies the deadly force that lies within.
Since my introduction to him, Takagi has kept my attention, making it hard to root against him. And so it was that he would become my favorite member of Los Ingobernables de Japon (LIJ) the more I watched.
As LIJ won the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship and Takagi himself won the singles variation of the Never Openweight gold, this made him the first person to hold both simultaneously.
As June of 2021 rolled along, I read the news and had to see instantly, for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship gold was claimed by the dragon after it was vacated by Will Ospreay. It was not an easy bout, due to the opponent being none other than “The Rainmaker”, Kazuchika Okada.
Takagi, luckily, was bred for battle. Snorting fire and breathing power, he tested his mettle. Tenacious against the man who was designed to be unstoppable, the perseverance of the rampaging dragon won out, by the scale of his teeth, he won out. Several minutes transpire and he still looks shocked and dazed – his world rocked in an instant for he has reached a goal he didn’t expect. At his composure, he created a lasting image. A dragon surrounded by golden streamers and his new prize sat in front of him. He sits with stoic focus and intent.
Shingo Takagi is a big man wrestler without being a big man; believable enough that he’s an indomitable fighter, unstoppable to many. And yet, he had his goofy side and he has his family in LIJ at his side. Not only does he reflect the stars of old, but he feels relatable on a whole new level.
No further can I point than at his admiration following AEW and NJPW’s crossover event, Forbidden Door, as he teamed up with Darby Allin and Sting to defeat The Bullet Club. This match stuck out to Takagi, as Sting is a worldwide legend and must be respected. He’s a fanboy, like the rest of us!
So know this, reader. Even beyond the reptilian exterior of this dragon, there beats a human heart, and it beats for the majesty of combat and sweet, sweet gold. But it also beats for the allies along the way.
Time and time again, Shingo has proved his worth as main event material, and if you need further, more recent proof, check out his matches as of 2023. He’s still got that fire to him. With a five-star classic with Aaron Henare at Road to Sakura Genesis, his Wrestle Kingdom 17 Night 2 match with Katsuhiko Nakajima, the Road to New Beginning in Osaka match with Kazuchika Okada, or his April 29 title defense against Taichi at Wrestling Satsuma no Kuni! You’ve already got an embarrassment of riches when it comes to how incredible a performer he is.
When I see wrestlers like Shingo Takagi, I’m reminded of the Three Musketeers, particularly Shinya Hashimoto. In the way he presents himself, in the way he wrestles, he feels like a callback, coalesced with the modern idea of what a wrestler is to be. When you’re in a country of your own and the world filters through, the only language that matters in professional wrestling is the sport and violence, and he excels at it. When you see Shingo deliver finishers like The Last of the Dragon or Takagi Driver ‘98, or his many lariats and backbreakers, you feel that shit. I myself often clutch at whatever he strikes and I grimace at his submission holds and bear hugs.
Takagi is also a master with his expressions. The fuel he pours into the machine of his style translates to his body language and to his facial features. When he squeezes, you can tell he’s giving it his all. When he’s desperate, it reads on his face. When he refuses to give up, you know then what the meaning of hope is. This is the charisma and the intangible that makes Japanese pro wrestlers like him all the more important.
With Shingo Takagi, you know just what you’re going to get. A beefy man who kicks ass and pours his heart out while being a team player when need be. A spectacle only possible through professional wrestling that will thrill you with each stiff strike and near-fall. He’s so many things, and he knows how to be all of them, while catering to himself and who he needs to be.
He is the ungovernable dragon.
