Takagi Shingo

[Barbecue]

3 hours ago, InYourCase said:

This statement is inherently false. 

No, its true.

[Jetlag]

On 4/16/2021 at 4:23 PM, Barbecue said:

No, its true.

Barely a week into the project and this is already a strong contender for my favourite exchange in the entire discourse

[Muss]

I do think one of Shingo's strengths compared to some of the other Dragon Gate wrestlers is that he worked as an entry point into the style that they really needed in the early 2010s. His power junior style was pretty unique to the promotion at the time before wrestler's like Ben-K and Big R Shimizu came into their own. That style difference was really encompassed in his title run in 2015 where his bullying, relentless pace was put center stage while generating real heat from the main Dragon Gate fanbase. The Veserk faction and his heel title run was easy to understand without the years of intricate booking that a lot of Dragon Gate had reached by then, because they were just bully wrestlers tearing their way through the roster. 

That faction does not work without Shingo, every member of that faction adopted his attitude and style, and Shingo's personality continued to ratchet up the tension in the faction until it eventually fell apart and was renamed to ANTIAS as the younger members of the faction took over. When Shingo left Dragon Gate really lost that contrast in their style throughout their cards, and has only really gained it back in the last year or so.

[strobogo]

Shingo has been such a great addition to NJ. 

[GlassS0Ldier]

 

[ZubazKid]

On 4/15/2021 at 7:14 AM, InYourCase said:

This list is already out of date because of his New Japan Cup run, but a few months ago I was dissatisfied with Shingo's Matchguide on Cagematch so I put together a list of every Shingo match that I have given 4 or more stars to. You can look at it here. 

I'm not sure there's a singular Shingo match I can point to as his best performance. The 2015 Mochizuki match is brilliant but that's more of a Mochizuki match than a Shingo match. The same can be said for the CIMA match a month later. Outside of his New Japan work he's probably best known for his match against BxB Hulk in 2010, a hair vs. hair match at DG's biggest show of the year. 

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1xE411Q7jL?from=search&seid=15339773804642946060

There's a good chunk of Shingo out there on Dailymotion and BiliBili (plus what Ditch offers). The Hulk rematch from 2014, the two Susumu matches from 2016, and the YAMATO match from the summer of 2016 are all tremendous.

@InYourCase thanks for the recommendations. I had only seen a handful of Shingo matches from ROH previously. I've just been bumbling around YT & DM so far like an ADHD afflicted WWE writer, but loved the BxB Hulk hair match linked above as well as 1 from 2017. Also thought the Danielson match was tremendous. Looking forward to watching more of his DG stuff & eventually his NJPW run. But Shingo has carried himself with such an aura & brings violence & a disdain for his opponent to all the matches I've seen so far so looking forward to more.

[kas]

Shingo was a guy who I was already high on from his DG run, but his New Japan run has taken things to another level. He's been the best wrestler in the world for the last 3 years and has been one of the few truly bright spots of New Japan in the pandemic era.

[Tetsujin]

He definitely has a case. An underrated contender for best wrestler of this last decade. He has the ability to shine in settings I usually don't like that much (Dragon Gate, 2019-onwards New Japan). And the crazy part is that we're still living his peak.