Shingo Takagi

Shingo Takagi (鷹木信悟, born November 21, 1982) is a Japanese professional wrestler and former bodybuilder, also known simply as Shingo (stylised in all capital letters). He is currently working for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as a freelancer. In NJPW, he is part of the stable Los Ingobernables de Japon.

Takagi is best known for his work in Dragon Gate, where he is a former one-time Open The Owarai Gate Champion, a former six-time Open The Triangle Gate Champion, a former four-time Open The Dream Gate Champion and five-time Open The Twin Gate Champion. Takagi was the first graduate of the Dragon Gate Dojo.

Takagi was known as the promotion's top heel for many years, leading the villainous VerserK stable through its many incarnations until resigning from Dragon Gate in September 2018.

Through Dragon Gate's working agreements with the American promotions Ring of Honor and Full Impact Pro Wrestling and German promotion westside Xtreme wrestling and Japanese promotion Pro Wrestling Noah, Takagi as also held the ROH World Tag Team Championship and the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, while also being the winner of the 2009 16 Carat Gold Tournament. He has also won Dragon Gate's premier tournament, the King of Gate and Dragon Gate's top tag team tournament Summer Adventure Tag League.

He was also known for the rivalry he had with BxB Hulk, both were trained by Dragon Gate franchise wrestlers, CIMA and Magnum Tokyo respectively. Both were part of the same unit New Hazard and won together the Open The Triangle Gate Championship twice and Pro Wrestling Noah's GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, before Takagi turned on Hulk. Their rivalry main evented several tours and major pay-per-views such as 2008 and 2010 Kobe Pro-Wrestling Festival and transected rest of 2011 and beginning of 2012, also main event 2014 Final Gate. The two would team for the first time in ten years and a face each other a final time on October 7, 2018 on Takagi last match in Dragon Gate, which was won by Hulk.

Dragon Gate (2004–2018)
Shingo Takagi debuted in October 2004 as the first graduate of the Dragon Gate Dojo. He was also trained by Animal Hamaguchi. Takagi was brought from the Dragon Gate Dojo from CIMA joining his Crazy MAX stable. However, Crazy MAX was disbanded later that year. Shingo would then form a stable with the remaining members of Crazy MAX and Stalker Ichikawa and Super Shisa named WakuWaku Fujii Land. Waku Waku Fuji Land would be disbanded to create Blood Generation. Takagi won the 2005 Wrestling Observer Rookie of the Year award.

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 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 Keni'chiro 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 & 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 January 18, 2017 Takagi, T-Hawk and El Lindaman participated at the New Years Unit War 6 Man Tag Team Tournament. Takagi, T-Hawk and Lindaman defeated Ben-K, Kotoka and Masato Yoshino at the finals to win the New Years Unit War 6 Man Tag Team Tournament. On March 4 Takagi, T-Hawk and Kong defeated Jimmy Susumu, Jimmy Kanda and Ryo "Jimmy" Saito to win the Open The Triangle Gate Champions. However, the titles were vacated after Kong was sidelined with a shoulder injury. Later that YAMATO announced that he would defend his title in the Dead Or Alive Steel Cage Match against Takagi, Doi, Hulk and Kong in which would lead tensions starting to rise between Shingo and Kong including Takagi costing Kong's matches together. On May 5, Takagi unsuccessfully challenged YAMATO for the Open The Dream Gate Championship at the Dead Or Alive Steel Cage match, being the second man to be eliminated. In May took Takagi took part of the King of Gate taking part of block D. Takagi would finish the tournament with 8 points (4 wins and 1 loss) advancing to the semifinals. On July 1 Takagi, Lindaman and Takashi Yoshida defeated Naruki Doi, Ben-K and Big R Shimizu to win the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. On November 3 Takagi, Yoshida and Lindaman lost the titles to YAMATO, BxB Hulk and Kzy also involving Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino and Kotoka.

On January 13, Takagi along with the rest of the members of VerserK renamed the stable to ANTIAS. On March 6, Takagi defeated Ryo Saito to win the Open The Owarai Gate Championship. During this time, there were tensions between ANTIAS stablemates Takagi, Kanda, and Lindaman, with Takagi, accidentally costing Kanda his Open The Brave Gate Championship on two different occasions and Kanda mocking Takagi for being the Open The Owarai Gate Champion, Lindaman then started to act as the peacemaker, but Kanda and Takagi started to blame him for their losses which led to the three blaming, each other for their losses. Tensions calmed down on May 6 at Dead or Alive, after Takagi, Kanda, and Lindaman escaped the seven-way steel cage match, with Takagi taking over the leadership after Lindaman didn't help him escape the cage and Eita and T-Hawk losing the Open The Twin Gate Championship early that night. This also led the Open The Owarai Gate Championship being vacated due to the stipulation of the match, where if Takagi escaped the championship would be vacated. Following the Dead or Alive, Takagi took part in King of Gate, finishing the tournament with a record of two wins, one double count out and one loss in his last match against Susumu Yokosuka prevented him from advancing to the semifinals. On June 10 after Masato Yoshino won the Open The Dream Gate Championship, Takagi confronted Yoshino and mocked his win. Afterwards he challenged him to a title match, which was made official by the general manager Takayuki Yagi. On July 22 at Kobe Pro Wrestling Festival, Takagi unsuccessfully challenged Masato Yoshino for the Open The Dream Gate Championship.

On September 6, it was announced that Takagi would become a freelancer on October 7. Takagi had previously discussed the subject with Dragon Gate, he also brought up the subject again following Kobe Pro Wrestling Festival, but his decision was to become a freelancer. He also announced he would remain a member of ANTIAS until September 24 and would work the rest of his contract unaffiliated. Later in September ANTIAS was renamed to R.E.D and Takagi announced that we would not be part of stable thus turning face in the process. On September 24 at Dangerous Gate, Takagi made his last pay-per-view appearance as a Dragon Gate wrestler losing to KAI. After the match, Takagi's longtime rival BxB Hulk came to the ring and offered him to be his opponent on his last match in Dragon Gate. He agreed to Hulk's offer, but he asked him to team with him after ten years in the next Korakuen Hall show on October 2, which Hulk agreed. In the backstage, Takagi was criticized by his former ANTIAS stablemates for teaming with Hulk and it was decided that Takagi and Hulk would face Eita and a mystery partner. At the event, Takagi and Hulk teamed for the first time in ten years, losing to Eita and the returning PAC, who was revealed to be Eita partner. On October 7, Takagi wrestled his last match on Dragon Gate losing to BxB Hulk.

Ring of Honor (2005–2008)
Shortly after becoming a member of Blood Generation, Shingo began wrestling for Ring of Honor (ROH) 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 (Tyler Black and Jimmy Jacobs), and El Generico and Kevin Steen respectively in his last two ROH appearances.

Other promotions (2006–2007, 2018)
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 (AZW) 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 16 Carat Gold Tournament. In 2009, he began wrestling for Dragon Gate USA. In September 2018, Takagi took part of the Battle of Los Angeles, making into the finals in a three-way match, also involving Bandido and Jeff Cobb, which was won by Cobb.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2018–Present)
On October 8, 2018 at King of Pro-Wrestling Takagi was revealed as the newest member of Los Ingobernables de Japón, who had previously been announced by L.I.J. leader Tetsuya Naito on October 2. At the event, Takagi made his return match to the promotion teaming with L.I.J members, BUSHI, Naito and SANADA in a winning effort against CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, Sho and Yoh). Takagi got the victory for his team after pinning Sho. Takagi had previously appeared on the promotion's Lock-Up events in 2007. Afterwards, Takagi and BUSHI were announced to take part of the Super Jr. Tag League as NJPW had decided to categorize him as a junior heavyweight wrestler going forward. Later that month, Takagi and BUSHI, finished the tournament with a record of five wins and two losses, advancing to the finals of the tournament. On November 3 at Power Struggle, Takagi and BUSHI were defeated in the finals by Sho and Yoh in a three-way match also reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru.

Personal life
Besides wrestling, Shingo is also a fan of Shakira.

In wrestling

 * Finishing moves
 * Last Falconry (DG)/Last Of The Dragon (NJPW) (Wrist-clutch fisherman driver)
 * MADE IN JAPAN (Pumphandle half nelson driver)
 * Pumping Bomber (Lariat)
 * STAY DREAM (Super wrist-clutch Olympic slam)
 * Signature moves
 * Blood Fall (Backbreaker rack dropped into a sitout facebuster)
 * Corner clothesline
 * DDT
 * Death Valley driver
 * Fireman's carry cutter
 * Fist drop
 * Gallon Throw (Reverse powerbomb)
 * Gutbuster
 * High-angle belly-to-back suplex
 * Knee drop
 * MANKIRI (Arm trap anaconda vice)
 * Mongolian chop
 * Legend Falconry (Wrist-clutch Death Valley driver)
 * Original Falconry (Wrist-clutch Olympic slam)
 * Powerbomb
 * Taka no Tsume (Crucifix pin)
 * Reverse STO
 * Senton
 * Vertical suplex
 * YO Throw! (Gutwrench toss)
 * With Eita
 * Torture Kick (Elevated Scorpion Crosslock (Shingo)/Superkick (Eita) Combination)
 * Nicknames
 * "Pumping Hawk"
 * "Going My Own Way"
 * "Mr. Selfish"
 * "The Dragon"
 * Entrance themes
 * "Legend Falconry" by Hiroaki Sano (Dragon Gate)
 * "The Dragon" by Yonosuke Kitamura (NJPW)

Championships and accomplishments

 * Dragon Gate
 * Open The Dream Gate Championship (4 times)
 * Open The Owarai Gate Championship (1 time)
 * Open The Triangle Gate Championship (6 times) – with BxB Hulk and Cyber Kong (2), Gamma and YAMATO (1), Taku Iwasa and Dragon Kid (1), T-Hawk and Cyber Kong (1) and Takashi Yoshida and El Lindaman (1)
 * Open The Twin Gate Championship (5 times) – with YAMATO (3), Cyber Kong (1) and Akira Tozawa (1)
 * King of Gate (2010)
 * Provisional Open The Triangle Gate Championship (1 time) – with CIMA and Naruki Doi
 * Planning Jumbo Six Man Scramble One Night Tag Tournament (2008) – with YAMATO and Cyber Kong
 * New Years Unit War 6 Man Tag Team Tournament (2016) – with El Lindaman and T-Hawk
 * Summer Adventure Tag League (2009) – with YAMATO
 * Pro Wrestling Illustrated
 * PWI ranked him #86 of the top 500 singles wrestlers of the year in the PWI 500 in 2011
 * PWI ranked him #43 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2016
 * PWI ranked him #126 of the top 500 singles wrestlers in the PWI 500 in 2017
 * Pro Wrestling Noah
 * GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with BxB Hulk
 * Ring of Honor
 * ROH World Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Naruki Doi
 * Southern Thunder Pro Wrestling
 * STPW Texas Heavyweight Championship (1 time)
 * westside Xtreme wrestling
 * 16 Carat Gold Tournament (2009)
 * Wrestling Observer Newsletter
 * Rookie of the Year (2005)