Wrestler Profile

Shingo Takagi

Shingo Takagi is the Dragon — a compact wrecking ball who arrived in New Japan in 2018 after a decorated Dragon Gate career and immediately started collecting five-star matches like loose change. His pumping bomber lariat and last of the Dragon finisher hit with a violence that no amount of tape study prepares opponents for.

His 2019 Best of the Super Juniors run, capped by a legendary final against Will Ospreay, forced New Japan to acknowledge he was no junior heavyweight. He proved it by winning the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship in 2021, headlining during the pandemic era's hardest days, and delivering wars with Tomohiro Ishii and Kazuchika Okada that left nothing in the tank.

A member of Los Ingobernables de Japon, Takagi remains the promotion's most reliable violence dispenser. WrestleRanks voters rank the Dragon on output: no bad matches, ever, anywhere.

Promotions

Shingo Takagi is associated with NJPW (2023–2026).

PWI rankings history

Shingo Takagi has been ranked in the PWI 500 11 times, first at No. 283 in 2008 and most recently at No. 57 in 2025. The highest placement is No. 9, reached in 2021.

Placements by year: 2008 (No. 283), 2009 (No. 146), 2011 (No. 86), 2014 (No. 195), 2018 (No. 213), 2020 (No. 53), 2021 (No. 9), 2022 (No. 11), 2023 (No. 92), 2024 (No. 85), 2025 (No. 57).

Compiled from the annual rankings published by Pro Wrestling Illustrated. See the 2025 edition.

Shingo Takagi in the WrestleRanks rankings

Shingo Takagi is tracked as a hard-hitting competitor on WrestleRanks. WrestleRanks standings are decided one week at a time, from fan voting and editor input. Read more about how our rankings work, or see the live, interactive profile with weekly rank history and voting on the Shingo Takagi ranking page.

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