Preview: NJPW Shingo Takagi’s 20th Debut Anniversary (9/7/24)

Just as NJPW resumes schedule and gets us on the road to Destruction in Kobe, there is an exciting break on Saturday, 7 September to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the wrestling career of the legendary Shingo Takagi. For the event, Takagi returns home to Yamanashi alongside a host of New Japan’s biggest stars including Tetsuya Naito, G1 winner Zack Sabre Jr., a returning Tomohiro Ishii, and many more.

Here’s the card:

NJPW Shingo Takagi’s 20th Debut Anniversary Show Announced Card: 

• Shingo Takagi, BUSHI & YAMATO vs Tetsuya Naito, Yota Tsuji & Hiromu Takahashi
• United Empire (Great-O-Khan & Jakob Austin Young) vs TMDK (Zack Sabre Jr & Kosei Fujita)
• Tiger Mask, Boltin Oleg, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toru Yano vs HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi, Dick Togo & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
• Just Five Guys (DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku) vs BULLET CLUB (Gedo & Taiji Ishimori)
• Tomoaki Honma & Tomohiro Ishii vs Mad Bastards (Gabe Kidd & Jake Lee)
• Jado & Shota Umino vs HOUSE OF TORTURE (SHO & Ren Narita)
• Katsuya Murashima & Ryusuke Taguchi vs United Empire (HENARE & Jeff Cobb)
• Shoma Kato & Riiita vs United Empire (Callum Newman & Francesco Akira)
• Daiki Nagai vs Masatora Yasuda

In-Faction Warfare to Main Event

With some slightly rearranged teams, Los Igobernables de Japon will split into two for the second time this year to take on each other in 6-man tag action. Back in July, it was a 30-minute time limit draw at Naito’s homecoming show during the New Japan Soul tour but, this time, we see new splits and an outsider joining the fold. 

As this is Takagi’s event after all, he has recruited his old friend (or enemy, depending on how you look at it!) in YAMATO to join forces with him and Bushi in the main event. Takagi and YAMATO spent many years together in Dragongate winning the Open the Twin Gate tag titles three times.

So it sparked a big reaction when, at a Dragongate event on August 24, Takagi made a special appearance to call on YAMATO to join him. Having spent more than half of his pro wrestling career with Dragongate, Takagi wanted someone who truly represented the promotion to be his partner.

Few fit that role better than YAMATO, the current Open the Dream Gate Champion. The new trio will take on Naito, Yota Tsuji, and Hiromu Takahashi.

A very competitive trio that will make up a hard-hitting but likely more friendly and celebratory affair to close out the show.

Tomohiro Ishii Makes Anticipated Japan Return

Now, this should be a great matchup. Ishii will return to team up with Tomoaki Honma to take on the latest signing to NJPW, Jake Lee, and his tag partner, the breakout star of the G1 – Gabe Kidd. 

There seem to be no more fitting opponents for Ishii to return to than the hard-hitting Mad Bastards, and I hope they’re given time to put together a quality match here. It will also be interesting to see what direction Ishii will go in and what plans New Japan has for him, now that he’s back from his impressive run with AEW over the last 2 months. 

Preview for Ryogoku?

In the semi-main event, TMDK’s Sabre and Kosei Fujita team up to take on United Empire’s Great-O-Khan and the debuting Jakob Austin Young. With the match announced to be this high up the card, we can surely expect this to be given some time but the main story here is surely the potential for Sabre to be taking on Great-O-Khan when he gets to Ryogoku in October. 

Sabre has declared that he will use his G1 victory to challenge for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, not at Wrestle Kingdom, but rather at King of Pro-Wrestling on October 14. That’s two weeks after Destruction in Kobe, where Great-O-Khan will challenge for the World Heavyweight gold held by Naito.

But, before any of that is decided, they face off in a tag match alongside their respective stablemates. After a shoulder injury during a G1 undercard match kept him out of the rest of the tour, Kosei Fujita is back in action.

He will rejoin forces with his mentor and G1 winner, Sabre. Meanwhile, Young is set to make his televised debut for United Empire.

The California native was a regular on NJPW STRONG in 2022, where he formed a friendly connection with United Empire leader, TJP, and now makes his debut in Japan. Regardless, this show will be to celebrate 20 years of Shingo Takagi in pro wrestling.