“I fucking hate Shingo Takagi”

That these words became a catchphrase of BxB Hulk shows how intense the rivalry between Dragon Gate’s first two trueborns became and remained. This is the story of two polar opposites whose rivalry existed from the dawn of Dragon Gate until Takagi’s departure from the promotion. Earmarked from their debuts as future aces, they faced similar struggles in their attempts to reach that lofty position.

Young dragons

3rd October, 2004 – Dragon Gate, the newly-formed breakaway promotion from Toryumon Japan, was in a state of turmoil. Rumoured power struggles and looming talent departures had fans anxious for the future. The company’s longest-standing popular unit, Crazy MAX, would soon be down to two members – company ace CIMA and his faithful lieutenant Don Fujii. It was in this turmoil that a young man from Yamanashi made his debut. Shingo Takagi turned heads from the outset. Not only was he introduced as CIMA’s personal protégé, becoming a Crazy MAX apprentice member, he looked and felt different from your typical young boy. Already possessing confidence and an impressive physique (albeit one that looks waif-like compared to his current frame) he immediately looked destined to be a future ace. While Crazy MAX would officially disband very soon after, Shingo was an obvious pick to join CIMA’s new heel unit Blood Generation, who would dominate 2005 in Dragon Gate.

At this point the only thing Takagi was lacking was a true generational rival. That would changed on March 6, 2005 when the second graduate from the DG dojo, Terumasa Ishihara, was introduced as BxB Hulk, Magnum TOKYO’s new protégé. Hulk was almost the mirror opposite of Takagi, with elfin features contrasting with Takagi’s stern expression, an elaborate dance routine entrance compared with Takagi’s pre-match push-ups, flips and kicks opposed to Takagi’s no-nonsense lariats and power moves. They also represented their mentors’ (themselves big rivals) respective visions of wrestling- Magnum very much focused on the entertainment side, and CIMA, while ludicrously charismatic, priding himself on being able to go athletically.

While Shingo and Hulk were immediately positioned as generation rivals, they wouldn’t face off in a singles match until the end of the year in the quarterfinals of the inaugural King of Gate tournament. Hulk was soundly defeated in 12:30. The result was an accurate summation of their 2005. On Hulk’s debut it seemed as if he was the one with the brighter future – he was tall by DG standards, athletic, and had the ikemen look that the promotion’s predominately female audience really liked. He was given a flashy costume, the aforementioned elaborate entrance, and even his own unit PosHEARTS. However, it was Shingo who was in the stronger position, being part of of Blood Generation’s war with DoFIXER over the Open the Triangle Gate (trios) titles and even getting an Open the Dream Gate (the top championship in DG) challenge against Masaaki Mochizuki. Meanwhile PoS was floundering, with the unit (hamstrung both by its other members being perineal underdogs Anthony W. Mori and Super Shisa, and it being positioned as DoFIXER’s “little brother” unit) and Hulk failing to make a real connection with fans. Hulk was far from done though, and his fortunes would change in spring 2006.

New paths

Much change was afoot in DG come their Ota-ku show in April 2006. Blood Generation was imploding, while the main event scene was getting an overhaul with long-time midcarders Ryo Saito and Susumu Yokosuka headlining the big show in an Open the Dream Gate match. Just below that on the card was the first truly anticipated singles match between Hulk and Takagi, with the winner to receive the next Dream Gate Challenger’s key. As supposed future aces, albeit not totally convincing in the role, this match gave a glimpse of DG’s future, with Hulk in particular giving a spirited, fiery performance in a really exciting, heated match. Hulk gained the victory to the delight of the crowd. For arguably the first time since his debut, Hulk showed signs of living up to his hype. 

Unfortunately, his improvement in form did not extend to the following month, where he failed to dethrone Susumu in a slightly disappointing match that included Hulk botching the debut of his phoenix splash. After the match, Shingo had an announcement to make. He was going on indefinite excursion to the US. However, showing sudden concern for his rival, he requested CIMA “look after” Hulk while he was gone. This displayed the complicated relationship Takagi and Hulk have. While they were fierce generation rivals, they had a kinship, a bond formed by the strict regime and high physical and behavioural standards imposed by the Dragon Gate dojo. Moreover, Shingo had found a new level of respect for Hulk now he had proven to be on his level.

CIMA was dealing with his own problems – new Blood Generation member Gamma had near-destroyed the unit, stealing most of the unit’s members to form the breakaway Muscle Outlaw’z. With Shingo crossing the Pacific, BG was left as CIMA, Don Fujii, and visiting gaikokujin (primarily Matt Sydal and Jack Evans). A mutually-beneficial solution was found – Hulk as a semi-official member of Blood Generation, while still officially being in PosHEARTS (The unit alignments in DG were a massively confusing mess at the time). Hulk would add manpower, while CIMA would give Hulk further mentorship. The two formed a semi-regular team called Blood Hearts and even recorded a single “1000000 Dreams” (do not recommend). Magnum TOKYO would suffer an injury later in 2006, and for reasons that were never explicitly revealed, would never set foot in DG again. Hulk’s original mentor was permanently gone.

SHINGO (when he worked in the US, he went the all-caps single name route) had a successful run in the US, wowing audiences in ROH and its sister promotion FIP, blown away by his hard-hitting but fast-moving style. Other than one-off performances at Kobe World (a loss against Yutaka Yoshie) and Osaka Prefectural Gym (where he debuted a pineapple-smashing pal he’d found in FIP called Cyber Kong) he would remain stateside until spring 2007, where he’d be drawn towards his old friend once again.

Hazardous times

As 2007 dawned, DG’s unit situation was finally starting to become clearer. Blood Generation, DoFIXER and Final M2K had already been put to pasture by their respective leaders, and February’s Korakuen show would spell the end of either PosHEARTS or Muscle Outlaw’z (MO’z) as Dragon Gate would unveil the stipulation match that would become a hallmark of the promotion: Unit Disbands. Korakuen was on the edge of its’ seats as BxB Hulk, Anthony W. Mori, and Super Shisa battled Gamma, Naruki Doi, and Masato Yoshino. The match was tense, gripping, and exciting, setting the template for future matches of this type as each participant battled like their life depended on it.  The dastardly heels prevailed, consigning PosHEARTS to history. Hulk was not to be unit-less for long, however, as in the post-match aftermath CIMA invited both he and Anthony to join his new super-unit Typhoon, made up of the remnants of the recently defunct units.

Typhoon naturally set their sights on MO’z and a full confrontation Naniwa-shiki 7 vs.7 was set for the April Korakuen. It was already curious such a big unit confrontation would occur so shortly after Typhoon’s formation, and more intrigue was added as the match approached, with both units claiming there would be a betrayal from the other side. Fans were abuzz with speculation of who the betrayer(s) would be. The match – typically for Naniwa-shiki, a wild chaotic affair – ended with a victory for Typhoon and seemingly no betrayal. However in the huge post-match brawl BxB Hulk attacked CIMA in a reveal nobody saw coming – Hulk turning heel? Surely not. Barely before Korakuen had a chance to gather its’ thoughts, a second betrayal happened – Cyber Kong (who had stayed in DG after Shingo’s autumn pop-in and joined MO’z) turned on the heel unit. Cyber Kong, this slightly-odd specimen joining the super-babyface unit of ultra popular fan favourites? Even more weird. Wait a second, Hulk and Kong are allies? What’s going on?? Things became clear when the familiar strains of Legend Falconry played and out strolled Shingo Takagi, permanently back from excursion. A new unit was formed of Takagi, Hulk, Kong, and the dojo’s most recent graduate, the promising but bland YAMATO; New Hazard (NH), the Dragon Gate trueborn unit. Shingo and Hulk were officially on the same side. 

Although not truly at the same level as Typhoon and MO’z and its progress slowed by injuries to Hulk and YAMATO, the unit was popular with fans, and had success with the Open the Triangle Gate championship. Shingo and Hulk seemed to have established a firm friendship and in-ring harmony, culminating in winning NOAH’s GHC Junior Tag Team titles in January 2008.  At March’s Ota-ku show, KENTA and Taiji Ishimori attempted to take the belts back to the ark. A hugely exciting match ended with an extended KENTA vs. Takagi sequence while Hulk and Ishimori brawled on the outside. KENTA and Takagi laid into each other with ferocity until a series of KENTA kicks enabled KENTaiji to take the titles back home. Despite Takagi taking the pin, he was furious at Hulk. Not only had he failed to save Takagi from being pinned, he had shown weakness throughout the match. Was Hulk simply a weak wrestler? Eventually cooler heads prevailed with Takagi turning his focus on NH’s real problem – YAMATO. The previously bland and unassuming Yamato Onodera had undergone a complete transformation, loudly complaining that his unit-mates saw him as the lesser member, getting ideas above his station by challenging CIMA, and generally making a right nuisance of himself. 

In the midst of all of this, Hulk was also involved in a heated rivalry with heel veteran Yasushi Kanda, with Kanda constantly getting in Hulk’s business and pushing his buttons. This culminated in Kanda seemingly getting ready to whack Hulk’s dancers with his trademark blue box before a mysterious black-clad figure attacked him. The figure was BxB Hulk dressed all in black, with jet-black hair and heavy black eye-shadow and lipstick. This was Hulk’s new character, Darkside Hulk. Displaying an aggressive style at odds with the BxB Hulk character, Darkside Hulk squashed Kanda in rapid fashion. That was the end of the Hulk-Kanda rivalry, although Darkside Hulk would be seen again in the future.

In May 2008, YAMATO finally turned heel and joined what was left of Muscle Outlaw’z. This seemed to galvanize the remaining NH members, who vowed revenge for his betrayal. To this end, Shingo and Cyber promised Hulk they would join in his entrance dance before their Korakuen main event trios match. They were true to their word, and it was quite the sight. However, immediately as the dance finished, the crowd’s delight turned to shock as Shingo and Kong attacked Hulk and joined up with YAMATO and the MO’z remnants to form Real Hazard. The scheduled match (Gamma, Genki Horiguchi, YAMATO vs. Shingo, Hulk, Kong) was changed to Gamma, YAMATO, Shingo vs. Hulk, Naruki Doi, Masato Yoshino with DoiYoshi forging an alliance with Hulk to create the ultra-popular WORLD-1.

In just three years since the debut of Dragon Gate’s second trueborn, Shingo and Hulk had been through some turbulent times. They had been both enemies and allies, and while they had been pushed as generational rivals from the start, things hadn’t really been personal until Shingo’s betrayal. As candidates for future acehood, their destinies already seemed intertwined. While they had both had some setbacks on the road to ace, neither had veered completely off-course. There would soon arrive a golden opportunity for one to assert their dominance over the other and to take their first big step in becoming the top man.

Sixty Minute Men

May 2008: Takagi and Hulk were once again in opposing units, and now bitter enemies. Takagi saw Hulk as weak, and blamed him for the lack of success of New Hazard, their shared faction. Hulk felt personally betrayed by a man he had formed a huge bond with. 

Their first singles match since Ota-ku 2006 would take place at Osaka Prefectural Gym #2 on 29th June 2008, once again with a Dream Gate key on the line. The result was shocking, a sixty-minute draw – a first in Dragon Gate history, and by far its longest match up to this point. The aftermath was even more shocking, as current champion CIMA announced he was vacating the title due to injury. Shingo and Hulk would re-match with the title on the line the following month at Kobe World, DG’s biggest show of the year.

The buzz among fans leading up to World was palpable, with opinions split over who would take home the big one. Shingo had been positioned stronger than Hulk practically since Day One, but on the other hand he was a heel, and heels never win the main events of DG’s big shows, especially not World. So, was this Hulk’s time? He had looked very strong in recently disposing of veteran Yasushi Kanda, although that was technically a different character, Darkside Hulk. He was the number three in WORLD-1, but with DoiYoshi likely focusing on their tag team, maybe Hulk was in position to represent WORLD-1 as champion, and eventually rise to becoming its leader. One could argue his look and persona was more suited to being Dream Gate champion than Shingo, however he really struggled with microphone performances, an aspect of DG that’s very important.

After a near 40-minute battle, Shingo was the one who prevailed. In another surprising development Takagi showed respect for his rival after the match, taking back calling him weak. Real Hazard promptly kicked him out – not a complete shock, as Shingo had held off an Real Hazard attack on CIMA at the previous Korakuen. 

Shingo left Kobe with Dragon Gate’s most prestigious title in tow. While the victory was somewhat tainted by not beating the previous holder, he at least could stake a claim to being the top guy in the company for now. As for Hulk, despite proving to Shingo that he was not in fact weak, this result proved to the DG faithful that Hulk was well behind Shingo in the pecking order.

Cabellera contra Cabellera

Takagi and Hulk had once again reached a truce, although they were far from friends. The following year would see them both have mixed fortunes. While Takagi would remain Dream champion until December, he never really connected with the fans and seemed very far from replacing CIMA as company ace. He did temporarily replace CIMA as leader of Typhoon, although that unit’s popularity stalled as he lacked chemistry with his team-mates. After leaving Typhoon he formed his own unit Kamikaze, along with Tozawa-juku refugees Akira Tozawa and Taku Iwasa, and later KAGETORA, Cyber Kong, and YAMATO. While the unit was somewhat successful, it paled in fan support to the likes of WORLD-1 and WARRIORS-5, CIMA’s post-Typhoon project. While the fans respected Takagi and enjoyed his matches he just lacked that certain something. It’s very difficult to put into words, but to be a true top guy in Dragon Gate, you need more than just ring ability. You even need more than mere charisma. You need a certain type of charisma. The type of charisma that the likes of CIMA, Doi, and YAMATO exude. The difference between being well-liked and truly loved. This would become exacerbated by his murky involvement in the Cora situation (long, and grim, story – look it up if you dare).

Hulk was in a similar predicament. He would indeed be a distant number three to DoiYoshi in WORLD-1, with Doi starting a record-length Dream run in 2009, and Yoshino beginning a serious push as a singles top guy. Hulk was just kind of there. He had come no nearer to fulfilling the “endless possibility” promised on his debut. During this time, Hulk and Takagi would find themselves across the ring in tags, trios, eight-mans etc., but there were no hostilities to speak of. Hulk and Takagi found themselves drawn together again in autumn/winter 2009, as the Veteran Army (CIMA, Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii, Dragon Kid, Gamma, Magnitude Kishiwada, Super Shisa and inexplicably Takuya Sugawara) formed and declared war on the younger generation. New Generation, a loose affiliation between WORLD-1 and Kamikaze meant Shingo and Hulk were once again on the same side. Veteran vs. New Generation, while promising much, was a big disappointment, fizzling out quickly with only a wild Korakuen Naniwa-shiki elimination match being memorable. 

In spring 2010, Takagi and Hulk once again met in a King of Gate semi-final, with Takagi getting the victory en route to winning the whole tournament. Around this time, both men were showing signs of character change. Takagi was having a lot of strife with his fellow Kamikaze members, showing heelish tendencies culminating in invading Hulk’s pre-match dance to challenge Hulk to a singles at World. Shortly after, Hulk announced he would be scrapping the dance routine entirely in order to focus on his matches. He really wanted a singles victory over Takagi, and to move to the next level. During a verbal battle, Takagi scoffed at Hulk’s confidence, challenging Hulk to put something truly important on the line if he was so sure he could win. Hulk accepted, and the hair vs. hair stipulation was added.

The match was promoted as almost the equal of the main event (Yoshino beating YAMATO for the Dream Gate) and it didn’t disappoint. This was easily their best match to date, wrestled with an energy and ferocity that really conveyed their bitterness and hatred towards each other. I like to think they were taking out their frustrations over failing to ascend to ace level out on each other. Hulk, in particular, was wrestling with a new-found energy and intensity. However, it wasn’t enough to retain his coiffured locks and was shaved bald to the horror of many a female fan. Shingo taunted him after the match, and told him that now he’d lost both his entrance and his hair he should revert to his real name.

All-out war

Hulk did revert to his real name, albeit for only one match – forming a strange tag team with Jinsei Shinzaki where he took on Shinzaki’s monk gimmick. Other than that it was business as usual for Hulk. He continued to forgo the dance but his entrance music, costume, ring style and character were all as before. Takagi also showed no movement in character – continuing to be ostensibly a babyface, but showing somewhat heelish tendencies occasionally, generally being very stoic, and continuing to get only limited fan support.

However, great change was afoot in Dragon Gate. A long series of events including Doi’s betrayal of WORLD-1, the dismissal of the worst heel unit of all time, and some strange men in metal masks led to the January 2011 unveiling of the 12-strong super unit Blood Warriors (BW), immediately declaring war on all other units. Their numbers were too much for Kamikaze, WORLD-1 and the remnants of Veteran Army, and on Mochizuki’s winning of the Dream Gate he urged the other units to come together to face off the Blood Warriors threat. Everyone was in agreement. Well, almost everyone. The big stumbling block was the Hulk/Takagi problem. No way would they be on the same side. BxB Hulk well, fucking hates Shingo Takagi. And the feeling was mutual. Nevertheless, Mochy’s persuasive skills forced the rivals into a handshake and an agreement to both join the nascent JUNCTION-THREE and to team at the June Korakuen. 

Problems were apparent from JIII’s opening Korakuen address, with Hulk and Takagi far from comfortable in each other’s company. Again, Mochizuki played facilitator and they each pledged their loyalty to the JIII cause. However, when Takagi made his entrance for the main event Hulk was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, emerging from the audience…Darkside Hulk? What?? Well, it was actually Blood Warriors member Naoki Tanizaki in disguise. But the confusion was enough to create an opening for newest member BxB Hulk to attack Takagi from behind. Hulk’s joining of JIII had been a ruse, and he was now a heel for the first time in his career, complete with an image change that was an odd hybrid of his regular gimmick and Darkside. BxB Hulk was the penultimate piece of CIMA’s “shift change” of BW, removing the weak (Gamma) and virtuous (Dragon Kid) and adding new members to drive the group further into heel territory. The final piece arrived moments later when Akira Tozawa made his return from a long US excursion. Hulk would get his long-awaited singles victory over Takagi at the next Korakuen, before unsuccessfully challenging Mochy at World. Takagi would be in a mini-slump, his loss to Hulk compounded at World by a huge upset loss to Tozawa, whose previous DG career was as a comedy match loser turned low-card scrappy underdog. 

The BW-JIII war raged for the rest of the year. While CIMA was undoubtedly the leader of BW, and the main events were dominated by Mochy defending against a BW challenger-of-the-month, for me the beating heart of the BW-JIII feud was the rivalry between the four DG trueborns, TakaYAMA (Takagi and YAMATO) vs. Darkside Tension AKA Hulk & Akira. The heel team could claim decisive victory in the rivalry, both from beating TakaYAMA for the Twin Gate titles at Final Gate, and from Hulk and Tozawa beating YAMATO and Takagi respectively in no-rope singles matches in January 2012. Insult was added to injury by virtue of no-rope being YAMATO’s signature match. 

What had been a one-sided rivalry up to now had changed tide – it seemed turning heel had given Hulk the impetus to start dominating Takagi.

Nothing to lose

The aforementioned no-ropes matches actually took place after the BW-JIII war had ended. As 2011 drew to a close, a rift started to develop between the younger and older members of BW. In a Loser Of The Fall Leaves Their Unit trios match in January 2012 Hulk and Akira turned on CIMA, purposely having him take the fall to have him leave the unit. Hulk and Akira were now de facto leaders of the unit and challenged JIII to a 14-man Unit Disbands elimination match for the following month’s Korakuen. BW won to consign JIII to history. However, Hulk and Akira had no interest in continuing what was started by old man CIMA. They remolded the unit in their image – kicking out the old guys, changing the colour scheme and renaming it Mad Blankey. Hulk and Akira would be co-leaders, with Hulk officially the higher-ranked top guy, but the charismatic and loud-mouthed Tozawa as the spokesman.

At this time, DG reverted to its typical format of the entire roster split into 5-6 person-strong units. TakaYAMA, however, were slightly adrift for a while, not really fitting into any of the other units they just stayed doing their own thing as a tag team until they eventually were coerced into forming a unit by a couple of rookies. -akatsuki- (daybreak) was an odd unit, comprising TakaYAMA and two low-ranked rookies, Chihiro (the future Punch) Tominaga and Super Shenlong III (Yosuke Watanabe, the future Yosuke♡SantaMaria). DG units are typically balanced, with an even distribution in terms of rank – using Mad Blankey as an example, Akira and Hulk as leaders/top guys, Cyber Kong as upper midcarder/occasional Dream challenger, foreign assassin Uhaa Nation, promising rookie “Naoki Tanizaki” (not the real Naoki Tanizaki but the future T-Hawk, long story), long-term lower-rank heel Kzy and bottom feeder Mondai Ryu. -akatsuki-, by comparison,  had two top guys in TakaYAMA, then a huge gap, then Tomi and Shenlong. In reality, this meant TakaYAMA continued almost exclusively as a tag team, as the rookies weren’t strong enough to compete in major trios or 8-mans. The idea of the unit was that TakaYAMA would lift the two rookies to a higher level. That never happened.

Mad Blankey was a far more successful unit, becoming arguably Dragon Gate’s most popular heel unit ever. This was a feather in Hulk’s cap – MB was his vision, named after his two favourite bands (The Mad Capsule Markets and Blankey Jet City) and with him choosing the colour scheme and designing the logo/merch.

Let’s get back to CIMA, who was still holding strong as the undisputed ace. He had a great 2012, retaining the Dream Gate throughout the year, and remaining the undisputed ace of the promotion. As the year drew to a close, it seemed nailed on that CIMA was on course to drop the title at Final Gate – it was DG’s last “big match” show until the following spring and it was unheard for title changes outside of these shows. Surely CIMA wouldn’t be keeping it that long, so it was a certainty Final Gate would see a title change – but to who? The champ already had successful defences against the other “Top 6” New Generation guys Tozawa, YAMATO, Yoshino and Doi, that left only Hulk and Takagi. In a surprise, CIMA defended against both Hulk and Takagi in a three-way. In an even bigger surprise, CIMA retained and gave his victory/end-of-year address standing on a car in his gear on a bitterly cold December evening – because he is CIMA. This result was an indictment, depending on your perspective, either on CIMA’s ego or on the failure of the New Generation to step up to his level.

As 2013 dawned, Mad Blankey continued to chug along, while -akatsuki- somehow got into a feud with Windows, the bottom feeder unit of DG. This laid bare what a failure -akatsuki- was. Not only were they reduced to a feud with Windows, but they actually lost – with Shingo getting pinned by K-ness (in a miracle comeback year) in the blowoff. Something had to give, and YAMATO finally snapped in June, turning on Shingo and -akatsuki- and joining MB. Shingo rebounded from this betrayal by beating his fellow New Generation rivals in a 6-man battle royal to gain the Dream key for World. CIMA was still champion at this point having defeated an array of challengers in his “every month Dream Gate defence series”. Surely Shingo had to win this time? It spoke volumes as to how cold Takagi was that many fans actually picked CIMA to retain. However, in an epic main event Shingo managed to score the win to end CIMA’s record-breaking reign.

It seemed like Shingo was the chosen one to take over CIMA’s role as both long-term champion and ace. But YAMATO, drunk on his new heel status, had other ideas. After MB both sent -akatsuki- into the history books and ousted Tozawa the new MB leader challenged Takagi for his newly-won title. The match took place at the September Korakuen and YAMATO walked out the new champion. This was a shocking result on many levels. First, the Dream Gate never changed hands at Korakuen. Furthermore, the belt was never won by heels apart from very rare occasions. What’s more, YAMATO cheated to win (via Mondai Ryu’s salt) – unheard of for something as prestigious as the Dream Gate. 

Shingo was once again as far from the ace position as he’d ever been – he formed the super babyface unit Monster Express with Tozawa and Yoshino. However with the addition of popular gaikokujin Ricochet and Uhaa Nation, he was arguably the number 5 in his unit in terms of crowd support. BxB Hulk was in a similar predicament- Naruki Doi once again betrayed Yoshino to turn heel and join MB leaving BxB Hulk as a distant number 3 in the unit he created.

Shingo and Hulk found themselves as far from ace status as they’d ever been, superseded in popularity by their senpai, kouhai, and outsiders. The next few years would see many changes however, encompassing heel turns, babyface turns, long Dream Gate reigns, and of course many unit shakeups. The rivalry will seemingly come to a permanent end when one man changes company and goes on to have more success than anyone would have guessed.

BxB Story

The two rivals ended 2013 back in their old slots on the pecking order – featured, but not at the top. Popular, but less so than their more charismatic contemporaries and seemingly aeons away from possibly replacing CIMA as overall ace. However, for Hulk at least, 2014 would see an upswing in fortune. Throughout the early part of the year, tension had been growing between Hulk and full shit-stirring mode Naruki Doi, which culminated on May 5th in the annual Dead or Alive six-way Hair vs. Mask steel cage escape match. While Hulk managed to escape the cage, therefore saving his own hair and condemning Doi to a head-shaving, he was attacked by his own unit afterwards to solidify his babyface turn. He gave a rousing speech afterwards, surprising for the notoriously bad talker, and the crowd responded with a huge ovation. Hulk was now the hottest babyface in the company. Hulk’s feud with his former unit took him to the main event of Kobe World, where he defeated YAMATO for the Dream Gate. Hulk had finally won the big one on the biggest stage, and unlike his rival one year ago, was poised for a long term reign. What’s more, the fans were still reacting to him like a god. While less-kind observers may have credited fans’ BxB love to his antagonists’ brilliance at being shitheads, it seemed for a brief moment Hulk may have finally surpassed his contemporaries on the road to becoming the permanent ace. 

After initially insisting he wanted to stand on his own, Hulk was persuaded by Masaaki Mochizuki to form his own unit and Dia.HEARTS was born. Hulk was the unquestionable leader of this unit with the name being a take-off of his previous units WORLD-1 (who had a diamond emblem, hence the “dia”) and PosHEARTS, and with Hulk once again designing the logo and colour scheme. Hulk of course had ditched any trace of his Darkside character, although sadly the pre-match dance routine did not make a comeback. Takagi on the other hand seemed resigned to being Just A Guy in Monster Express. He had formed a regular team with Tozawa who won the Twin Gate at the very same show that Hulk attained the Dream. However, even though Takagi was pushed as the strong link of the team, his partner lapped him in popularity, crowd connection and charisma. 

Hulk’s reign was undoubtedly more successful than either of Shingo’s with strong defenses against Doi, Cyber Kong (twice, including Kong’s consensus best singles match ever), Tozawa, Susumu, Uhaa Nation and Shingo himself before finally dropping it to Masato Yoshino in June 2015. While Hulk remained popular throughout this reign, his crowd reactions did start to die around early 2015, when the company’s main storyline became the “Mad Blankey zombies” (veteran babyfaces CIMA, Gamma, Don Fujii and K-ness were forced to join MB by the throw of a child’s dart. I love Dragon Gate). Hulk nevertheless had surprisingly shot past Takagi in the company pecking order, with the latter seemingly on an endless upper midcard treadmill, after all these years still stuck in a babyface role that played against his strengths. Things would change drastically as 2015 rolled on.

Shingo goes VerserK

Fate would draw Takagi and Hulk together in May 2015 with Takagi’s participation in the annual Dead or Alive cage match. 2015’s version would carry a “double risk”- each participant had a “delegate” on the outside whose hair was also on the line. As destiny would have it, Hulk was Takagi’s delegate. While the rules would take several hundred words to explain, in short Takagi was fighting for both his and Hulk’s hair, and it betrothed Hulk to do everything he could to help Takagi. They were able to stay on the same page and keep their respective barnets, however neither were happy about the situation. Takagi in particular was annoyed about both having Hulk as his delegate, and having to team with him in pre-DoA skirmishes in the days prior. He and Hulk were forced to team again at the pre-World Korakuen, along with Tozawa, in a “New Generation vs. Next Generation” trios match, which itself had come about from Takagi criticizing the likes of T-Hawk and Big R Shimizu. 

Takagi wasn’t even getting along with his own unit, Monster Express. While he initially celebrated Yoshino winning the Dream from Hulk (after all, Takagi will always enjoy Hulk being beat) he questioned why he hadn’t been in consideration for a shot. After all, he could easily beat Hulk –  a questionable claim since he’d lost his shot the previous December. His antagonism towards Yoshino as champ increased when the physical belt was lost for real after World – a situation that surely wouldn’t have happened if Shingo was the champion. He also started saying the unsayable- what the heck was Shachihoko Boy doing in the unit? Shachi, Yoshino’s legit best friend and longtime comedy wrestler/jobber, had experienced a surge in fortune in recent years, finally picking up wins and showing strong never-say-die performances that led to Yoshino forming a regular team with him, Amigo Tag. However, even though the amigos had a brief Twin Gate reign, Shachi was back in his natural position of undercard loss post. Takagi was fed up and his verbal attacks on Shachi gradually increased in ferocity, to Yoshino’s chagrin. What was Monster Express if it had room for losers? – “just buddy-buddy bullshit”. Takagi’s in-ring was also showing signs of change – never one of DG’s flashiest wrestlers, he was beginning to show a more hard-hitting, strike-heavy, aggressive style. This came to the fore at both World (where he teamed with veteran Masato Tanaka to take on Hulk and Shimizu and looked dominant) and the following Korakuen (where he absolutely obliterated Hulk and Yoshino in a three-way match), the latter earning him a Dream shot against his nominal unit mate at Dangerous Gate in September.

That Dangerous Gate would end up being very memorable, with the semifinal being the breakup of Mad Blankey after a Unit Disbands match that included a babyface turn that had this writer in floods of tears. However, it was Shingo who was the star of the show, capturing the Dream Gate in surprisingly brutal fashion against Yoshino. Both the style of the match and the ending were surprising – Dream Gate matches tended to be slow and methodical even when contested amongst heated rivals, this battle of ostensible allies was a balls-to-the-wall, bad-tempered bombfest. As for the ending, Dangerous Gate was one of DG’s big five shows which invariably ended with a victorious babyface giving a rousing speech to send the crowd home happy. So surely Shingo’s victory would be followed by reconciliation with Yoshino and a promise to be a valiant champion? Nope – he instead blasted Yoshino for being too easy to defeat, patronisingly “allowed” T-Hawk the privilege of tagging with him for the Summer Adventure Tag League (this would be rescinded), formally leaving Monster Express, promising to run roughshod over the entire promotion, and of course savagely laying into Shachihoko Boy.

Shortly after Dangerous Gate, Takagi solidified his heel turn by joining up with the Mad Blankey remnants to form VerserK. Despite the unit having heavy-hitters like Doi and YAMATO, Takagi was quickly recognized as leader. The unit was in Takagi’s image – stripped of any “fun” aspects even heel units in DG had, VerzerK was strictly business. The concept was simply that they were the strongest wrestlers in DG and they were going to prove it. 

Shingo’s reign initially saw him successfully defend against members of DG’s veteran contingent- Don Fujii, Masaaki Mochizuki, Gamma, and CIMA. Takagi vs. old guys was an excellent feud (with Takagi vs. Mochizuki to this day remaining one of the best Dream Gate matches ever) that allowed Takagi to revel in his new asshole persona. Takagi’s mic performances, always so awkward as a babyface, were now sensational – and in contrast to former DG top heels nobody was cheering him. The reign continued (bar a brief back-and-forth exchange with Susumu) until 2016’s World, where he lost the title to YAMATO, who had left VerserK at that year’s Dead or Alive in a babyface turn that had really been on the cards since the unit was formed. Doi would also leave VerserK by the end of 2016, and with him the last remnants of the concept of a “fun” heel group (as much of a shithead Doi was as a heel, his rants on the microphone were incredibly entertaining). VerserK had fully become Shingo’s group – serious, completely unlikable and with no time for any of the fun flourishes Dragon Gate was renowned for. BxB, throughout this time, wasn’t doing much – Dia.HEARTS was forced to disband, after which Hulk was sidelined by injuries for several months before returning triumphantly at the aforementioned DoA to help YAMATO, backed up by Kzy and Yosuke♡SantaMaria. These four would soon form Tribe Vanguard, and while Hulk was obviously number two, it was a distant number two to YAMATO (who fans had been begging to cheer for months, if not years) and was even threatened by a rising Kzy, the loveliness of Maria, and Tribe’s foreign assistant Flamita, who was becoming a perineal Brave Gate champion. Hulk’s slump even became a storyline in early 2016, when YAMATO started gently berating Hulk for his poor form, before gifting him a Dream shot to motivate him back to winning ways. 

Despite Hulk and Takagi being firmly on opposite sides of the heel/babyface divide, they only had limited interactions throughout 2016/17. Other than various trios matches, being participants in the 2017 DoA cage match, and of course Hulk constantly reminding us how much he fucking hates Shingo Takagi any time he got the opportunity, their rivalry had only two notable flashpoints in this period – a King of Gate block match, which Shingo won, and Akira Tozawa’s final Dragon Gate match.

When Tozawa announced in autumn 2016 that he would be leaving Dragon Gate after the November Gate of Destiny show in Osaka, the company allowed him to choose his own final match. He felt it only fitting for that to be a trios match with the other five members of DG’s New Generation – Doi, Yoshino, YAMATO, Hulk, and Takagi. But how to decide the sides? The only solution was Doi Darts. Shingo naturally protested such frivolity, but of course nothing overrides the power of Doi Darts and it was decided that Shingo would team up with Hulk and YAMATO to take on Doi, Yoshino, and Tozawa. Shingo and his teammates did manage to co-operate enough to score the victory, although he retained his heel status by leading an attempted VerserK beatdown as a closing gift to Tozawa. After a touching send-off by the non-VerserK roster, Akira Tozawa officially retired and has not been seen in anything resembling a wrestling match since.

Final Gate?

2018 was a year of great upheaval in Dragon Gate. Shingo began the year by handing the reigns of VerserK to T-Hawk, who promptly renamed the unit ANTIAS. At the time the unit had six members – youngsters T-Hawk, Eita and El Lindaman and elders Shingo, Yasushi Kanda and Takashi Yoshida (the former Cyber Kong, unmasked at DoA 2017). Shingo graciously stepped aside to let the youngsters be the focus, with the elder three acting as “advisors”.

In truth, Shingo seemed to be becoming more distant from DG. As well as increasing his activities outside the company competing in tournaments for BJW and AJPW, he had been increasingly using various media channels to voice his dissatisfaction with the company, including very frank criticism of certain wrestlers. Shingo had been a lifelong fan of traditional heavyweight style puro, and really relished any chance to team up with the likes of Yuko Miyamoto, Yuji Okabayashi or Masato Tanaka – men’s men, in contrast to the typical DG wrestler like ooh, for example, BxB Hulk. He had also been a fan of FMW in his youth, and while appearances on Onita Produce shows went someway to satiating his thirst for blood, he continued to be vocal about his desires to have a deathmatch under the DG banner – to mostly indifference or outright hostility from management and fans. He eventually got his wish at 2017’s Dangerous Gate. While not officially a deathmatch, the VerserK vs. Jimmyz Unit Disbands elimination match saw the VerserK come armed to the teeth with barbed wire, boards, baseball bats and the like. The match was certainly dramatic (the beloved Jimmyz, the longest-running unit in DG history finally came to an end) but was divisive. Some enjoyed the novelty of blood and guts on a DG show, whereas others felt it was jarring and didn’t fit the tone of the promotion – if Shingo dislikes the DG style so much, why doesn’t he take his barbed wire bat to BJW or FREEDOMS? Shingo in general had started to feel more out-of-place in the company. While his natural role was as a stern heel, this character type was not necessarily appreciated by DG fans who since the Toryumon days had enjoyed heels like CIMA, Magnum TOKYO, Naruki Doi and YAMATO, heels that could banter back-and-forth with the good guys and who could make audiences laugh as well as boo. They expected their heel units to have cool images and concepts like M2K with their jackets and scooters, DoFIXER with their elaborate dance routine or Mad Blankey with their Hulk-designed distinctive yellow merch. VerserK, once they had shed YAMATO and Doi, as well as entertaining jobbers Kotoka and Mondai Ryu, had just been a boring group led by an angry man shouting at the audience. It was unenjoyable. ANTIAS hardly seemed like an upgrade – with a colour scheme and design more boring than VerserK, and with T-Hawk as leader after a notoriously disastrous attempted main event babyface push and with mic skills even worse than BxB Hulk. 

T-Hawk’s tenure as leader didn’t last long regardless- after shaving Ryo Saito’s head in the aftermath of DoA, Shingo announced he was taking back leadership. The reason became clear the following day, when in a throwback to the 2004 upheaval it was announced that CIMA, T-Hawk, El Lindaman, and Takehiro Yamamura would be “focusing on competing in China and growing OWE, and as such their appearances in Dragon Gate will become less frequent” – in reality, they had left the company to become #StrongHearts. Takagi would challenge for the Dream Gate at World – and in attempt to mix storylines with reality vowed to install himself as company president upon victory and remodel the company to his vision. However, after failing at his quest at World he started to distance himself from ANTIAS, and appeared to be heading towards a babyface turn. In September, Dragon Gate fans were shocked by an announcement by Shingo that his Hakata Star Lanes appearance on October 7th would be his last as a contracted Dragon Gate wrestler, and would be “going freelance”. Of course, there would be only one man suitable to be Shingo’s opponent in that match. In the meantime, Takagi was dismissed from ANTIAS by Eita, who renamed the group R・E・D. Takagi and Hulk would team up one more time to take on Eita and a mystery new member of R・E・D. While it would have been fitting for Takagi to turn on Hulk once more for old time’s sake Shingo managed to co-exist with Hulk, albeit in defeat to Eita’s mystery partner PAC, on his return to wrestling having finally been released from his previous company. 

October 7th at Hakata was billed as “Shingo Takagi Final” and was fittingly the same venue he had made his debut. Hulk and Shingo battled for 18 minutes in a greatest hits version of their previous matches. In the time-honoured tradition of pro-wrestling the departing Takagi stared at the lights, Hulk getting one final win over the man who had overshadowed large parts of his career. After some warm parting words from Hulk as well as other DG wrestlers, Takagi no longer belonged to the dragon system. 

Since announcing his move to freelance, wrestling fans were abuzz with speculating on possible Takagi stops  – extended tours of Europe? US indies? Freelancing among promotions like BJW and AJPW- hey, he’d be great in NOAH! Maybe some sketchy indies where he can bleed to his heart’s content, and there’s rumours of those Elite guys following up their All In show with something more permanent…

Fans didn’t have to wait long to find out Shingo’s next move, as the very next day he appeared at NJPW’s King of Pro-wrestling at Ryogoku Kokugikan as the heavily-hyped new member of Los Ingobernables de Japon. It turned out “freelance” meant “NJPW full-time”. While Shingo’s departure, coming so soon after CIMA and pals, seemed a near death-blow for DG in terms of perception, roster depth, and popularity (DG’s attendances were dipping severely around this time, and while that could mostly be laid at CIMA’s feet, this certainly didn’t help) in hindsight it was a win-win. Shingo went to a promotion he was a better fit for, and where he was more successful than anyone’s wildest projections – all the way to winning the IWGP title and headlining Wrestle Kingdom. Takagi leaving DG, while a blow for the company, removed an element that was increasingly difficult to fit into the promotion, gave Eita the chance to be fully pushed as the undisputed top heel, and along with the other departures as well as the creaking bones of DG’s established top guys, forced the company to fully get behind the younger wrestlers in a way it had never done since its Toryumon days – a philosophy that is continuing to this day and is ensuring a bright future for the company. 

As for Hulk? Well, he’s continued to be Hulk – plagued with injuries, respected as one of the pillars of post-split era DG yet on a level below his contemporaries, just kind of there as an upper midcarder. He made a surprising heel turn in 2019, which has probably helped keep him somewhat relevant. He’ll likely turn back to the babyface side sooner rather than later, but rather than another Dream Gate run, I think it’s more likely he’ll be in crowd-pleasing undercard trios with the likes of Don Fujii and Genki Horiguchi. And that’s fine.

So will the Hulk and Takagi rivalry ever be rekindled? Well, I doubt Hulk will be appearing under the lion mark any time soon, but could Takagi ever step into a DG ring again? I highly doubt he’ll ever be a roster member again, but he appears on good terms with the company judging from the outpouring of well wishes on social media from his former colleagues when he won the IWGP title and he did send video messages on the occasions of DG/Toryumon’s 20th anniversary and Masato Yoshino’s retirement. There doesn’t appear to be any bad blood between NJPW and DG so it’s not unthinkable he could return for a one-off at say, a Kobe World. Which would be a perfect time for BxB Hulk to remind the world that he does indeed, fucking hate Shingo Takagi.

Note: After this article was written, Shingo did indeed make a number of returns to Dragongate, even tagging with Hulk in 2022, against YAMATO and future champion Madoka Kikuta. As you can imagine, there was some tension!