Featured photo by @taigaPhoto_pw
With the new year and his first singles showcase match for New Japan in the Dome, Shingo Takagi once again proves that he’s the best wrestler in the company, and perhaps the world. His dance partner for this night is Jeff Cobb, someone’s who can be a real coin flip. On the one hand, you have powerful monster Jeff Cobb who delights in just ragdolling people in the most brutal ways possible. On the other, there’s the Jeff Cobb that just kind of wanders aimlessly through a match until he reaches the finish.
Luckily on this night, we got the former. As much as I’d like to credit this whole match to Shingo working his magic, there’s no denying that Cobb looked much more motivated in this match than I’ve seen him in a long time. Even in their G1 match last year, I don’t recall Cobb bringing the same kind of brute energy that he did here.
This is the kind of simple, wonderful match that just entirely understands the best strengths of both participants. For Jeff Cobb, it’s doing stupidly powerful moves on rather larger human beings. For Shingo, it’s being a stiff striker that can elevate his very meat and potatoes style with some clever structural work and subtle selling.
Most of the first two acts is about Shingo bumping like a nut for Cobb. There’s the overhead suplex right onto the floor and also a lovely tope over the top from Shingo that he rarely busts out. It works not just as a dazzling spectacle for the biggest show in the company’s calendar year but also as a sign of Shingo having to be a little more reckless when faced with a larger opponent. The second act plays out as your traditional NEVER Openweight smackfest and culminates in both men burning their finishers on nearfalls.
The third act begins to dip. Just as you think these two have run through the best of their material though, Shingo busts out a late game bit of leg work. The purpose of this is twofold in Shingo creating a new and original transition to break the monotony of the match structure and also to protect Cobb’s Tour of the Islands, allowing Shingo to take a second without yet eating the loss. It’s that second failed Tour of the Islands that allows Shingo just enough space to get back into the game and finish things off with a victory.
By far the best match of the weekend. Simple, to the point, and well thought out, as we’ve come to expect from Shingo Takagi. The man simply don’t miss. He don’t.
