By: Craig Leask, ProWrestlingMusings.com
Prior to his quest to capture the newly vacated IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, it had been an up and down year for Shingo Takagi. First, he had a successful Wrestle Kingdom defense of the NEVER Openweight Championship, but then he lost it in a 5-star match to Hiroshi Tanahashi at New Beginning. He went on to have an enthralling run in the New Japan Cup where he defeated three former winners, before losing to Will Ospreay in the Final. Regardless, the respect for his feud with Ospreay earned him a rematch and shot at the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, but again losing to Ospreay at Wrestling Dontaku!
Going into yet another championship match – this time against the “Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada, a multi-time former IWGP Heavyweight Champion and perennial top contender – it seemed like the odds were stacked against him. After all, it would be their third meeting in New Japan with each having won once over the course of the past year.
In the end, “The Dragon” would win the rubber match in spectacular fashion becoming the third ever IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. Check out the match stats to see how each man approached this encounter.
This was actually the closest encounter between these two men with an almost equal split of the total offense. The main difference in these numbers are that Takagi’s foundation was strikes whereas Okada relied far more on submission holds. Another notable trend is that Takagi mixed up his offense more using more strikedowns (strikes that down the opponent), grapples and a dive in contrast to Okada who really focussed in on Submission holds.
It’s worth noting that this has been Okada’s tactic against Takagi over the last year. In both their G1 Climax and New Japan Cup encounters, Okada utilized more than 100 seconds more submission than Takagi, as he did at Dominion. In fact, Okada’s metrics don’t tend to differ all too much over the three contests.
However, it’s not surprising that Okada’s most differentiated performance is the one that he won, the G1 Climax. Here he achieved more strikedowns and reversals in comparison to Takagi. When Takagi comes out on top, the New Japan Cup and Dominion, he utilizes more strikedowns and reversals than Okada.
Interestingly, it feels as though Takagi really has Okada’s number now. This title-winning performance is notably strong. Bearing in mind, this was a longer contest than the previous two Takagi/Okada matches, Takagi’s strikes stayed fairly close to his total in the second longest match, the G1 Climax. However, his usage of strikedowns and grapples both hit double figures, indicating that Takagi was able to land a bigger percentage of explosive offense and moved away from simpler strikes.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Takagi, as Okada was able to dominate three of the seven five minute intervals of this match. The fact that one of these was the first five and another was the most noteworthy offensive accumulation of the match within a five minute period, were challenges for Takagi to navigate.
Ultimately, Takagi was able to with-stand the move that took him out at the G1 and hit the Last of the Dragon. When Takagi hits Okada with the Last of the Dragon he wins the match. Which was all the more significant this time around as it now means Takagi is at the pinnacle of New Japan Pro Wresting at an interesting time for the company, just as the coronavirus pandemic fades into the distance and new challengers rise up within the promotion.
This article first appeared in Monthly Puroresu Issue #5
Date:
February 19, 2022
Category:
The Midcard