Cultaholic.com 2021 Awards: Vote For Your Male Wrestler Of The Year
Vote for your winner!
Shingo Takagi
Shingo Takagi’s year started with a banger (Wrestle Kingdom 15 match vs. Jeff Cobb) and ended with him as IWGP World Heavyweight Champion – the proverbial top dog of New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Holding the rare gift of being able to combine a main event persona with top quality matches, Shingo has impressed throughout 2021 with five-star matches against the likes of Zack Sabre Jr, Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomohiro Ishii and Will Ospreay.
That match with Okada at Dominion also handed Takagi the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship and The Dragon has provided stability to the title and NJPW as a whole at a time when New Japan were struggling with injuries to top stars and COVID-19 related issues.
Through all of that, Takagi helped legitimise a title that had already seen two champions within 77 days, doing it with banger after banger after banger.
Nominated By: Aidan Gibbons - Chief News Writer
