A little more than a year after arriving in New Japan Pro Wrestling, Shingo Takagi has captured his first singles title.
In the main event of the first day of NJPW's New Beginning in Sapporo, Takagi won the rubber match between him and Hirooki Goto, pinning him to become the new NEVER Openweight Championship. Takagi has capture his second title in the span of a month as he won the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team titles in early January.
The two began their budding rivalry all the way back during last year's G1 Climax when Takagi defeated Goto. They then were on opposing sides on many tag matches until their next singles match last September at the Destruction in Kobe show when Goto got the win.
Afterwards, Goto won the NEVER title at last month's Wrestle Kingdom 14 showand Takagi worked his way up to title contention. Also at Wrestle Kingdom, Takagi teamed with BUSHI & EVIL to capture the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team titles and with the win over Goto, Takagi now joins Tetsuya Naito as the only two wrestlers in NJPW to hold more than one title.
However, Takagi and Goto faced off one more time in a tag team match at the New Year Dash show on January 6 where Takagi & EVIL defeated Goto & Ishii, leading to Goto vs. Takagi 3 being announced for the show.
For full results of the first day of NJPW New Beginning in Sapporo, check out Fightful's live coverage at this link.