Shingo Takagi reflects on his experience at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door.
At the pay-per-view, he teamed up with Sting and Darby Allin to face the Young Bucks and El Phantasmo in one of the most memorable matches of the night.
In an interview with NJPW‘s website, Takagi discussed the show and noted that hearing the fans made a big impact on him. NJPW fans haven’t been allowed to cheer at live events since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the company will have cheering sections at two shows in September. When asked about the atmosphere at the pay-per-view, he noted that he has gotten used to the lack of cheering, so hearing the crowd again motivated him to deliver a great performance.
“I’d planned to just pretty much go out there, business as usual, but with the place so loud, and then the (All Atlantic Championship 4 way) match before us really going down well, I had my doubts for a second,” said Takagi. “I think I’m just so used to the no cheering thing, it’s so ingrained now. What you do doesn’t change at all, but when you hear those voices, it does become ‘man, I really can’t let these guys down’ so it kind of sharpens your instincts as a professional. Obviously I want that back for Japan as well, and when it comes, I want the fans to make even more noise than they did before.
The NJPW star also named some AEW talent that caught his eye, and he called Sting a legend. He noted that “The Icon” is a model for him moving forward.
“Well, I think the guys that I have wrestled before, or had near misses with,” said Takagi. “So Bryan (Danielson) (Samoa) Joe, Claudio (Castagnoli), PAC. But then Sting… Sting just entirely carried that match we had (laughs). From the entrance on, it was all Sting. That’s a legend for you. He was a real model for me going forward, that’s the kind of wrestler I need to be.”
Forbidden Door came a few weeks before the G1 Climax 32 tournament kicked off, and Takagi called the show the “best motivation” for the competition.
“I thought it would be good motivation, and it turned out to be the best motivation,” said Takagi. “From the cheers, to Sting to all the travel trouble I had coming back, it was definitely a wild weekend.”
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