Natsupoi and Shingo Takagi Hold Public Workout Ahead of Husband-and-Wife Tag Team Debut — Turning Natsupoi Into a Human Projectile?!
On October 15 at the Stardom Dojo in Tokyo, Natsupoi and Shingo Takagi held a public workout ahead of their upcoming husband-and-wife tag team match at Stardom’s October 29 event at Ota City General Gymnasium. Natsupoi’s regular tag team partner Saori Anou and New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s Daiki Nagai also took part to assist with the training session.
Before getting to the main objective of the public workout—showcasing their tandem offense—the pair first worked up a good sweat at Takagi’s suggestion before moving on to unveil their proposed double-team maneuvers.
First, Takagi hit the “Poi-Sute Natsupoi” (Throwaway Natsupoi), body-slamming Natsupoi directly onto a downed opponent. As he continued demonstrating moves to the gathered press where he executed maneuvers on Natsupoi to hurl her into the opponent—including the “Poi-Sute Jet Pool” and the “Poi-Sute Noshigami”—Natsupoi voiced her protests over being treated like a literal weapon. Takagi even teased busting out the “Poi-Sute German Japan,” where Natsupoi locks in a waistlock for a “Poi-Sute German,” only for Takagi to grab her from behind and suplex both of them together.
Furthermore, after learning that Natsupoi had never thrown a lariat before, Takagi coached her on the proper form and christened the move the “Poiping Bomber”. Takagi and Natsupoi attempted a sandwich-style Poiping Bomber on Nagai, but the sheer difference in power between the two was unmistakable; a minor mishap occurred when the force of Takagi’s Pumping Bomber sent Nagai’s body crashing straight into Natsupoi. Finally, they wrapped up the session by unveiling a simultaneous double-team variation of the MADE IN JAPAN on separate opponents, dubbed “MADE IN JAPAN-ppoi” (Kind of like MADE IN JAPAN). Additionally, it was announced that Natsupoi and Takagi’s official tag team name will be “Revo-Ryu-tion-gun” (Dragon Revolution Army).
Below are comments from the two following the public workout:
Takagi: “(The tandem moves we showed during the public workout) are strictly just rough ideas for now. We still have plenty of days left, so if we come up with even better concepts, we’ll refine them so we can stand tall as Revo-Ryu-tion-gun and not lose to the Goto Kakumei-gun (Goto Revolution Army). After all, it’s the Natsupoi Revolution, right?”
Natsupoi: “That’s right.”
Takagi: “Let’s treat this like the final revolution and give it everything we’ve got. (As for how the public workout felt) I only pitched my own ideas today, but Poi-san has been coming up with a ton of ideas too, so we might end up breaking those out on the 29th.”
Natsupoi: “We just might. Though with the moves Takagi-san came up with today, even if we manage to pull them off during the match, I’m probably going to end up taking damage too.”
Takagi: “That’s true. Especially if our opponents manage to dodge out of the way.”
Natsupoi: “Plus, now that we’ve shown them off (at the public workout and on YouTube), our opponents are going to study the tape.”
Takagi: “If they’re true professionals, I want them to take the moves head-on without running away.”
Natsupoi: “I mean, I hope they take them… laughs“
Takagi: “Well, don’t worry, I’ll make sure to set the table properly for you. Look, teaming up as husband and wife is something we’ve said we wanted to do at least once, and now that it’s actually happening, I think we’ll develop some even more entertaining stuff between now and the 29th.”
Natsupoi: “Takagi-san’s brain really is just like a little kid who’s obsessed with pro wrestling. He watches it every single day. We tried out a bunch of different things today, and since we still have time before the show, I feel like we’ll be able to put together all kinds of fun combinations while I pitch my own ideas too. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Takagi: “(So you aren’t just viewing Natsupoi purely as a weapon?) When I thought about how to structure the match and deal damage to our opponents, our wrestling styles are completely different, and because of the size difference, doing traditional double-team throws together is pretty tough. So I figured I’d use my petite wife as a projectile weapon (laughs). It looks visually impressive, and it deals real damage to the opponent, so I think she’s going to make for a pretty effective human projectile.”
Natsupoi: “(Are you unhappy about having to do high-risk tandem moves?) I am unhappy about it (laughs). Even today, he’s sitting here totally satisfied with himself, meanwhile I took a ton of damage. It actually ticked me off a little (laughs).”
Takagi: “You had a photoshoot or something right before we started today, didn’t you? I kind of bulldozed ahead with only the moves I thought up today, but if Poi-san comes up with some good techniques before the day of the match, I definitely want to practice those too. Our opponents, the Goto Revolution Army, were on a tear last year, after all. (Regarding Goto’s comment asking what would happen to your marriage if he and Mizumori showed a stronger bond and beat the married couple?) I’m stubborn and strong-willed, and she’s stubborn and strong-willed too, so we won’t really know how our tag team chemistry will function until we’re actually in the middle of the match. It’s completely different from our private life at home. I think a different switch flips inside both of us when we step into the ring for a match. If that clicks and meshes well, great—but if it doesn’t, things might get a little dicey.”
Natsupoi: “And on that note, if Takagi-san goes overboard throwing me around like a weapon, a very different switch is going to flip inside me too. So you’d better make sure you keep me in a good mood.”
Takagi: “I’ll give that some thought. (On his past experience wrestling women in matches) About twice before. I’ve done it both overseas and in Japan. I know some fans might have reservations about mixed tag matches, and taking all of that into account, we’re professionals, so I believe there is a proper way to present this as pros. I’m not going to take a half-hearted attitude and say, ‘Well, I’m a pro, so I’ll just go out there and work whatever card they book me on.’ I’m going to make sure we deliver something genuinely worthwhile. When we announced our marriage, we said, ‘It’d be nice to team up at least once,’ and now it’s finally set in stone. I have complete confidence that we’ll put on a match that leaves nobody thinking, ‘They shouldn’t have done that,’ once the final bell rings.”
Translator’s Notes
- Weaponized Wordplay & Move Names: Nearly all of the tandem moves invented by Shingo Takagi during the workout are built around puns combining Natsupoi’s ring name with his own signature arsenal and Japanese phrases:
- Poi-Sute (“Throwaway” / Littering): In Japanese, poi-sute refers to carelessly tossing away trash or littering (derived from the onomatopoeia poi, meaning to toss lightly, and suteru, to discard). Takagi uses this to describe literally tossing his wife at downed opponents.
- Poi-Sute Jet Pool: A mashup of poi-sute and Natsupoi’s own signature twisting splash/senton variations.
- Poi-Sute Noshigami: Noshigami is one of Takagi’s signature moves (a Gory Special flipped out into a facebuster, named after the decorative paper strips placed on formal Japanese gifts). Here, he uses Natsupoi’s body to flatten the opponent like wrapping paper.
- Poi-Sute German Japan: A combination of Natsupoi’s German Suplex and Takagi’s Last of the Dragon / MADE IN JAPAN suplex power, where he suplexes Natsupoi while she is simultaneously suplexing the opponent.
- Poiping Bomber: A portmanteau of “Poi” and Takagi’s signature lariat, the Pumping Bomber.
- MADE IN JAPAN-ppoi: Takagi’s signature pumphandle half-Nelson driver is called MADE IN JAPAN. In Japanese grammar, adding the suffix -ppoi to a noun means “-ish” or “kind of like” (which is also the exact origin of Natsupoi’s ring name—acting “Natsu-ish”). Thus, MADE IN JAPAN-ppoi translates both to “Natsupoi’s version of MADE IN JAPAN” and “Something that looks kind of like MADE IN JAPAN.”
- Revo-Ryu-tion-gun (Rebo-ryū-shon-gun): The couple’s official team name is a multi-layered pun. When written in Japanese, the “lu/ru” syllable in the English loanword “Revolution” is replaced with the kanji Ryū (Dragon), referencing Shingo Takagi’s moniker, “The Dragon”. It also directly parodies their opponents, Hirooki Goto and Yuna Mizumori, who dub themselves the Goto Kakumei-gun (Goto Revolution Army) following Goto’s “Goto Revolution” (Goto Kakumei) catchphrase, as well as Natsupoi’s own historic “Poi Kakumei” (Poi Revolution) catchphrase.
- Interpersonal Address (Poi-san / Takagi-san): Despite being married in real life, both wrestlers maintain polite professional/semi-playful distance when speaking to the press. Natsupoi refers to her husband as Takagi-san, while Takagi humorously calls his wife Poi-san or chiisai okusama (“my petite wife”).
- Event Notation (10・29 Ota-ku): Standard puroresu journalistic shorthand for the October 29 major event held at the Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, a premier venue frequently used by both Stardom and New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
- Training Partners: Saori Anou is Natsupoi’s championship tag team partner (known collectively as meltear within COSMIC ANGELS), while Daiki Nagai is a New Japan Pro-Wrestling Young Lion who served as the primary crash-test dummy for the couple’s double-team offense during the session.