He greatly excelled in amateur wrestling, becoming highly decorated and making it all the way to the All Japan championships, the biggest stage for the sport, before deciding to turn pro.

On February 26, 2006, in just his fourth match, Shuhei Taniguchi picked up his first direct win, pinning fellow rookie Atsushi Aoki with a German suplex hold.

On March 20 Noah announced an eight-man single-elimination tournament to determine the number contender for Jun Akiyama's GHC Heavyweight Championship.

On October 8, Taniguchi and Kenta defeated Magnus and Samoa Joe to win the GHC Tag Team Championship for the first time.

[16] On January 25, Taniguchi and Morishima defeated TMDK (Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste), with help from Kenoh and new stablemate Hajime Ohara, to win the GHC Tag Team Championship.

[19] Following Morishima's retirement from professional wrestling, Taniguchi entered the GHC Heavyweight Championship picture in May 2015, challenging Minoru Suzuki.

[20] On June 9, Taniguchi was unmasked during a tag team match, where he and Yoshihiro Takayama defeated Suzuki and Takashi Iizuka.

[22] On January 31, 2016, Taniguchi voluntarily removed his mask to become one of the leading figures in Noah's war with the Suzuki-gun stable.

Team Noah, made up of Taniguchi, Naomichi Marufuji and Taiji Ishimori, finished fourth in the tournament.

[26] On July 30, Taniguchi put his mask back on to attack new GHC Heavyweight Champion, Suzuki-gun's Takashi Sugiura, setting himself up as his first title challenger.