List of IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions
The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling tag team championship owned by the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of NJPW's governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix. The title was introduced on August 8, 1998 at a NJPW live event.[1] The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship is not the only tag team title contested for in NJPW; the IWGP Tag Team Championship is also sanctioned by NJPW.[2] According to NJPW's official website, the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship is listed as an "IWGP Jr. Tag Class", while the IWGP Tag Team Championship is considered an "IWGP Heavy Weight Class".[2] The title is contested for by junior heavyweight wrestlers; the weight-limit for the title is 100 kg (220 lb) per partner.[3] Being a professional wrestling championship, the title is won as a result of a predetermined outcome.
Title changes happen mostly at NJPW-promoted events. The inaugural champions were Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa, who defeated Dr. Wagner Jr. and Koji Kanemoto on August 8, 1998 in the finals of a tournament. Jushin Thunder Liger and Prince Devitt share the record for most reigns by an individual wrestler, with six. At four reigns, the teams of Gedo and Jado and Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) share the record for the most by a team. Gedo and Jado's combined four reign lengths add up to 960 days—the most of any team. Separately, Gedo and Jado are tied for most days as champion. NJPW keep track of all championship title defenses per reign, which is unlike most mainstream wrestling organizations. They also hold the most total defenses as champions, with 15. Gedo and Jado separately are tied for the record of total defenses by a single wrestler. Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) hold the record for most defenses during a single reign, with 7. The Great Sasuke and Jushin Thunder Liger's only reign, Minoru and Prince Devitt's first reign, El Samurai and Koji Kanemoto's only reign, Apollo 55's fourth reign, Jushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask IV's only reign and The Young Bucks' (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) second reign share the record for the fewest successful defenses, with zero. At 348 days, Otani and Takaiwa's second reign is the longest in the title's history. Minoru and Prince Devitt's first reign is the shortest, at 21 days. Overall, there have been 41 reigns shared among 39 wrestlers, who made up 29 different teams. The current champions are Roppongi Vice (Baretta and Rocky Romero), who are in their first reign as a team. Individually, this is the first reign for Baretta and the fifth for Romero.
Title history
| # | Order in reign history |
| Reign | The reign number for the specific set of wrestlers listed |
| Event | The event in which the title was won |
| Successful defenses | The number of successful defenses the champions had during their reign |
| Wrestler name (#) | The number represents the individual reigns of a wrestler when this is distinct from the tag team's reign. |
| — | Used for vacated reigns so as not to count it as an official reign |
| N/A | The information is not available or is unknown |
| + | Indicates the current reign is changing daily |
| # | Team | Reign | Date | Days held |
Location | Event | Successful defenses | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa | 1 | August 8, 1998 | 149 | Osaka, Japan | Rising the Next Generations in Osaka Dome | 2 | Otani and Takaiwa defeated Dr. Wagner Jr. and Koji Kanemoto in a tournament final to become the first champions.[1] |
| 2 | Dr. Wagner Jr. and Kendo Kashin | 1 | January 4, 1999 | 96 | Tokyo, Japan | Wrestling World | 2 | |
| 3 | The Great Sasuke and Jushin Thunder Liger | 1 | April 10, 1999 | 94 | Tokyo, Japan | Strong Style Symphony | 0 | |
| 4 | Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa | 2 | July 13, 1999 | 348 | Morioka, Japan | Summer Struggle 1999 | 4 | |
| 5 | Koji Kanemoto and Minoru Tanaka | 1 | June 25, 2000 | 254 | Tokyo, Japan | Summer Struggle 2000 | 3 | |
| 6 | El Samurai and Jushin Thunder Liger (2) | 1 | March 6, 2001 | 136 | Tokyo, Japan | Hyper Battle 2001 | 1 | |
| 7 | Gedo and Jado | 1 | July 20, 2001 | 286 | Sapporo, Japan | Dome Quake | 6 | |
| 8 | Jushin Thunder Liger (3) and Minoru Tanaka (2) | 1 | May 2, 2002 | 119 | Tokyo, Japan | Toukon Memorial Day | 1 | |
| 9 | Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru | 1 | August 29, 2002 | 150 | Tokyo, Japan | Cross Road | 4 | |
| 10 | Jushin Thunder Liger (4) and Koji Kanemoto (2) | 1 | January 26, 2003 | 282 | Kobe, Japan | The First Navigation 2003 | 6 | [4][5] |
| — | Vacated | — | November 4, 2003 | — | N/A | N/A | — | The championship was vacated due to Kanemoto fracturing his left cheekbone.[4] |
| 11 | Gedo and Jado | 2 | November 29, 2003 | 104 | Miyagi, Japan | Battle Final 2003 | 2 | Gedo and Jado defeated Hirooki Goto and Ryusuke Taguchi to win the vacant championship.[6] |
| 12 | American Dragon and Curry Man | 1 | March 12, 2004 | 85 | Tokyo, Japan | Hyper Battle 2004 | 1 | [7] |
| 13 | Gedo and Jado | 3 | June 5, 2004 | 272 | Osaka, Japan | Best of the Super Jr. XI | 5 | |
| 14 | Koji Kanemoto (3) and Wataru Inoue | 1 | March 4, 2005 | 71 | Tokyo, Japan | Big Fight Series 2005 | 2 | |
| 15 | Hirooki Goto and Minoru (3) | 1 | May 14, 2005 | 281 | Tokyo, Japan | Nexess VI | 2 | |
| 16 | El Samurai (2) and Ryusuke Taguchi | 1 | February 19, 2006 | 139 | Tokyo, Japan | Circuit2006 Acceleration | 2 | |
| 17 | Gedo and Jado | 4 | July 8, 2006 | 298 | Shizuoka, Japan | Circuit2006 Turbulence | 2 | |
| 18 | Dick Togo and Taka Michinoku | 1 | May 2, 2007 | 270 | Tokyo, Japan | New Japan Pro Wrestling 35th Anniversary Tour Brave New World: Hall2Days | 3 | |
| 19 | Prince Prince (Minoru (4) and Prince Devitt) |
1 | January 27, 2008 | 21 | Tokyo, Japan | Circuit2008 New Japan Ism | 0 | |
| 20 | Legend (Akira and Jushin Thunder Liger (5)) |
1 | February 17, 2008 | 155 | Tokyo, Japan | Circuit2008 New Japan Ism | 1 | |
| 21 | Prince Prince (Minoru (5) and Prince Devitt (2)) |
2 | July 21, 2008 | 84 | Sapporo, Japan | Circuit2008 New Japan Soul: Novello Sparks | 1 | |
| 22 | No Limit (Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro) |
1 | October 13, 2008 | 83 | Tokyo, Japan | Destruction '08 | 1 | |
| 23 | The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) |
1 | January 4, 2009 | 182 | Tokyo, Japan | Wrestle Kingdom III in Tokyo Dome | 3 | The Motor City Machine Guns defended the championship twice in the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion during their reign, as part of an agreement between TNA and NJPW.[8] |
| 24 | Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt (3) and Ryusuke Taguchi (2)) |
1 | July 5, 2009 | 290 | Tokyo, Japan | Circuit2009 New Japan Soul | 5 | [9] |
| — | Vacated | — | April 21, 2010 | — | N/A | N/A | — | Title held up after the championship was not defended for 30 days.[10] |
| 25 | El Samurai (3) and Koji Kanemoto (4) | 1 | May 8, 2010 | 72 | Tokyo, Japan | Super J Tag Tournament 1st | 0 | El Samurai and Kanemoto defeated Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) in the finals of an eight-team tournament to win the vacant title. |
| 26 | Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt (4) and Ryusuke Taguchi (3)) |
2 | July 19, 2010 | 84 | Sapporo, Japan | Circuit2010 New Japan Soul | 1 | |
| 27 | Golden☆Lovers (Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi) |
1 | October 11, 2010 | 104 | Tokyo, Japan | Destruction '10 | 2 | |
| 28 | Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt (5) and Ryusuke Taguchi (4)) |
3 | January 23, 2011 | 260 | Tokyo, Japan | Fantasticamania 2011 | 7 | |
| 29 | No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards and Rocky Romero) |
1 | October 10, 2011 | 86 | Tokyo, Japan | Destruction '11 | 1 | |
| 30 | Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt (6) and Ryusuke Taguchi (5)) |
4 | January 4, 2012 | 39 | Tokyo, Japan | Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome | 0 | |
| 31 | No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards and Rocky Romero) |
2 | February 12, 2012 | 80 | Osaka, Japan | The New Beginning (2012) | 0 | |
| — | Vacated | — | May 2, 2012 | — | N/A | N/A | — | Title held up after Davey Richards was unable to attend Wrestling Dontaku 2012 due to travel issues.[11] |
| 32 | Jushin Thunder Liger (6) and Tiger Mask IV | 1 | June 16, 2012 | 36 | Osaka, Japan | Dominion 6.16 | 0 | Liger and Tiger Mask IV defeated Suzukigun (Taichi and Taka Michinoku) to win the vacant title. |
| 33 | Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero (3)) |
1 | July 22, 2012 | 112 | Yamagata, Japan | Kizuna Road (2012) | 2 | |
| 34 | Time Splitters (Alex Shelley (2) and Kushida) |
1 | November 11, 2012 | 173 | Osaka, Japan | Power Struggle (2012) | 3 | |
| 35 | Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov (2) and Rocky Romero (4)) |
2 | May 3, 2013 | 164 | Fukuoka, Japan | Wrestling Dontaku 2013 | 3 | |
| 36 | Suzukigun (Taichi and Taka Michinoku (2)) |
1 | October 14, 2013 | 26 | Tokyo, Japan | King of Pro-Wrestling (2013) | 1 | |
| 37 | The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) |
1 | November 9, 2013 | 224 | Osaka, Japan | Power Struggle (2013) | 5 | |
| 38 | Time Splitters (Alex Shelley (3) and Kushida (2)) |
2 | June 21, 2014 | 140 | Osaka, Japan | Dominion 6.21 | 3 | |
| 39 | reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) |
1 | November 8, 2014 | 95 | Osaka, Japan | Power Struggle (2014) | 1 | |
| 40 | The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) |
2 | February 11, 2015 | 53 | Osaka, Japan | The New Beginning in Osaka (2015) | 0 | This was a three-way match, also involving Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and Kushida). |
| 41 | Roppongi Vice (Baretta and Rocky Romero (5)) |
1 | April 5, 2015 | 19+ | Tokyo, Japan | Invasion Attack 2015 | 0 |
List of combined reigns
As of April 24, 2015
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| † | Indicates the current champions |
By team
By wrestler
| Rank[N 1] | Wrestler | No. of reigns | Combined defenses |
Combined days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gedo | 4 | 15 | 960 |
| 1 | Jado | 4 | 15 | 960 |
| 3 | Jushin Thunder Liger | 6 | 9 | 822 |
| 4 | Ryusuke Taguchi | 5 | 14 | 812 |
| 5 | Prince Devitt | 6 | 13 | 778 |
| 6 | Minoru/Minoru Tanaka | 5 | 7 | 759 |
| 7 | Koji Kanemoto | 4 | 11 | 679 |
| 8 | Shinjiro Otani | 2 | 6 | 497 |
| 8 | Tatsuhito Takaiwa | 2 | 6 | 497 |
| 10 | Alex Shelley | 3 | 9 | 495 |
| 11 | Rocky Romero† | 5 | 5 | 461+ |
| 12 | El Samurai | 3 | 3 | 347 |
| 13 | Kushida | 2 | 6 | 313 |
| 14 | Taka Michinoku | 2 | 4 | 296 |
| 15 | Hirooki Goto | 1 | 2 | 281 |
| 16 | Matt Jackson | 2 | 5 | 277 |
| 16 | Nick Jackson | 2 | 5 | 277 |
| 18 | Alex Koslov | 2 | 4 | 276 |
| 19 | Dick Togo | 1 | 3 | 270 |
| 20 | Chris Sabin | 1 | 3 | 182 |
| 21 | Davey Richards | 2 | 1 | 166 |
| 22 | Akira | 1 | 1 | 155 |
| 23 | Tsuyoshi Kikuchi | 1 | 4 | 150 |
| 23 | Yoshinobu Kanemaru | 1 | 4 | 150 |
| 25 | Kenny Omega | 1 | 2 | 104 |
| 25 | Kota Ibushi | 1 | 2 | 104 |
| 27 | Dr. Wagner Jr. | 1 | 2 | 96 |
| 27 | Kendo Kashin | 1 | 2 | 96 |
| 29 | Bobby Fish | 1 | 1 | 95 |
| 29 | Kyle O'Reilly | 1 | 1 | 95 |
| 31 | The Great Sasuke | 1 | 0 | 94 |
| 32 | American Dragon | 1 | 1 | 85 |
| 32 | Curry Man | 1 | 1 | 85 |
| 34 | Tetsuya Naito | 1 | 1 | 83 |
| 34 | Yujiro | 1 | 1 | 83 |
| 36 | Wataru Inoue | 1 | 2 | 71 |
| 37 | Tiger Mask IV | 1 | 0 | 36 |
| 38 | Taichi | 1 | 1 | 26 |
| 39 | Baretta† | 1 | 0 | 19+ |
Footnotes
References
- General
- Westcott, Brian. "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title History". Solie.org. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
- "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship history". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). NJPW.co.jp. Retrieved 2010-12-23.
- "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship history: page one". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). NJPW.co.jp. Retrieved 2010-12-23.
- "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship history: page two". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). NJPW.co.jp. Retrieved 2010-12-23.
- Specific
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship history: Reign 1". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). NJPW.co.jp. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "IWGP Tag Team Championship history". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). NJPW.co.jp. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
- ↑ "No Limit、またしてもIWGP Jr.タッグ奪還ならず！/4月19日TNA「Lock Down」試合結果(1)". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). NJPW.co.jp. 2009-04-20. Archived from the original on 2009-04-21. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
Translated version shows that it was questioned if Hernandez weighed more than 100kg, the weight-limit.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship history: Reign 10". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). NJPW.co.jp. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
- ↑ Power Slam Staff (August 2003). "We are the Champions (as of July 8)". Power Slam Magazine (Lancaster, Lancashire, England: SW Publishing LTD). p. 15. 109.
- ↑ "We are the champions (as of February 11)". Power Slam Magazine (Lancaster, Lancashire, England: SW Publishing LTD). March 2005. p. 15. 116.
- ↑ Milner, John M. (2005-09-05). "Christopher Daniels". Slam! Sports: Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved 2009-12-03.
Curry Man returned to Japan and won a battle royale on January 31, 2004 and, on March 12th, teamed with American Dragon to win the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team titles.
- ↑ Martin, Adam (2009-01-01). "1/4 NJPW Wrestle Kingdom III Results: Tokyo, Japan". Wrestleview. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
- ↑ Golden, Hunter (2009-07-08). "Rising Sun Soliloquy Newsletter #32". Wrestleview. Retrieved 2009-12-03.
Ryosuke Taguchi & Prince Devitt, hot off solid performances at the Best of the Super Juniors Tournament last month, defeated TNA's Motor City Machine Guns for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship at the Korakuen Hall this past Sunday in front of a sell out crowd of 2,000 fans. The 'Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) won the titles on January 4th at the Tokyo Dome and made two successful title defenses, one in Japan and the other overseas in the United States.
- ↑ "IWGP Jr.タッグ王座を返上した田口隆祐選手が現在の心境をコメント！". New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). NJPW.co.jp. 2010-04-21. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
- ↑ デイビー・リチャーズ選手が交通事故により来日中止【5・3福岡大会カード変更のお知らせ】. New Japan Pro Wrestling (in Japanese). NJPW.co.jp. 2012-05-02. Retrieved 2012-05-02.
External links
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