IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (IWGPジュニアタッグ王座, IWGP juniataggu ōza) 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 (インターナショナル・レスリング・グラン・プリ, intānashonaru resuringu guran puri). The title was introduced on August 8, 1998, at an NJPW live event.[1] The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship is one of two tag team titles 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 the "IWGP Jr. Tag Class", while the IWGP Tag Team Championship is considered the "IWGP Heavyweight 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.
| IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship | |||||||||||||||
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 The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship belts | |||||||||||||||
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| Promotion | New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) | ||||||||||||||
| Date established | August 8, 1998 | ||||||||||||||
| Current champion(s) | Intergalactic Jet Setters (Kushida and Kevin Knight) | ||||||||||||||
| Date won | October 14, 2024 | ||||||||||||||
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History
editTitle changes happen mostly at NJPW-promoted events. The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin), a Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) tag team, defeated then-champions No Limit (Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro) on January 4, 2009, at Wrestle Kingdom III. Their reign lasted until July 5, 2009, when they were defeated by Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) at a live event. During that time, they had three successful defenses; two were held by TNA due to a pre-existing relationship and an agreement with NJPW.[4] Their first defense in TNA, a rematch against No Limit, occurred on March 31, 2009, at the tapings of their weekly television program TNA Impact!.[5] On April 19, 2009, they made their second, and last, defense in TNA at the Lockdown pay-per-view event in a Three Way Tornado Tag Team Six Sides of Steel cage match against No Limit and The Latin American Xchange (Hernandez and Homicide).[6]
Reigns
editOverall, there have been 75 reigns shared among 53 wrestlers, who made up 40 different teams. The inaugural champions were Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa, who defeated Dr. Wagner Jr. and Koji Kanemoto on August 8, 1998, in the final of a tournament.
Rocky Romero holds the record for most reigns by an individual wrestler, with eight. At seven reigns, The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) hold 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. They also hold the most total defenses as champions, with 15. Ryusuke Taguchi holds the records for most combined days and most total defenses by an individual wrestler, with 990 days and 17 defenses respectively across his 7 reigns with 4 different partners. Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) hold the record for most defenses during a single reign, with 7.
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.
Intergalactic Jet Setters (Kushida and Kevin Knight) are the current champions. Individually, is Kushida's fourth reign and Knight's second, and while it is their second time holding the title as a team. They defeated Bullet Club War Dogs (Clark Connors and Drilla Moloney) at King of Pro-Wrestling to win the championships.
References
edit- General
- "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title History". Retrieved September 27, 2009.
- "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship history". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). NJPW.co.jp. Retrieved November 10, 2016.
- Specific
- ^ "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship history: Reign 1". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). NJPW.co.jp. Archived from the original on September 21, 2009. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
- ^ a b "IWGP Tag Team Championship history". New Japan Pro-Wrestling (in Japanese). NJPW.co.jp. Archived from the original on September 27, 2009. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
- ^ "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. April 20, 2009. Archived from the original on April 21, 2009. Retrieved December 8, 2009.
Translated version shows that it was questioned if Hernandez weighed more than 100kg, the weight-limit.
- ^ Martin, Adam (January 15, 2009). ""Global Impact 2" and New Japan and TNA relations". Wrestleview. Retrieved December 8, 2009.
- ^ Martin, Adam (2009-04-02). "Spoilers: Impact tapings for 4/9-16". Wrestleview. Archived from the original on September 14, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2009.
- ^ Caldwell, James (April 19, 2009). "Caldwell's TNA Lockdown PPV report 4/19: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of all-cage PPV - Sting vs. Foley". Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved December 8, 2009.