IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
| IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jushin Liger, who has held the championship five times |
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| Details | |||||||||||
| Current champion(s) | Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) | ||||||||||
| Date won | January 4, 2012 | ||||||||||
| Promotion | New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) | ||||||||||
| Date established | August 8, 1998 | ||||||||||
| Other name(s) |
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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 220 lb (100 kg) 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. Prince Devitt holds 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. Liger and The Great Sasuke's only reign and Minoru and Prince Devitt's first 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 30 reigns shared among 30 wrestlers, who made up 22 different teams.
The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin), a Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) tag team, defeated then-reigning champions No Limit (Tetsuya Naitō 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] The current champions are the Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi), who are in their fourth reign collectively. Individually, this is the sixth reign for Devitt and the fifth for Taguchi.
Contents |
[edit] 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 |
| # | Wrestlers (Tag team name) |
Reign | Date | Days held |
Location | Event | Successful defenses | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa | 1 | August 8, 1998 | 149 | Osaka, Japan | Live event | 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 | Jushin Liger and The Great Sasuke | 1 | April 10, 1999 | 94 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | 0 | |
| 4 | Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa | 2 | July 13, 1999 | 348 | Morioka, Japan | Live event | 4 | |
| 5 | Koji Kanemoto and Minoru Tanaka | 1 | June 25, 2000 | 254 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | 3 | |
| 6 | El Samurai and Jushin Liger (2) | 1 | March 6, 2001 | 136 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | 1 | |
| 7 | Gedo and Jado | 1 | July 20, 2001 | 286 | Sapporo, Japan | Live event | 6 | |
| 8 | Jushin Liger (3) and Minoru Tanaka (2) | 1 | May 2, 2002 | 119 | Tokyo, Japan | New Japan Pro Wrestling's 30th Anniversary | 1 | |
| 9 | Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru | 1 | August 29, 2002 | 150 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | 4 | |
| 10 | Jushin Liger (4) and Koji Kanemoto (2) | 1 | January 26, 2003 | 282 | Kobe, Japan | Live event | 6 | [7][8] |
| — | Vacated | — | November 4, 2003 | — | N/A | N/A | — | The championship was vacated due to Kanemoto fracturing his left cheekbone.[7] |
| 11 | Gedo and Jado | 2 | November 29, 2003 | 104 | Miyagi, Japan | Live event | 2 | Gedo and Jado defeated Hirooki Goto and Ryusuke Taguchi to win the vacant championship.[9] |
| 12 | American Dragon and Curry Man | 1 | March 12, 2004 | 85 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | 1 | [10] |
| 13 | Gedo and Jado | 3 | June 5, 2004 | 272 | Osaka, Japan | Live event | 5 | |
| 14 | Koji Kanemoto (3) and Wataru Inoue | 1 | March 4, 2005 | 71 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | 2 | |
| 15 | Hirooki Goto and Minoru (3) | 1 | May 14, 2005 | 281 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | 2 | |
| 16 | El Samurai (2) and Ryusuke Taguchi | 1 | February 19, 2006 | 139 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | 2 | |
| 17 | Gedo and Jado | 4 | July 8, 2006 | 298 | Shizuoka, Japan | Live event | 2 | |
| 18 | Dick Togo and Taka Michinoku | 1 | May 2, 2007 | 270 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | 3 | |
| 19 | Minoru (4) and Prince Devitt | 1 | January 27, 2008 | 21 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | 0 | |
| 20 | Akira and Jushin Liger (5) (Legend) |
1 | February 17, 2008 | 155 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | 1 | |
| 21 | Minoru (5) and Prince Devitt (2) | 2 | July 21, 2008 | 84 | Sapporo, Japan | Live event | 1 | |
| 22 | Tetsuya Naitō and Yujiro (No Limit) |
1 | October 13, 2008 | 83 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | 1 | |
| 23 | Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin (The Motor City Machine Guns) |
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.[11] |
| 24 | Prince Devitt (3) and Ryusuke Taguchi (2) (Apollo 55) |
1 | July 5, 2009 | 290 | Tokyo, Japan | Live event | 5 | [12] |
| — | Vacated | — | April 21, 2010 | — | N/A | N/A | — | Title held up after the championship was not defended for 30 days.[13] |
| 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 | Prince Devitt (4) and Ryusuke Taguchi (3) (Apollo 55) |
2 | July 19, 2010 | 84 | Sapporo, Japan | Live event | 1 | |
| 27 | Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi (Golden Lovers) |
1 | October 11, 2010 | 104 | Tokyo, Japan | Destruction '10 | 2 | |
| 28 | Prince Devitt (5) and Ryusuke Taguchi (4) (Apollo 55) |
3 | January 23, 2011 | 260 | Tokyo, Japan | Fantasticamania 2011 | 7 | |
| 29 | Davey Richards and Rocky Romero (No Remorse Corps) |
1 | October 10, 2011 | 86 | Tokyo, Japan | Destruction '11 | 1 | |
| 30 | Prince Devitt (6) and Ryusuke Taguchi (5) (Apollo 55) |
4 | January 4, 2012 | 28+ | Tokyo, Japan | Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome | 0 |
[edit] List of combined reigns
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| † | Indicates the current champions |
[edit] By team
[edit] By wrestler
| Rank[N 1] | Wrestler | # of reigns | Combined defenses | Combined days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gedo | 4 | 15 | 960 |
| 1 | Jado | 4 | 15 | 960 |
| 3 | Ryusuke Taguchi | 5 | 14 | 801+ |
| 4 | Jushin Liger | 5 | 9 | 786 |
| 5 | Prince Devitt | 6 | 13 | 767+ |
| 6 | Minoru | 5 | 7 | 759 |
| 7 | Koji Kanemoto | 4 | 11 | 679 |
| 8 | Shinjiro Otani | 2 | 6 | 497 |
| 8 | Tatsuhito Takaiwa | 2 | 6 | 497 |
| 10 | El Samurai | 3 | 3 | 347 |
| 11 | Hirooki Goto | 1 | 2 | 281 |
| 12 | Dick Togo | 1 | 3 | 270 |
| 12 | Taka Michinoku | 1 | 3 | 270 |
| 14 | Alex Shelley | 1 | 3 | 182 |
| 14 | Chris Sabin | 1 | 3 | 182 |
| 16 | Akira | 1 | 1 | 155 |
| 17 | Tsuyoshi Kikuchi | 1 | 4 | 150 |
| 17 | Yoshinobu Kanemaru | 1 | 4 | 150 |
| 19 | Kenny Omega | 1 | 2 | 104 |
| 19 | Kota Ibushi | 1 | 2 | 104 |
| 21 | Dr. Wagner, Jr. | 1 | 2 | 96 |
| 21 | Kendo Kashin | 1 | 2 | 96 |
| 23 | The Great Sasuke | 1 | 0 | 94 |
| 24 | Davey Richards | 1 | 1 | 86 |
| 24 | Rocky Romero | 1 | 1 | 86 |
| 26 | American Dragon | 1 | 1 | 85 |
| 26 | Curry Man | 1 | 1 | 85 |
| 28 | Tetsuya Naitō | 1 | 1 | 83 |
| 28 | Yujiro | 1 | 1 | 83 |
| 30 | Wataru Inoue | 1 | 2 | 71 |
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] References
- General
- Westcott, Brian. "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title History". Solie.org. http://solie.org/titlehistories/jhttiwgp.html. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
- "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship history" (in Japanese). New Japan Pro Wrestling. NJPW.co.jp. http://www.njpw.co.jp/data/list_category.php?cat=4. Retrieved 2010-12-23.
- "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship history: page one" (in Japanese). New Japan Pro Wrestling. NJPW.co.jp. http://www.njpw.co.jp/data/detail_championship.php?c=4&g=27. Retrieved 2010-12-23.
- "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship history: page two" (in Japanese). New Japan Pro Wrestling. NJPW.co.jp. http://www.njpw.co.jp/data/detail_championship.php?ne=2&c=4&g=27. Retrieved 2010-12-23.
- Specific
- ^ a b "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship history: Reign 1" (in Japanese). New Japan Pro Wrestling. NJPW.co.jp. http://www.njpw.co.jp/histry/jr_tag_main01.html#001. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
- ^ a b "IWGP Tag Team Championship history" (in Japanese). New Japan Pro Wrestling. NJPW.co.jp. http://www.njpw.co.jp/histry/tag.html. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
- ^ "No Limit, once again IWGP Jr. Not recapture Tag! / April 19th TNA "Lock Down" match result (1)" (in Japanese). New Japan Pro Wrestling. NJPW.co.jp. 2009-04-20. http://www.njpw.co.jp/news/article.php?nwid=9954. Retrieved 2009-12-08. "Translated version shows that it was questioned if Hernandez weighed more than 100kg, the weight-limit."
- ^ Martin, Adam (2009-01-15). ""Global Impact 2" and New Japan and TNA relations". WrestleView.com. http://www.wrestleview.com/news2009/1232054145.php. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
- ^ Martin, Adam (2009-04-02). "Spoilers: Impact tapings for 4/9-16". WrestleView.com. http://www.wrestleview.com/news2009/1238650426.php. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
- ^ Caldwell, James (2009-04-19). "Caldwell's TNA Lockdown PPV report 4/19: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of all-cage PPV - Sting vs. Foley". Pro Wrestling Torch. http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/PPV_Reports_5/article_31502.shtml. Retrieved 2009-12-08.
- ^ a b "IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship history: Reign 10" (in Japanese). New Japan Pro Wrestling. NJPW.co.jp. http://www.njpw.co.jp/histry/jr_tag_main02.html#010. 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.
- ^ Power Slam Magazine Staff (March 2005). "We are the champions (as of February 11)". Power Slam Magazine (Lancaster, Lancashire, England: SW Publishing LTD): p. 15. 116.
- ^ Milner, John M.. "Christopher Daniels". SLAM! Sports: Wrestling. Canadian Online Explorer. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/Bios/daniels.html. 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.com. http://www.wrestleview.com/news2009/1231099061.php. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
- ^ Golden, Hunter (2009-07-08). "Rising Sun Soliloquy Newsletter #32". WrestleView.com. http://www.wrestleview.com/news2009/1247097664.php. 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."
- ^ "Taguchi and Devitt stripped" (in Japanese). New Japan Pro Wrestling. NJPW.co.jp. 2010-04-21. http://www.njpw.co.jp/news/article.php?nwid=11786. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
[edit] External links
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