IWGP Tag Team Champion
| IWGP Tag Team Championship | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Karl Anderson, four-time IWGP Tag Team Champion, with one of the title belts in May 2014
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| Details | |||||||||||
| Promotion | New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) | ||||||||||
| Date established | December 12, 1985 | ||||||||||
| Current champion(s) | War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe) | ||||||||||
| Date won | July 1, 2017 | ||||||||||
| Other name(s) | |||||||||||
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| Statistics | |
|---|---|
| First champion(s) | Kengo Kimura and Tatsumi Fujinami |
| Most reigns | (as a team) Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) (6 reigns) (as an individual) Hiroyoshi Tenzan (12 reigns) |
| Longest reign | Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson) (564 days) |
| Shortest reign | Keiji Mutoh and Shiro Koshinaka (6 days) |
The IWGP Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling tag team championship owned by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. "IWGP" is the acronym of the NJPW's governing body, the International Wrestling Grand Prix. The title was introduced on December 12, 1985, at a NJPW live event. The IWGP Tag Team Championship is not the only tag team title contested for in NJPW; the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship is also sanctioned by NJPW. According to NJPW's official website, the IWGP Tag Team Championship is considered the "IWGP Heavy Weight Class", while the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship is listed as the "IWGP Jr. Tag Class". Like most professional wrestling championships, the title is won via the result of a scripted match. Title changes usually happen at NJPW-promoted events; although the title has only changed hands twice at a non-NJPW event, it has been defended in several other promotions.
The inaugural champions were Kengo Kimura and Tatsumi Fujinami, who defeated Antonio Inoki and Seiji Sakaguchi in the finals of a tournament to win the championship on December 12, 1985, at a NJPW live event. In addition to NJPW, the IWGP Tag Team Championship was also contested in the United States-based promotions World Championship Wrestling (WCW) (now defunct) in the early 1990s and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in 2009, and in the Mexican lucha libre promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (Spanish for Worldwide Wrestling Council) in 2005.
On October 30, 2005, in Kobe, Japan, Tenzan and Chono defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura to begin their fifth overall reign as a team. On July 2, 2006, an interim tag team title was created, when Tenzan and Chono showed signs of inactivity. Koshinaka and Togi Makabe defeated the teams of Yuji Nagata and Naofumi Yamamoto and Giant Bernard and Travis Tomko in a three-way match to become the first champions. NJPW president Simon Kelly Inoki stripped Tenzan and Chono of the IWGP Tag Team Championship on September 20, 2006, after Tenzan and Chono ceased teaming. Manabu Nakanishi and Takao Omori, who defeated Koshinaka and Makabe on July 17, 2006, to become the interim IWGP Tag Team Champions, were recognized as the IWGP Tag Team Champions on September 28, 2006, by NJPW.
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