The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship is the secundary tag team championship in the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. that is contested in the junior heavyweight division."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. 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. 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". The title is contested for by junior heavyweight wrestlers; the weight-limit for the title is 100 kg (220 lb).
Overview
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. 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 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. 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!. 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).
Title history
| # | Tag Team (Individual Reigns) |
Team Reigns | Date | Location | Length | Defenses | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa | 1 | August 8, 1998 | Osaka, Japan | 149 Days | 2 | Otani and Takaiwa defeated Dr. Wagner Jr. and Koji Kanemoto in a tournament final to become the first champions. |
| 2 | Dr. Wagner Jr. and Kendo Kashin | 1 | January 4, 1999 | Tokyo, Japan | 96 Days | 2 | |
| 3 | The Great Sasuke and Jushin Thunder Liger | 1 | April 10, 1999 | Tokyo, Japan | 94 Days | 0 | |
| 4 | Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa | 2 | July 13, 1999 | Morioka, Japan | 348 Days | 4 | |
| 5 | Junior Stars (Koji Kanemoto and Minoru Tanaka) |
1 | June 25, 2000 | Tokyo, Japan | 254 Days | 3 | |
| 6 | El Samurai and Jushin Thunder Liger (2) | 1 | March 6, 2001 | Tokyo, Japan | 136 Days | 1 | |
| 7 | Gedo and Jado | 1 | July 20, 2001 | Sapporo, Japan | 286 Days | 6 | |
| 8 | Jushin Thunder Liger (3) and Minoru Tanaka (2) | 1 | May 2, 2002 | Tokyo, Japan | 119 Days | 1 | |
| 9 | Tsuyoshi Kikuchi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru | 1 | August 29, 2002 | Tokyo, Japan | 150 Days | 4 | |
| 10 | Jushin Thunder Liger (4) and Koji Kanemoto (2) | 1 | January 26, 2003 | Kobe, Japan | 282 Days | 6 | |
| — | Vacated | — | November 4, 2003 | N/A | — | — | The championship was vacated due to Kanemoto fracturing his left cheekbone. |
| 11 | Gedo and Jado | 2 | November 29, 2003 | Miyagi, Japan | 104 Days | 2 | Gedo and Jado defeated Hirooki Goto and Ryusuke Taguchi to win the vacant championship. |
| 12 | American Dragon and Curry Man | 1 | March 12, 2004 | Tokyo, Japan | 85 Days | 1 | |
| 13 | Gedo and Jado | 3 | June 5, 2004 | Osaka, Japan | 272 Days | 5 | |
| 14 | Koji Kanemoto (3) and Wataru Inoue | 1 | March 4, 2005 | Tokyo, Japan | 71 Days | 2 | |
| 15 | Hirooki Goto and Minoru (3) | 1 | May 14, 2005 | Tokyo, Japan | 281 Days | 2 | |
| 16 | El Samurai (2) and Ryusuke Taguchi | 1 | February 19, 2006 | Tokyo, Japan | 139 Days | 2 | |
| 17 | Gedo and Jado | 4 | July 8, 2006 | Shizuoka, Japan | 298 Days | 2 | |
| 18 | Dick Togo and Taka Michinoku | 1 | May 2, 2007 | Tokyo, Japan | 270 Days | 3 | |
| 19 | RISE
(Minoru (4) and Prince Devitt) |
1 | January 27, 2008 | Tokyo, Japan | 21 Days | 0 | |
| 20 | Legend (AKIRA and Jushin Thunder Liger (5)) |
1 | February 17, 2008 | Tokyo, Japan | 155 Days | 1 | |
| 21 | RISE (Minoru (5) and Prince Devitt (2)) |
2 | July 21, 2008 | Sapporo, Japan | 84 Days | 1 | |
| 22 | No Limit (Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro) |
1 | October 13, 2008 | Tokyo, Japan | 83 Days | 1 | |
| 23 | Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) |
1 | January 4, 2009 | Tokyo, Japan | 182 Days | 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. |
| 24 | Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt (3) and Ryusuke Taguchi (2)) |
1 | July 5, 2009 | Tokyo, Japan | 290 Days | 5 | |
| — | Vacated | — | April 21, 2010 | N/A | — | — | Title held up after the championship was not defended for 30 days. |
| 25 | El Samurai (3) and Koji Kanemoto (4) | 1 | May 8, 2010 | Tokyo, Japan | 72 Days | 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 13, 1995 | Sapporo, Japan | 84 Days | 1 | |
| 27 | Golden☆Lovers (Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi) |
1 | October 11, 2010 | Tokyo, Japan | 104 Days | 2 | |
| 28 | Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt (5) and Ryusuke Taguchi (4)) |
3 | January 23, 2011 | Tokyo, Japan | 260 Days | 7 | |
| 29 | No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards and Rocky Romero) |
1 | October 10, 2011 | Tokyo, Japan | 86 Days | 1 | |
| 30 | Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt (6) and Ryusuke Taguchi (5)) |
4 | January 4, 2012 | Tokyo, Japan | 39 Days | 0 | |
| 31 | No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards and Rocky Romero) |
2 | February 12, 2012 | Osaka, Japan | 80 Days | 0 | |
| — | Vacated | — | May 2, 2012 | N/A | N/A | — | |
| 32 | Jushin Thunder Liger (6) and Tiger Mask IV | 1 | June 16, 2012 | Osaka, Japan | 36 Days | 0 | Liger and Tiger Mask defeated Suzuki-gun (Taichi and Taka Michinoku) to win the vacant title. |
| 33 | Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero (3)) |
1 | July 22, 2012 | Yamagata, Japan | 112 Days | 2 | |
| 34 | Time Splitters (Alex Shelley (2) and KUSHIDA) |
1 | November 11, 2012 | Osaka, Japan | 173 Days | 3 | |
| 35 | Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov (2) and Rocky Romero( 4)) |
2 | May 3, 2013 | Fukuoka, Japan | 164 Days | 3 | |
| 36 | Suzuki-gun (Taichi and Taka Michinoku (2)) |
1 | October 14, 2013 | Tokyo, Japan | 26 Days | 1 | |
| 37 | The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) |
1 | November 9, 2013 | Osaka, Japan | 224 Days | 5 | |
| 38 | Time Splitters (Alex Shelley (3) and KUSHIDA (2)) |
2 | June 21, 2014 | Osaka, Japan | 140 Days | 3 | |
| 39 | reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) |
1 | November 8, 2014 | Osaka, Japan | 95 Days | 1 | |
| 40 | The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) |
2 | February 11, 2015 | Osaka, Japan | 53 Days | 0 | This was a three-way match, also involving Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and KUSHIDA). |
| 41 | Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero (5)) |
1 | April 5, 2015 | Tokyo, Japan | 28 Days | 0 | |
| 42 | The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) |
3 | May 3, 2015 | 105 Days | Fukuoka, Japan | 1 | This was a three-way match, also involving reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly). |
| 43 | reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) |
2 | August 16, 2015 | 141 Days | Tokyo, Japan | 2 | |
| 44 | The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) |
4 | January 4, 2016 | 38 Days | Tokyo, Japan | 0 | This was a four-way match, also involving Matt Sydal and Ricochet and Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero). |
| 45 | Matt Sydal and Ricochet | 1 | February 11, 2016 | 59 Days | Osaka, Japan | 0 | This was a three-way match, also involving reDRagon. |
| 46 | Roppongi Vice (Beretta (2) and Rocky Romero (6)) |
2 | April 10, 2016 | 23 Days | Tokyo, Japan | 0 | |
| 47 | Matt Sydal and Ricochet | 2 | May 3, 2016 | 47 Days | Fukuoka, Japan | 0 | |
| 48 | The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) |
5 | June 19, 2016 | 199 Days | Osaka, Japan | 2 | This was a four-way elimination match, also involving reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) and Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero). |
| 49 | Roppongi Vice (Beretta (3) and Rocky Romero (7)) |
3 | January 4, 2017 | 61 Days | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | |
| 50 | Suzuki-gun (Taichi (2) and Yoshinobu Kanemaru (2)) |
1 | March 6, 2017 | 52 Days | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | |
| 51 | Roppongi Vice (Beretta (4) and Rocky Romero (8)) |
4 | April 27, 2017 | 45 Days | Hiroshima, Japan | 0 | |
| 52 | The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) |
6 | June 11, 2017 | 63 Days | Osaka, Japan | 1 | |
| 53 | Funky Future (Ricochet (3) and Ryusuke Taguchi (6)) |
1 | August 13, 2017 | 57 Days | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | |
| 54 | Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) |
1 | October 9, 2017 | 87 Days | Tokyo, Japan | 0 | |
| 55 | The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) |
7 | January 4, 2018 | 2297+ | Tokyo, Japan | 0 |
Gallery
