Date established August 8, 1998 | Date won March 6, 2017 | |
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Promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) Current champion(s) Suzuki-gun (Taichi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) First champion(s) Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa Most reigns Rocky Romero (Individual, 7 reigns)
The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) (Team, 5 reigns) | ||
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. 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 the "IWGP Jr. Tag Class", while the IWGP Tag Team Championship is considered the "IWGP Heavy Weight Class". The title is contested for by junior heavyweight wrestlers; the weight-limit for the title is 100 kg (220 lb) per partner. 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 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).
Reigns
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. Rocky Romero holds the record for most reigns by an individual wrestler, with seven. At five 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. 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's only reign, The Young Bucks' second and fourth reigns, Roppongi Vice's (Beretta and Rocky Romero) first and second reigns and Matt Sydal and Ricochet's first and second reigns 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 50 reigns shared among 41 wrestlers, who made up 31 different teams. The current champions are Suzuki-gun (Taichi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru), who are in their first reign as a team. Individually, this is the second reign for both men.