The 10 Longest Reigning IWGP Tag Team Champions

The IWGP (International Wrestling Grand Prix) Tag Team Championship holds an abundance of honor overseas in NJPW (New Japan Pro-Wrestling). Tag wrestling in America sporadically has noteworthy matches but tag wrestling does not gain interest as it once did. At one time, tag team wrestling was a main event attraction to sell tickets.

In NJPW, the World Tag League, an annual number one contender's tournament, delivers memorable fights to the fans in honor of the tag team gold. NJPW sees each title change as a unique reign; at the time of writing here are the ten longest-reigning IWGP Tag Team Champions.

10 Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi -47th Champions: 323 Days

Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi won the vacant IWGP Tag Team Championship at Battle Final 2004 on December 11 against Kensuke Sasaki and Minoru Suzuki. They had four successful title defenses in almost a full a year.

Nakamura and Tanahashi ranked fourteenth all-time for total combined days as tag champions. Although Tanahashi would win the tag titles with on three different occasions with three unique partners, Nakamura brought him his most success as a tag wrestler. Both are also former IWGP Heavyweight Champions.

9 Cho-Ten (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Masahiro Chono) -48th Champions: 325 Days

Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Masahiro Chono defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura at Toukon Series 2005 on October 30. Their reign ended when tension grew between the champs and they refused to team together. The inactivity caused a stripping of the titles on September 20, 2006.

Cho-Ten has five reigns as tag champions and have a total of one thousand ten days as champions, the most in the history of the titles, with twelve defenses. Although this reign ended in an awkward fashion, their legacy is undeniable.

8 The Hell Raisers (Hawk Warrior & Power Warrior) -23rd Champions: 325 Days

The legendary Legion Of Doom tag team split up temporarily in the early-'90s due to Animal's injury. Hawk went to NJPW and formed a team with the young mid-carder Kensuke Sasaki, later known as Power Warrior. The two were IWGP Tag Team Champions twice.

Their second reign began on January 4, 1994, at Battlefield defeating the Jurassic Powers. Two successful title defenses occurred this reign but it ended at the hands of Hiroshi Hase and Keiji Mutoh. Overall, 559 days as champions with six defenses.

7 Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata -39th Champions: 327 Days

At Jingu Climax on August 28, 1999, Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata won the tag titles from The Mad Dogs. Nakanishi and Nagata had one reign together as IWGP Tag Team Champions and similar to Tanahashi and Nakamura, the lone title reign was a great one.

Four successful defenses occurred in the reign which was ended at Summer Struggle 2000 on July 20 by Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima. Nakanishi and Nagata rank thirteenth all-time for total combined days as champions.

6 Junji Hirata & Shinya Hashimoto -26th Champions: 335 Days

At Best Of The Super Juniors II on July 13, 1995, Junji Hirata and Shinya Hashimoto won the vacant IWGP Tag Team Championship from Scott Norton and Mike Enos. Hirata and Hashimoto made the most of this opportunity as this was their only reign as tag champions together.

They had six defenses but were defeated Kazuo Yamazaki and Takashi Iikuza at Summer Struggle in July 1996. Hirata and Hashimoto ranked twelfth all-time for total combined days as champions.

5 RISE (Giant Bernard & Travis Tomko) -50th Champions: 343 Days

This unique team of former WWE performers Albert/A-Train (Giant Bernard) and Tyson Tomko (Travis Tomko) ranked eleventh all-time for total combined days as champions with just one reign starting March 11, 2007, at the 35th Anniversary Tour-Circuit 2007 New Japan Evolution-New Japan Cup 2007.

The title change came with a win over Wild Child (Manabu Nakanishi and Takao Omori). RISE's lone title reign had five defenses and was ended on February 17, 2008, by The Most Violent Players (Togi Makabe and Toru Yano) at Circuit 2008 NEW JAPAN ISM.

4 Bullet Club (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) -64th Champions: 365 Days

What would soon become The Club in WWE along with AJ Styles went a full year at the top of the tag team chain. Bullet Club members Doc (Luke) Gallows and "Machine Gun" Karl Anderson defeated K.E.S. (Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr.) on January 4, 2014, at Wrestle Kingdom 8 In Tokyo Dome.

This was Gallows and Anderon's first of three reigns as IWGP Tag Team Champions. They had seven defenses overall, six coming in this reign. They lost to Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata at Wrestle Kingdom 9 In Tokyo Dome one year later but sit fifth all-time for total combined days as champions with 601. "NERD!"

3 Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) -40th Champions: 430 Days

The final day of Summer Struggle 2000 on July 20, 2000, featured Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima defeating Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata. This was Tencozy's second of six reigns together where the two had six defenses, eleven overall.

Tenzan and Kojima were defeated by Osamu Nishimura and Tatsumi Fujinami at G1 World 2001 on September 23, 2001. Tenzan and Kojima impressively sit second overall as total combined days as IWGP Tag Team Champions with 929.

2 Cho-Ten (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Masahiro Chono) -43rd Champions: 446 Days

Cho-Ten make a return to the list with their fourth of five title reigns. On March 24, 2002, at Hyper Battle 2002 Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Masahiro Chono defeated Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata for the vacant IWGP Tag Team Championship after one of the prior champions, Keiji Mutoh, left NJPW.

Cho-Ten stepped up this reign by having seven defenses; the team had twelve overall. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yutaka Yoshie ended Cho-Ten's longest reign at Crush on June 13, 2003. Reminder, Cho-Ten sits first all-time for total combined days as champions with 1,010.

1 Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson) -57th Champions: 564 Days

Cho-Ten may be the leaders for total combined days as champions but the crown for longest unique reign goes to Giant Bernard and "Machine Gun" Karl Anderson. The team known as Bad Intentions had only one reign as champions that had ten defenses.

Bad Intentions defeated Seigigun and No Limit on June 19, 2010, at Dominion 6.19. Bad Intentions' near two-year reign was ended by Tencozy at WrestleKingdom VI In Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2012. Bad Intentions ranks sixth all-time for total combined days as IWGP Tag Team Champions.

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