__NOTOC__ The is a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

round-robin

tag team Tag team wrestling is a type of professional wrestling in which matches are contested between teams of multiple wrestlers. Tag teams may be made up of wrestlers who normally wrestle in singles competition, but more commonly are made of establis ...

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

held by

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Puroresu, Japanese professional-wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, and based in Nakano, Tokyo. It is currently majority owned by card-game company Bushiroad, with TV As ...

as a spin-off of the popular singles tournament, the G1 Climax. It was created in 1991 as the Super Grade Tag League, as a continuation of a regular tag team tournament held since 1980, gaining the name in 1999. In 2012, NJPW's new owners, the

Bushiroad is a Japanese entertainment company, producer of collectible card games and trading cards, and publisher of mobile apps and games, which was founded in 2007 by Takaaki Kidani and is headquartered in Tokyo. Bushiroad created and owns various med ...

company, renamed the tournament to its current form. Since the tournament acquired its current name, the winning team earns the right to challenge for the IWGP Tag Team Championship at the following year's Wrestle Kingdom, assuming the team does not hold the title at the time of their victory. The World Tag League is held under a points system, with 2 points for a win, 1 for a time limit draw, and 0 for a loss, no contest or double decision. The current format, introduced in 2014, is essentially identical to that of the G1 Climax, with the top-scoring team from two blocks of eight advancing to the final. __TOC__

List of winners

1980

The 1980 MSG Tag League featured 9 teams in a single block and was held from November 21 to December 10, 1980.

1981

The 1981 MSG Tag League featured 10 teams in a single block and was held from November 19 to December 10, 1981. Due to a tie for second place, the two second-place teams faced each other in a semifinal to decide the finalists.

1982

The 1982 MSG Tag League featured 8 teams in a single block and was held from November 19 to December 10, 1982. "Young Simpson" may be a mistranslation; no data has been found other than being tag team partner of British wrestler Wayne Bridges.

1983

The 1983 MSG Tag League featured 9 teams in a single block and was held from November 18 to December 8, 1983. † Hanson was injured and could not compete in the final.

1984

The 1984 MSG Tag League featured 7 teams in a single block and was held from November 16 to December 5, 1984.

1985

The 1985 IWGP Tag Title League featured 8 teams in a single block and was held from November 15 to December 12, 1985. †Brody and Snuka no-showed the finals and jumped to

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Puroresu, Japanese professional wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on October 21, 1972, by Giant Baba after he left the Japanese Wrestling Association to create his own promotion. Ma ...

1986

The 1986 Japan Cup Tag League featured 8 teams in a single block and was held from November 14, 1986 to December 11, 1986.

1987

The 1987 Japan Cup Tag League featured 8 teams in a single block and was held from November 9, 1987 to December 7, 1987.

1991

The 1991 Super Grade Tag League featured 7 teams in a single block and was held from October 5 to October 17. Due to a tie for second place, the two second-place teams faced each other in a semifinal to decide the finalists.

1992

The 1992 Super Grade Tag League, featuring 7 teams, was held from October 8 to October 21.

1993

The 1993 Super Grade Tag League, featuring 10 teams, was held from October 8 to November 4.

1994

The 1994 Super Grade Tag League, featuring 10 teams, was held from October 19 to October 30.

1995

The 1995 Super Grade Tag League, featuring 7 teams, was held from October 15 to October 30. Due to a tie for second place, the two second-place teams faced each other in a semifinal to decide the finalists. Masa Saito also replaced

Riki Choshu , better known by his ring name , is a South Korean-Japanese retirement, retired Puroresu, professional wrestler who is best known for his longtime work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) as both a wrestler and a Booker (professional wrestling), bo ...

in his team with

Kensuke Sasaki is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his numerous runs in the top three Japanese wrestling promotions; New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and Pro Wrestling Noah. He was the founder and o ...

after one match.

1996

The 1996 Super Grade Tag League, featuring 8 teams, was held from October 13 to November 1. It altered the traditional points system, rewarding just 1 point for a victory, and 0 for a draw or loss.

1997

The 1997 Super Grade Tag League, featuring 8 teams, was held from November 18 to December 8. It used the same points system as the previous year, awarding 1 point for a win and 0 for a loss or draw. Due to a tie for second place, the two second-place teams faced each other in a semifinal to decide the finalists.

1998

The 1998 Super Grade Tag League, featuring 7 teams, was held from November 16 to December 6. It returned to the traditional points system, awarding 2 points for a victory, 1 for a draw, and 0 for a loss. Due to a four-way tie for first place, the four teams were paired in the semifinals, with the two winners facing off in the final. .

1999

The 1999 G1 Tag League, featuring 9 teams, was held from September 10 to September 23.

2000

The 2000 G1 Tag League, featuring 7 teams, was held from November 17 to November 30. It strayed slightly from the standard formula; as there was a four-way tie for first place, all four teams advanced to a small single-elimination tournament to decide the 2000 G1 Tag champions.

2001

The 2001 G1 Tag League, featuring 8 teams, was held from November 30 to December 11.

2003

The 2003 G1 Tag League, featuring 8 teams, was held from October 15 to October 30. The match between Mike Barton and Jim Steele and

Hiroshi Tanahashi is a Japanese professional wrestler, sports executive and Podcast, podcaster. He is signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he serves as the president and representative director of the promotion, and is also an active wrestler. Widel ...

and Yutaka Yoshie did not have the usual 30-minute time limit as it was also for Tanahashi and Yoshie's IWGP World Tag Team Championship, giving it a 60-minute time limit.

2006

The 2006 G1 Tag League featured two blocks of five and ran from October 15 to November 6.

2007

The 2007 G1 Tag League was held from October 18, 2007 to November 2, 2007 over ten shows, featuring eight teams in one block. Due to a four-way tie for first place, a four-team semifinal was set up, with the matchups being randomly drawn. ¹This was a handicap match, not involving Tomko due to scheduling conflicts.

2008

The 2008 G1 Tag League, featuring 12 teams in two blocks, will be held from October 18 to November 5.

2009

The 2009 G1 Tag League featured two blocks of five and ran from October 17 through November 1.

2010

The 2010 G1 Tag League featured two blocks of six and ran from October 22 through November 7.

2011

The 2011 G1 Tag League featured two blocks of six and ran from October 22 through November 6.

2012

The 2012 edition of the newly rebranded World Tag League took place from November 20 through December 2.

2013

The 2013 edition of the World Tag League took place from November 23 through December 8.

2014

The 2014 edition of the World Tag League took place from November 22 through December 7. Following his team's opening match in the tournament, Yoshitatsu was forced to pull out of the tournament with a neck injury, leading to him and

forfeiting the rest of their matches.

2015

The 2015 edition of the World Tag League took place from November 21 through December 9. A.J. Styles was sidelined with a back injury following November 24, forcing him and

Yujiro Takahashi , is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a member of House of Torture and a former member of Bullet Club. He is one-third of the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions with Ren Narit ...

to forfeit the rest of their matches.

2016

The 2016 edition of the World Tag League took place from November 18 through December 10.

2017

The 2017 edition of the World Tag League took place from November 18 through December 11. The tournament featured the NJPW debuts of Chuckie T., Jeff Cobb and

Sami Callihan Samuel Alton Johnston (born September 1, 1987), better known by the ring name Sami Callihan, is an American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and promoter. He is signed to Major League Wrestling (MLW) and Total Nonstop Action Wrestlin ...

. The tournament featured a format change, where several top wrestlers, namely

, Kazuchika Okada,

Kenny Omega Tyson Smith (born October 16, 1983), better known by the ring name , is a Canadian-born professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is the current AEW International Champion in his first reign. He also works as an ...

and

Tetsuya Naito is a Japanese Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He is best known for his 20-year run in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he served as the leader of the ''Los Ingobernables de Japon'' stable, and was a multi-time world champion. ...

, who already had matches booked for Wrestle Kingdom 12, were left out of the tournament.

2018

The 2018 tournament saw a change to a single block and a decrease in teams. From the previous year's 16, 14 teams were competing in the 2018 league.

2019

In 2019, the World Tag League sees 16 teams competing in a single block, with the first-placed team being declared the winner. The tournament winners advanced to an IWGP Tag Team Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 14.

2020

The 2020 World Tag League took place in tandem with the 2020 Best of the Super Juniors from November 15 to December 11. The World Tag League sees 10 teams competing in a single block, with the top two teams facing in the finals. The tournament winners advanced to an IWGP Tag Team Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 15.

2021

The 2021 World Tag League will take place in tandem with the 2021 Best of the Super Juniors from November 13 to December 15. The World Tag League sees 12 teams competing in a single block, with the top two teams facing in the finals. The tournament winners advance to an IWGP Tag Team Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 16.

2022

The 2022 World Tag League took place in tandem with the 2022 Super Junior Tag League from November 21 to December 14. The World Tag League sees 10 teams competing in a single block, with the top two teams facing in the finals. The tournament winners advance to an IWGP Tag Team Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 17. On December 2, it was announced that Chase Owens would be absent for the remainder of the tournament, following the passing of a family member, leading them to forfeit the remainder of their matches.

2023

The 2023 edition of the World Tag League took place from November 20 to December 10. The tournament returned to block format for the first time since 2017. It featured sixteen competing teams divided across two blocks. The first two placed teams of each block moved to the semifinals and the winners of those matches to the final. The League featured the debut of Mogul Embassy's Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona (collectively known as Gates of Agony), CMLL's Zandokan Jr., Atlantis Jr. and Soberano Jr., Alex Zayne, former Young Lions Yuya Uemura, Yota Tsuji, Ren Narita and Ryohei Oiwa, Guerrillas of Destiny's Hikuleo and El Phantasmo (at the time holders of the

Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship The is a professional wrestling tag team championship owned and promoted by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) Professional wrestling promotion, promotion. The title is exclusively featured on NJPW's NJPW Strong, Strong brand and is usually def ...

Bullet Club , stylized as BULLET CLUB and sometimes shortened to BC, is a professional wrestling Glossary of professional wrestling terms#stable, stable primarily appearing in the Japanese Professional wrestling promotion, promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling ...

's Rogue Army member Jack Bonza and Pro Wrestling Noah's Kaito Kiyomiya. The winning team advanced to an IWGP Tag Team Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 18. Since Bishamon were the reigning champions, as the winners of the Tag League they got the privilege to choose their challengers which they choose runner-ups Guerrillas of Destiny as their opponents with Guerrillas of Destiny's Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship also on the line.

2024

The 2024 edition of the World Tag League took place from November 19 to December 8. It featured sixteen teams divided across two blocks with the first placed teams of each block moving to the final. The league featured the debut of Callum Newman, Hiromu Takahashi, Boltin Oleg, and

Rogue Army members Stevie and Tome Filip (collectively known as The Natural Classics). On December 6, it was announced that Henare suffered an injury on his right knee, forcing him and The Great-O-Khan to forfeit, not only their B Block match against Tetsuya Naito and Hiromu Takahashi, but also their IWGP Tag Team Championships, leaving the January 4 bout and January 5 program with the Young Bucks uncertain. Furthermore, the teams of Toru Yano and Boltin Oleg, and Evil and Ren Narita won their respective matches, resulting that three teams ended up in a 10 points tie. Then an impromptu three-way tag team match to decide the winner of the B Block, that Naito and Takahashi won. The winning team traditionally earns an IWGP Tag Team Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom. However, due to the situation around the IWGP Tag Team Championship, Tetsuya Naito and Hiromu Takahashi won't have a title match, instead they faced each other at Wrestle Kingdom 19. Furthermore, Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi have were added to the IWGP Tag Team Championship match at Wrestle Dynasty, which they lost.

References

External links

World Tag League at NJPW.co.jp

G1 Tag League at NJPW.co.jp
{{New Japan Pro Wrestling events New Japan Pro-Wrestling tournaments Tag team tournaments