NJPW Announces Dates For World Tag League
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) will finish the calendar year with its premier tag team tournament.
According to the Wrestling Observer, the World Tag League Tournament will begin this year on November 20th and will conclude on December 10th.
So far no wrestlers have been selected for the tournament and the only location confirmed so far is the final, which will be held in Kumamoto.
Like most Japanese round-robin tournament, the World Tag League follows a point system, with a win being worth two points, a draw being worth one, and a loss being worth zero.
The World Tag League is one of NJPW’s oldest contionuous traditions, having been first established in 1980s and having run every year with the exception of a short window between 1988 and 1990 and intermittent pauses throughout the 2000s.
Many top wrestlers active today took part in NJPW’s World Tag League at one point or another
NJPW’s regular wrestling schedule has most if not all of its roster deadlocked in a never-ending stalemate between warring factions. For most of the year these factions face off in six-, eight- and ten-man tag team matches, with the odd two-on-two tag team match thrown in here and there as well.
This end-of-the-year tournament gives NJPW the chance to test new two-man teams to see if they have chemistry together.
Some of the teams to go through the tournament over the decades include:
- Stan Hansen & Hulk Hogan
- Pat Patterson & Bad News Allen/Brown
- Jushin Liger & Chris “Wild Pegasus” Benoit
- Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson
- MVP & Shelton Benjamin
- Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer
- Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian
- Kenny Omega & Chase Owens
- War Machine/The Viking Raiders