The Super Junior Tag League is a professional wrestling tag team tournament held by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).
49-792: Established in 2010, but preceded by the G1 Climax Junior Heavyweight Tag League in 2001 (won by El Samurai and Jushin Thunder Liger ), it is the junior heavyweight equivalent of the World Tag League for heavyweight tag teams. From 2010 to 2017, it was named the Super Junior Tag Tournament and followed a single-elimination format, before becoming the Super Junior Tag League in 2018, switching to
98-824: A round-robin format. Since the tournament's inception, there were two years where the tournament did not take place—in 2011 and 2020 (due to major changes to NJPW's schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic ). Super J Tag Tournament was a one-night professional wrestling tournament hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling and took place on May 8. Most of the wrestlers involved were signed to New Japan but did feature wrestlers from other promotions like Mascara Dorada & Valiente from Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre , Kota Ibushi from Dramatic Dream Team , Fujita Hayato and Taro Nohashi from Michinoku Pro Wrestling , and Kushida from Smash . El Samurai and Koji Kanemoto defeated Apollo 55 ( Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi ) to win
147-453: A NJPW contract, having joined the promotion at the start of the month. When his signing was announced on October 3, Omega dismissed the idea of joining Bullet Club, claiming that after six years of living in Japan, he no longer considered himself a gaijin and would therefore not fit in the stable of foreigners. However, now Omega claimed he had lied about loving NJPW and only wanted money and
196-996: A learning excursion to Mexico , and while working for the UWA promotion, adopted a mask and the El Samurai stage name. El Samurai returned to NJPW in March 1992. A month later, he made it to the finals of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, in which he lost to Jushin Thunder Liger . Two months later, he defeated Liger for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship . He would lose the title to Ultimo Dragon in November 1992. During that time, he would constantly team with Takayuki Iizuka and Akira Nogami in multi-man tag team matches, naming themselves
245-555: A rematch on December 7 at Final Battle 2014 , this time contested for the former's ROH World Tag Team Championship. reDRagon went on to win that match as well. On November 10, NJPW announced five more matches for Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome, stemming from Power Struggle. These were Shinsuke Nakamura defending the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Kota Ibushi, Ryusuke Taguchi defending
294-491: A single block, with the team having the most points at the end of the league winning the entire tournament. In case of a tie between two or more top-ranked teams in the block in terms of points, tiebreakers will be held and the winner of the tournament would be decided. Block matches were held from November 21 to December 14, 2022, and the final took place at Sendai Sunplaza Hall in Sendai , Japan . The 2023 Super Jr. Tag League
343-408: A three-way tie at the top of the standings, the final was a three-way tag team match between the qualified teams. The 2019 Super Jr. Tag League is a fifteen-night professional wrestling tournament hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling . It features eight teams in a single block, with the first and second placed teams advancing to a final. Block matches were held from October 16 to November 1, 2019, on
392-416: A tie between two or more top-ranked teams in the block in terms of points, tiebreakers will be held and the winner of the tournament would be decided. Block matches were held from October 24 to November 2, 2024 and the final will take place at the 2024 edition of Power Struggle . El Samurai Osamu Matsuda ( 松田 納 , Matsuda Osamu ) (born April 19, 1966) is a Japanese professional wrestler who
441-456: Is a sixteen-night professional wrestling tournament hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling . It features ten teams in a single block, with the team having the most points at the end of the league winning the entire tournament. In case of a tie between two or more top-ranked teams in the block in terms of points, tiebreakers will be held and the winner of the tournament would be decided. Block matches will be held from October 21 to November 4, 2023, and
490-570: Is best known for his work in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), and is better known by his stage name El Samurai . Osamu Matsuda graduated from high school in 1985, and joined the NJPW Dojo . He debuted on July 24, 1986 in a losing effort against Masaharu Funaki , and spent a few years working at the bottom of the card, wrestling with the likes of Kensuke Sasaki , Kenichi Oya , and Takayuki Iizuka . In March 1991 he went on
539-569: The Bodymaker Colosseum . The event featured eleven matches (including one dark match ), five of which were contested for championships . It was the fourth event under the Power Struggle name. Power Struggle featured eleven professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines . Wrestlers portrayed villains , heroes , or less distinguishable characters in
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#1732793806946588-452: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship . At King of Pro-Wrestling, Taguchi made his first successful title defense against Taichi's Suzuki-gun stablemate El Desperado , despite being attacked before, during and after the match by both Taichi and Taka Michinoku . On October 25, during the first round of the 2014 Super Jr. Tag Tournament, Taguchi, teaming with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) representative Fuego , faced off against
637-423: The "Toukon Trio". In April 1994, El Samurai took part in the 1994 Super J-Cup tournament; he defeated Masayoshi Motegi in the first round, before losing to The Great Sasuke in the quarterfinals. In December 1995, he entered into the second Super J-Cup tournament, but he didn't fare as well as the year before, as he lost to Dos Caras in the first round. In August 1996, he took part in a tournament to determine
686-732: The 2014 G1 Climax, where Shibata was victorious. In storyline the rivalry between the two dated back to a brawl in August 2004. On October 27, NJPW announced two more title matches for Power Struggle. In the first, Chase Owens was set to defend the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship against Jyushin Thunder Liger . Representing the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), Owens made his NJPW debut at King of Pro-Wrestling, successfully defending his title against Bushi . Following
735-568: The American Ring of Honor (ROH) promotion and made their NJPW debut during the previous May's events co-produced by NJPW and ROH in Toronto and New York City . This match was a rematch from August 10, when Time Splitters successfully defended their title against reDRagon in Fish and O'Reilly's Japanese debut. In the second title match, Taichi was set to challenge Ryusuke Taguchi for
784-714: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Kenny Omega, Tomohiro Ishii defending the NEVER Openweight Championship against Togi Makabe, reDRagon defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in a four-way match against Forever Hooligans, Time Splitters and The Young Bucks and Minoru Suzuki and Kazushi Sakuraba facing off in a match, which could only end by knockout, submission or referee stoppage. Following
833-514: The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Taguchi agreed to defend his title against Omega. Next up, Yoshitatsu was defeated by Bullet Club's A.J. Styles in his first NJPW match in seven years, following outside interference from Jeff Jarrett, who had accompanied Styles to the match. After the match, Jarrett hit Yoshitatsu with his signature guitar, leading to Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito and Tomoaki Honma coming out. While Tanahashi and Honma helped Yoshitatsu backstage, Naito confronted Styles. In
882-589: The NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship in early 1997 as one of the eight junior heavyweight titles in his " J-Crown ". The second title match announced would see Tomohiro Ishii defend his NEVER Openweight Championship against Hirooki Goto . The match came as a result of a six-man tag team match on October 25, where Goto pinned Ishii for the win. Despite Goto claiming that he was only interested in Ishii, not his title,
931-456: The Road to Power Struggle tour, and the final was held on November 3, 2019, at Power Struggle . The 2021 Super Jr. Tag League is a five-night professional wrestling tournament hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling . It features six teams in a single block, with the team having most points at the end of the league winning the entire tournament. In case of a tie between two or more top ranked teams in
980-515: The Suzuki-gun team of El Desperado and Taichi. Following outside interference from Michinoku and El Desperado hitting Taguchi with his own title belt, Taichi pinned him to win the match and afterwards demanded himself a shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, which was granted on November 4. Other matches announced included a tag team match continuing the rivalry between Suzuki-gun representatives Minoru Suzuki and Takashi Iizuka and
1029-662: The block in terms of points tiebreakers will be held and the winner of the tournament would be decided. Block matches will be held from 7 August to 9 August and 16 August to 17 August 2021, on the Summer Struggle 2021 tour at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo , Japan . Gedo and Dick Togo forfeited their match against Ryusuke Taguchi and Master Wato due to both having to be quarantined for being in contact with EVIL , who had been in physical contact with Shingo Takagi , who tested positive for COVID. Due to this situation, official word
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#17327938069461078-581: The company after his contract expired, due to him suffering from many injuries that limited his appearances in late 2007 and early 2008. On February 17, El Samurai appeared in All Japan Pro Wrestling, aiding Kaz Hayashi and Shuji Kondo by fending off NOSAWA Rongai and MAZADA. On May 8, 2010, El Samurai returned to New Japan to take part in the tournament contested for the vacant IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. El Samurai and his partner, former rival Koji Kanemoto, advanced to
1127-408: The event would see Shinsuke Nakamura defend his IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Katsuyori Shibata . The match came as a result of King of Pro-Wrestling, where Shibata and Hirooki Goto defeated Nakamura and Yoshi-Hashi in a tag team match, after which Nakamura nominated Shibata as his next challenger. Nakamura and Shibata had previously faced off in a singles match on July 21, during
1176-493: The event, Jyushin Thunder Liger defeated Chase Owens to win the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship, 17 years after he had last held it. In the second title match, Ring of Honor's World Tag Team Champions reDRagon captured the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship from Time Splitters, who failed in their fourth title defense. This marked the third year in a row when the Super Jr. Tag Tournament winner had captured
1225-459: The events of King of Pro-Wrestling and Power Struggle, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yoshitatsu announced they were forming a new tag team named "The World". During his match with A.J. Styles at Power Struggle, Yoshitatsu landed awkwardly on his neck while taking the Styles Clash finishing move. After initially trying to work through the injury, he was pulled out of the 2014 World Tag League and
1274-692: The final took place at the 2023 edition of Power Struggle . The 2024 Super Jr. Tag League is a nine-night professional wrestling tournament hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling . It features twelve teams divided across two blocks – the first time this format has been used since the tournament switched to a round-robin tournament – with the top two teams facing in the finals. Guest wrestlers include Dragon Dia from Dragongate , Ninja Mack from Pro Wrestling Noah , and Captain Suicida from CMLL . The tournament winners advance to an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 19 . In case of
1323-678: The finals of the tournament, where they defeated the team of Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi to win the titles. On July 19, Kanemoto and El Samurai lost the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship to Devitt and Taguchi. No reign prior to December 1997 is officially recognized by WWE . Power Struggle (2014) Power Struggle (2014) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on November 8, 2014, in Osaka , Osaka , at
1372-626: The first J-Crown champion. At the time, El Samurai was the WWF World Light Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Gran Hamada in the first round, before losing to eventual winner The Great Sasuke in the quarterfinals. In 1997, El Samurai adopted a new attire and won the Best of the Super Junior tournament, defeating Koji Kanemoto in the final match, during which his mask was torn completely off his face. The match
1421-577: The first time since adopting the character, going by his real name, Osamu Matsuda, for a match against Osamu Nishimura , but it was for one night only. Up until at the end of January 2005, he was unmasked again in a MUGA -style match against Shinsuke Nakamura . Samurai began to slow down in the mid-late 2000s, however, still managed to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight tag team titles once again, this time with rookie Ryusuke Taguchi . On February 1, 2008, NJPW agreed to let El Samurai leave
1470-422: The fourth title match of the event, Tomohiro Ishii made his first successful defense of the NEVER Openweight Championship against Hirooki Goto. After the match, Togi Makabe, who had accompanied Goto for the match, stepped up as the next challenger for the title. In the semi-main event of the evening, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kota Ibushi defeated Chaos' Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi, when Ibushi pinned Yoshi-Hashi for
1519-475: The main event for January 4, 2015, and the Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome show between IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi and the 2014 G1 Climax winner Kazuchika Okada was made official. At Power Struggle, the two were set to face off in a tag team match, where Tanahashi would team with Kota Ibushi and Okada with his regular tag team partner Yoshi-Hashi . The third match announced for
Super Junior Tag League - Misplaced Pages Continue
1568-494: The match between Ishii and Goto a "match of the year candidate", only criticizing the decision to hold it at Power Struggle instead of the Tokyo Dome, claiming that it "can't be topped" by the teased match between Ishii and Makabe. Regarding the main event, Meltzer wrote that it was "missing something" and that it "[c]ouldn't hold a candle" to their previous G1 Climax match. The day after Power Struggle, Ring of Honor announced that reDRagon and Time Splitters would face each other in
1617-653: The match between the two was made with the championship on the line. Goto had recently entered a storyline, where he started leading a counterattack against the Bullet Club and Chaos stables , with the goal of revitalizing the NJPW Seikigun ("regular army"), which he represented alongside the likes of Shibata and Tanahashi. Prior to Power Struggle, Goto also tried to recruit Togi Makabe as part of his movement, which he dubbed "Revolution". Ishii, Nakamura and Okada, meanwhile, all represent Chaos . The rest of
1666-532: The match, NWA president Bruce Tharpe nominated Liger as Owens' next challenger. The NJPW junior heavyweight veteran viewed this as an opportunity at one final run as a singles champion. As part of the relationship between NJPW and NWA, Liger had challenged Rob Conway for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship on September 29, 2013, at Destruction , but was defeated following a distraction from Tharpe. Liger had previously held
1715-428: The match. The day after Styles' title loss, a match between him and Yoshitatsu was announced for Power Struggle. In pre-Power Struggle interviews, Yoshitatsu was given a new "Bullet Club hunter" character with him claiming that, while working for WWE , he had grown sick of seeing employees wearing Bullet Club shirts and was now looking to eliminate the villainous stable from professional wrestling. Also on October 14,
1764-543: The matches were announced on November 4, following the conclusion of the 2014 Super Jr. Tag Tournament . Four matches at Power Struggle stemmed from the tournament, including two title matches. In the first, the tournament's winning team, reDRagon ( Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly ), were set to challenge Time Splitters ( Alex Shelley and Kushida ) for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship . reDRagon represented
1813-528: The scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. The first matches for the event were revealed on October 14, 2014, the day after King of Pro-Wrestling . At King of Pro-Wrestling, A.J. Styles lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to Hiroshi Tanahashi , after a surprise return from NJPW original Yoshitatsu , who stopped his Bullet Club stablemate Jeff Jarrett from interfering in
1862-402: The semi-final and final on November 6. The debuting Young Bucks won the tournament and on November 9 at Power Struggle , defeated Taichi and Taka Michinoku to also win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship . The 2014 Super Jr. Tag Tournament was a four-night professional wrestling tournament hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling . The preliminary round took place on October 25,
1911-407: The semifinals on November 1 and 2, and the final on November 3. For the third year in a row, the tournament's winning team, reDRagon , went on to also capture the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship at Power Struggle . The 2015 Super Jr. Tag Tournament is a three-night professional wrestling tournament hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling . The preliminary round took place on October 24,
1960-519: The semifinals on November 1, and the final on November 7 at Power Struggle . The 2016 Super Jr. Tag Tournament was a four-night professional wrestling tournament hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling . The preliminary round took place on October 21 and 25, the semifinals on October 30, and the final on November 5 at Power Struggle . The 2017 Super Jr. Tag Tournament was a four-night professional wrestling tournament hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling . The preliminary round took place on October 23 and 29,
2009-452: The semifinals on October 30, and the final on November 5 at Power Struggle . ( Kosei Fujita and Robbie Eagles ) The 2018 Super Jr. Tag League was a thirteen-night professional wrestling tournament hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling . It featured eight teams in a single block. Block matches were held from October 16 to November 1, 2018 with the first and second placed teams advancing to the final, on November 3, at Power Struggle . Due to
Super Junior Tag League - Misplaced Pages Continue
2058-578: The team of Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano and an eight-man tag team match, where Bad Luck Fale , Doc Gallows , Karl Anderson and Yujiro Takahashi of Bullet Club were set to face Captain New Japan , Tetsuya Naito , Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma . Anderson had also announced that Bullet Club would be introducing a new member at Power Struggle. In the second match of the pay-per-view, Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano defeated Suzuki-gun leader Minoru Suzuki and Takashi Iizuka. Sakuraba pinned Suzuki for
2107-462: The title at Power Struggle. Afterwards, reDRagon was challenged by both Forever Hooligans and The Young Bucks . In the next title match, Ryusuke Taguchi made his second successful defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Taichi, despite outside interference from El Desperado and Taka Michinoku. Following the match, Bullet Club entered the arena to reveal their newest member, Kenny Omega . This marked Omega's first appearance under
2156-616: The tournament and become IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions . Super Jr. Tag Tournament 2012 was a two-night professional wrestling tournament hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling . The preliminary round took place on October 21 and the semi-final and final took place on November 2. The tournament utilized wrestlers mostly signed to New Japan but also included Negro Casas from Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre , Taka Michinoku from Kaientai Dojo , and freelancer Brian Kendrick . Time Splitters ( Alex Shelley and Kushida ) defeated Apollo 55 ( Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi ) to win
2205-579: The tournament and become the number one contenders to the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. They challenged the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero) to a title match at Power Struggle on November 11. The 2013 Super Jr. Tag Tournament was a two-night professional wrestling tournament hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling . The preliminary round took take place on October 25 and
2254-458: The win with the Kido Clutch , the finishing maneuver of Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) veteran Osamu Kido . UWF was a promotion that in the 1980s popularized shoot-style wrestling maneuvers in professional wrestling and where Suzuki had worked early in his career. Following the match, an enraged Suzuki challenged Sakuraba to an UWF-style grudge match. In the first title match of
2303-503: The win. Finally, in the main event, Shinsuke Nakamura made his first successful defense of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Katsuyori Shibata. The event concluded with Kota Ibushi entering the ring and performing a German suplex on the much larger Nakamura, before challenging him to a match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter called
2352-645: Was later given five stars by Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer . One month later, he defeated Liger to win the J-Crown , which at that time consisted of seven unified junior heavyweight championships due to Liger losing one of the eight titles (the WAR International Junior Heavyweight Championship ) before the title match with El Samurai. In March 2001, he and Liger won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship . In April 2004 El Samurai unmasked willingly for
2401-410: Was of giving Taguchi and Wato a bye in the tournament, thus only two league matches were held on 16 August 2021. Sho and Yoh broke up following the events of the August 16, 2021 show, causing their match against Gedo and Dick Togo to be ruled a double forfeit. The 2022 Super Jr. Tag League is a sixteen-night professional wrestling tournament hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling . It features ten teams in
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