Five World Tag League Matches to Look Forward to

Written by Alex Marco (@generalreaction)

World Tag League 2018 begins on Saturday, November 17th

New Japan Pro Wrestling’s World Tag League is just around the corner and the 2018 installment of the tournament is shaping up to be full of heart-pounding excitement, as well as dream tag team match ups. While the field of teams has been reduced from 16 to 14 for the 2018 edition of World Tag League, some of the best heavyweight tag teams in the world will be vying for the prize that awaits the winners of World Tag League: the right to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships at Wrestle Kingdom (the titles are currently held by the Guerillas of Destiny). One of the most intriguing aspects of World Tag League is the matches that will pit members of the same faction against one another. With factions such as Suzuki-Gun and Chaos fielding multiple teams in this year’s tournament fans will be treated to match ups that they normally wouldn’t get a chance to see otherwise. Another facet of the tournament that both fans and journalists alike will be keeping an eye on is how well the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, the Guerillas of Destiny, fair as they get set to compete in the tournament as well. Should the champs find themselves the winners of World Tag League they will have the right to choose their challengers for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 13. But now that we’ve gotten the formalities out of the way, it’s time to get to my picks for the five World Tag League matches that I am most looking forward to watching.

#5. Shota Umino and Ayato Yoshida vs. Minoru Suzuki and Takashi Iizuka

This match makes my list for the simple fact that it will feature a team consisting of two potential top stars of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s future against a team consisting of two iconic stars from the past. Before I go on I should make very clear that Minoru Suzuki is showing no signs of slowing down despite celebrating the 30th anniversary of the start of his pro wrestling career earlier this year. Suzuki, at the age of 50, will be flanked by long-time ally and fellow Suzuki-Gun member Takashi Iizuka. Together they will form what is likely the oldest tag team combination to have ever competed in a World Tag League tournament (with a combined age of 102 years old). On the other side of this pending tag team encounter will be “Team Young Lion”, the pairing of Shota Umino and Ayato Yoshida. At just over 21 years of age, Shota Umino will become one of the youngest athletes ever to compete in a World Tag League tournament. As a matter of fact “Team Young Lion” has a combined age of only 47 years old, meaning that combined both this team is younger than a single member of the Suzuki-Gun team. It will be a sight to behold as these two promising young stars square off against two of the most dangerous veterans to have ever set foot in a New Japan ring.

#4. Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano vs. Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan

Let’s take a moment to wind the clocks back over a year and a half to March 6th, 2017. These two teams clashed in a match for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles which, at the time, were held by the team of Yano and Ishii. On that night Kojima and Tenzan (often referred to as “Tencozy” when they compete as a team) captured the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships for a sixth time as team by defeating Chaos’ “odd couple” tandem of Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano. Because these two teams were placed in different blocks during World Tag League 2017, fans have not yet been treated to a return encounter. That will all change with this year’s World Tag League as, due to a change in the tournament’s format, all 14 teams will be competing in a single round-robin block with the top two teams advancing to the tournament finals. I will wage that Yano and Ishii have not forgotten the loss they suffered at the hands of Kojima and Tenzan back in 2017, and the Chaos team will look to gain a measure of revenge in this year’s World Tag League tournament.

#3. Michael Elgin and Jeff Cobb vs. Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr. (KES)

The physically imposing team of Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr., perhaps better known to fans as the Killer Elite Squad, entered the 2017 World Tag League tournament as the near-unbeatable reigning IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions but didn’t have the tournament run they had likely hoped for. The two men finished with 10 points in the B Block, tied for first with War Machine and the Guerillas of Destiny, but due to tiebreakers they found themselves left out of the tournament finals. After losing the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles at Wrestle Kingdom 12 to EVIL and Sanada (the defending World Tag League champions), Archer and Smith seemed to vanish from the tag team title picture in New Japan for the better part of the year. But now the Killer Elite Squad is prepared to make their return to the New Japan ring in the 2018 World Tag League Tournament. Joining them will be the colossal pairing of “Unbreakable” Michael Elgin and the reigning Ring of Honor World Television Champion Jeff Cobb, who are making their second straight tournament appearance in World Tag League. Last year the duo of Cobb and Elgin left audiences in awe as they employed a diverse array of power moves on their way to an 8 point finish in the 2017 tournament. This year Cobb and Elgin will look to improve on their performance in the 2017 World Tag League while also trying to avenge a tournament loss they suffered at the hands of the Killer Elite Squad. Expect an all-out brawl when these two teams of powerhouses step into the ring against each other again in this year’s tournament.

#2. EVIL and Sanada vs. Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa (Guerillas of Destiny)

In what will be a rematch of the finals of the 2017 World Tag League the defending tournament champions EVIL and Sanada will clash against the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa (who are currently enjoying their 4th reign as heavyweight tag team champions; the most ever by any Bullet Club tandem). The King of Darkness and the Cold Skull surprised fans and critics alike last year by defeating the Guerillas of Destiny in the tournament finals to secure their shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles at Wrestle Kingdom 12 (a match that EVIL and Sanada would win). The Los Ingobernables de Japon stablemates spent the early portion of the year as IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions before losing the titles to The Young Bucks at Dominion in Osaka back in June. The heavyweight tag team titles have since then ended up once more in the clutches of Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa as they enter World Tag League as the reigning tag team champions for the second time in three years. The representatives of the BC OGs will look to reach the finals of World Tag League for the third year in a row; and, it should be noted that this is also their third straight appearance in the tournament overall. If the rematch between these two teams is anywhere close to as good as the match they had against each other in last year’s tournament finals, then the fans (myself included) are in for a treat.

#1. Zack Sabre Jr. and Taichi vs. Minoru Suzuki and Takashi Iizuka

This is the match in this year’s World Tag League tournament that I am most anxious to see: the Master vs. the Apprentice; Suzuki vs. Sabre Jr. As I mentioned earlier, it is not uncommon for two teams from the same faction or group to clash in the World Tag League tournament. But ever since the field of 14 teams was announced, this was the first match that I made sure to circle on my calendar. The reigning British Heavyweight Tag Team Champions (and Suzuki-Gun stablemates) will find themselves on opposite sides when these two teams clash in World Tag League 2018. Zack Sabre Jr. joined the New Japan roster as a full-time member after aligning himself with the Suzuki-Gun faction in the summer of 2017. Since then the Vegan Hydra aka the Submission Swiss Army Knife has been under the sadistic tutelage of Minoru Suzuki (who I often refer to as the Elder Statesman of Sadism) and has learned an entire array of twisted ways to torture his opponents. This will mark the first time that Suzuki and Sabre Jr. have ever competed against one another in a match, and it will be interesting to see if the student ZSJ has learned every trick that the master Suzuki has to offer. Or will the ever-dangerous old veteran have some new tricks up his sinister sleeve for the 2018 New Japan Cup winner? Throw in the insane and unpredictable Iizuka as Suzuki’s teammate along with the devious, calculating Taichi as Zack’s teammate and this match will likely be one of the potential show-stealers of World Tag League 2018.

Be sure to follow Turn Tweener Wrestling on Facebook and Instagram, as well as on our website https://turntweener.wixsite.com/ for all the latest news and up-to-date standing for World Tag League 2018. Until next time friends!