New Japan followed up yesterday’s Tokyo Dome announcements today with the full field announcement for the upcoming World Tag League, the annual year-end Heavyweight tag team tournament. It’s a 2-block round-robin format event with 16 teams entered this year. The top 2 teams in each block will advance to the Semifinals and tiebreaker will be head-to-head result if needed. Here is the full field:
Block A: Yuya Uemura & Yuji Nagata, Aaron Wolf & Boltin Oleg, Yota Tsuji & Jeff Cobb, OSKAR & Yuto Ice, Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson, Callum Newman & Jake Lee, SANADA & Yujiro Takahashi, Lance Archer & Alex Zayne
Block B: YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto, Shota Umino & Satoshi Kojima, Togi Makabe & Toru Yano, Shingo Takagi & Drilla Moloney, HENARE & Great-O-Khan, Ren Narita & Shun Skywalker, Don Fale & Chase Owens, Taichi & TBA
Certainly no lack of interesting teams this year. Block A seems to favor The Grouch & Ice Ice Baby given they come in as the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Yeam Champions but there is definite upset potential. Wolf & Oleg are a very intriguing pair and fan favorites Archer & Zayne are a tough underdog out. Tsuji & Cobb should be contenders along with Oiwa & Jackson. Never know with Newman & Lee while House of Torture and Nagata seem to be there to be the jobbers with no Young Lions entered. Block B (unfortunately) starts and ends with Bishamon who as usual are all-but-Semifinalists already, while HENARE & Khan are the other early favorites. Takagi & Moloney should contend while I’m curious about Narita and Skywalker, in particular the latter in his first big opportunity in New Japan. Makabe & Yano re-form GBH and will probably weasel their way to some wins (Yano will at least). Fale & Owens and Umino & Kojima probably won’t contend. Can’t predict much about Taichi & TBA until we know who the TBA is.
The tournament starts on 11/21 and ends on 12/13. The eventual winners, unless it’s OSKAR/Ice, will get an IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship shot, likely at Tokyo Dome on 1/4. Although if anyone already in a Tokyo Dome match gets the title shot, it may wait until New Year Dash!! the day or so after.