NJPW News: 2017 World Tag League official line-ups revealed

What’s the story?

After the conclusion of an amazing Power Struggle event earlier this week, NJPW have revealed the names of all 16 teams that will take part in the 2017 World Tag League.

At this year’s World Tag League, NJPW fans will also witness the debut of three new Superstars in the form of Jeff Cobb, Chuck Taylor, and Sami Callihan, as all three of them are set to take part in the tournament.

In case you didn’t know…

The World Tag League is a round-robin tag team tournament that is held by NJPW every year, it is also considered as a spinoff for the G1 Climax—which is a singles tournament.

The World Tag League was first inaugurated in 1991 and was known as the Super Grade Tag League. However, in 2012, the tournament’s name was changed to the World Tag League by NJPW’s newest owners Bushiroad.

The tournament is contested between 16 teams, across two blocks (8 in each block) and the winners of the tournament get a shot at the IWGP Tag Team Championship at NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom event.

The heart of the matter

New Japan Pro Wrestling revealed the official 16 teams for the upcoming World Tag League. As usual, this year’s tournament will feature teams representing the Bullet Club, Suzuki Gun, Los Ingobernables de Japon, and CHAOS.

2017 World Tag League official line-up

Block A:

Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens (Bullet Club)

Evil & Sanada (Los Ingobernables de Japon)

Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi (Bullet Club)

Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi (CHAOS)

Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka

Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima (Tencozy)

Juice Robinson & Sami Callihan

Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata

Block B:

Trent Beretta & Chuck Taylor (Best Friends/CHAOS)

Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Hoyt (Killer Elite Squad/Suzuki Gun)

Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa (Guerillas of Destiny/Bullet Club)

Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano (CHAOS)

Hanson & Raymond Roye (War Machine)

Jeff Cobb & Michael Elgin

David Finlay & Katsuya Kitamura

Henare & Togi Makabe

What’s next?

The World Tag League will begin from November 18th, 2017 and will conclude on 11th December and at the end of which one winner will be crowned. The winner will face off against the IWGP Tag Team Champions—unless the current champions (Killer Elite Squad) themselves win the entire tournament.

Author’s Take

Personally, I am really excited for this year’s World Tag League and in my opinion, it is one of the best looking line-ups in the tournament’s history.

The debuts of Sami Callihan, Jeff Cobb, and Chuck Taylor will make the tournament much more interesting.