The ultimate tournament of Latest Japan Pro Wrestling’s 12 months is the annual World Tag League, where the winners earn themselves a shot on the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships. Day 17 of the 2025 NJPW World Tag League tournament took place on December 14 and after a protracted, hard-fought battle, it was Zack Sabre Jr. and Ryohei Oiwa of TMDK who walked away with the victory over Gabe Kidd and Yota Tsuji within the finals.
With the victory, Sabre Jr. puts himself amongst an esteemed group of NJPW legends as one among the one people to have won all three of NJPW’s heavyweight tournaments. Tetsuya Naito and Hirooki Goto have each won the World Tag League, Latest Japan Cup, and the G1 Climax, while Yuji Nagata and Shinsuke Nakamura each won the Latest Japan Cup and G1 Climax tournaments, but won the World Tag League when it went under its former name of the G1 Tag League. Nevertheless, Sabre Jr. becomes the primary non-Japanese wrestler to realize this feat, adding one other honor to his ever growing list of accomplishments in NJPW.
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WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2025 FINAL (December. 14th, 2025) Backstage comments!
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Often, the winners of the World Tag League would get their shot on the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions on the annual Wrestle Kingdom event on January 4 within the Tokyo Dome, but TMDK have opted to do something just a little bit different heading into 2026. As a substitute of difficult the present champions, The Knock Out Brothers, at Wrestle Kingdom 20, Sabre Jr. announced that himself and Oiwa would take their shot on the champions the night after Wrestle Kingdom 20, with their IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match being set because the important event of the Latest 12 months Dash!!! show on January 5. Sabre Jr. explained that he desired to make history by important eventing the NJPW event in post-Hiroshi Tanahashi landscape as the present NJPW President is ready to have his retirement match at Wrestle Kingdom 20 against Kazuchika Okada.