New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) began its annual World Tag League (WTL) tournament on November 16th. This entry looks at the teams who could still win the tournament as the league approaches the trophy ceremony. To correct any past confusion, there isn’t a finals match this year. The team(s) at the top of the block on Sunday will win the 2019 World Tag League.
Defending World Tag Leauge champions Cold Darkness (Evil and Sanada), FinJuice (Juice Robinson and David Finlay), and IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) [G.O.D.] each obtained victory on December 5th and December 6th World Tag League events, making the final day of tag competition on December 8th a highly anticipated affair for NJPW fans.
The Path Of Cold Darkness
On December 5th at the Fukuoka Citizen Gymnasium Evil and Sanada were able to capture a comfortable victory over Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma) and a hard-fought one over TenCozy (Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan) on December 6th at the Grand Messe Kumamoto.
Their only tournament defeat thus far came at the hands of Toru Yano and Colt Cabana. If they can defeat FinJuice on Sunday, they will win their third straight World Tag League tournament outright.
The Path To Tournament Happy Beers For FinJuice
On December 5th, FinJuice was able to defeat Minoru Suzuki and the IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Lance Archer in a match where the Suzuki-Gun tandem dominated the happy-go-lucky team of Juice Robinson and David Finlay. Finlay’s vertical cradle pinfall victory over Archer could result in Finlay receiving his third opportunity at the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship.
Finlay previous lost challenges for the championship to Archer on November 9, 2019, at NJPW Showdown in San Jose. Previously, Finlay challenged Jay White on April 24, 2018, at NJPW Road To Wrestling Dontaku 2018 – Tag 10.
On December 6th, FinJuice were able to win a hard fought match against KENTA and Yujiro Takahashi to keep their tournament hopes, and dreams of ‘happy beers’ alive.
For FinJuice to win World Tag League, they must defeat Cold Darkness, and G.O.D. must lose to Tomohiro Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi on December 8th.
The Best G.O.D Can Delivery
With victories over Double Rampage (Shingo Takagi and Terrible) on December 5th and Yuji Nagata/Manabu Nakanishi on December 6th, G.O.D. kept their World Tag League tournament hopes alive.
However, the best the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions can hope for is a three-way tie at atop of the World Tag League standings. With a loss to Cold Darkness and a victory over FinJuice, the champions need to defeat Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi and hope FinJuice defeats Cold Darkness to force a tie.
Despite their prolific resume G.O.D. has yet to win World Tag League and should be motivated come Sunday. With Ishii suffering from knee pain after Suzuki focused on it, one can expect the tag team champions to be the heavy favorites.
