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Friday, September 10, 2021

16 Years to Go Before the Answer Is R-K-Bro: The Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Championship

 *This blog post was started on September 8, 2021.

A part of me thinks I should take out the pink and black plaid themed memo book to just place another review from 2010 on this blog, but after Summer Slam and All Out, I am essentially three blogs behind when it comes to finding our current OCHO, Real World Tag Team, and Men's Doubles World champions. It seems best to catch up on them despite the lack of a personal blog (You can get that here.) and that I do not see any titles changing hands until WWE's October pay-per-view at the earliest. Stating that, I maybe too far behind on New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

Is that $9.38 a month worth it? The reason for keeping it beyond Wrestle Kingdom was to divert funds away from WWE, but I am with Comcast, so I get the Network included now. I always promised myself to follow the G1 and with the success of NinetyForChill: The Podcast, following through on promises is something I have been further establishing. This trend must continue.

16 Years to Go Before the Answer Is R-K-Bro: The Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Championship

The lineage of my first  (The Hella Good Men's Doubles World Championship) attempt at a comprehensive title history of tag teams who were just comprised of two guy instead of presenting a team aesthetic came to a halt when all the domestic titles (WWE, World, ROH, and NWA) ended up on true blue teams with the advent of The Spirit Squad. I cannot let a bunch of male cheerleaders destroy my efforts, so I went all the way back to the Gnarly Men's Doubles World Championship and tried to fix previous gaps upon discovering that the Japanese tag team scene was pretty gaijin heavy. Here is to hoping that is the case 15 years later.

The 75th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
World Tag Team Champions
Kane (5) and The Big Show (Paul Wight) (12/27/05 to 4/3/06)
 
The 76th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
Global Honored Crown (Pro-Wrestling Noah) Tag Team Champions
Takeshi Morishima and Muhammad Yone (4/3/06 to 6/4/06)
 
So thank the gods for the AJPW break up in 2000. Morishima would end up winning this title with three different partners, so that is how I am establishing this pair as doubles instead of a tag team. Meanwhile, the IWGP Tag Team Champions were Cho-Ten and AJPW had a 14 month vacancy.
 
The 77th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
Global Honored Crown (Pro-Wrestling Noah) Tag Team Champions
Tamon Honda and Kenta Kobashi (6/4/06 to 9/25/06)

The 78th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
NWA World Tag Team Champions
Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles (9/25/06 to 10/22/06)

The GHC Championship was vacated due to Kobashi's diagnosis of kidney cancer.

The 79th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
IWGP Tag Team Champions
Manabu Nakanishi and Takao Omori (10/22/06 to 3/11/07)
 
The 80th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
ROH World Tag Team Champions
Shingo Takagi and Naruki Doi (3/11/07 to 3/30/07)

The perfect bridge between Japanese and American promotions.

The 81st Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
World Tag Team Champions
John Cena and Shawn Michaels (3/30/07 to 4/2/07)

Is there a greater example of two guys who were not a team?

The 82nd Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
Global Honored Crown (Pro-Wrestling Noah) Tag Team Champions
Jun Akiyama and Takeshi Rikio (4/2/07 to 9/13/07)
 
The 83rd Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
WWE Tag Team Champions
Matt Hardy and MVP: Montel Vontavious Porter (9/13/07 to 11/13/07)
 
The 84th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
TNA World Tag Team Champions
AJ Styles (2) and Tomko (11/13/07 to 4/15/08)
 
The 85th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
TNA World Tag Team Champions
 
The 86th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
AJPW World Tag Team Champions
Joe Doring and Keiji Mutoh (Great Muta) (3) (4/17/08 to 6/28/08)
 
The 87th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
World Tag Team Champions
Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly (6/28/08 to 6/29/08)
 
The 88th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
Open the Twin Gate (Dragon Gate) Champions
Ryo Saito and Susumu Yokosuka (6/29/08 to 10/5/08)
 
I thought adding this championship would be acceptable due to the DGUSA top prize being part of the Poser World Championship.

The AJPW championship would be held by Minoru Suzuki and Taiyo Kea for 554 days, so I do not want to call that chemistry a mere pairing instead of a tag team. ROH was in the midst of a tag team renascence. Beer Money would soon be dominating TNA. Cody Rhodes would be teaming with Ted DiBiase Jr. as Legacy. Smackdown also had a solid line up of teams and the Great Heel Bash was just starting up in New Japan.

The 89th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
Open the Twin Gate (Dragon Gate) Champions
Cyber Kong and Yamato (10/5/08 to 3/1/09)
 
The 90th Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
Open the Twin Gate (Dragon Gate) Champions
Gamma and Susumu Yokosuka (2) (3/1/09 to 5/5/09)
 
The 91st Unified Gnarly Men's Doubles World Champions:
Open the Twin Gate (Dragon Gate) Champions
Ryo Saito (2) and Genki Horiguchi (5/5/09 to 9/17/09)
 
The 92nd Unified Gnarly Men's Double World Champions:
WWE Unified World Tag Team Champions
Chris Jericho (2) and The Big Show (2) (9/17/09 to 12/13/09)


I wonder how optimistic I can be when it comes to domestic championships for the next 12 years. This research is taking up way too many tabs on my Internet browser. At least there will be a stretch of only one WWE title. And this is when I recall that the second half of this list did not consider the Pro-Wrestling Noah. Thankfully, Akitoshi Saito and Bison Smith's 486-day reign makes them a tag team instead of a duo.
 
Did I forget the NWA all together? No. The Skullkrushers' 777-day reign makes them a tag team to me.

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