__NOTOC__ The , more commonly known in the West as the Real World Tag League, is an annual

professional wrestling Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

tournament held by

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established on October 21, 1972 when Giant Baba split away from the Japanese Wrestling Association and created his own promotion. Many wrestlers had left with Baba ...

since 1977, usually, run on the first weeks of December. The first tournament was actually called the Open Tag League, but it was renamed to its present name the following year. The tournament is held under round-robin rules, with 2 points for a win, 1 for a draw, and 0 for a loss; in earlier tournaments, only a time limit draw would provide the one point, with other methods (such as a Double Disqualification and Double Countouts) providing nothing for either team. The name "Real World Tag League" was a mistranslation by AJPW promoter

Giant Baba , best known by his ring name , was a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter, and professional baseball player. He is best known as a co-founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), a promotion he founded in 1972 along with Mitsuo Momota ...

; "saikyō" in Japanese means "strongest," not "real", but Baba used Engrish for promotional material. Between 1988 and 1994, the

World Tag Team Championship The world tag team championship is the name usually given to the primary tag team championship (professional wrestling), championships in professional wrestling Professional wrestling promotions, promotions. Nomenclature The name of the promo ...

was annually vacated in time for the tournament, which would be used to determine the new champions. The rule was reinstated for the 2012 tournament, but was again ignored the following year, but was reinstated in 2014. In 2000 and 2015 the vacancy was determined by separate post-tournament playoffs between the 2nd and 3rd places. Ten-Koji ( Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) are the only team to win both the World's Strongest Tag Determination League and its counterpart in

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Nakano, Tokyo. Founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, the promotion was sold to Yuke's, who later sold it to Bushiroad in 2012. TV Asahi and Amuse, Inc. own minority sha ...

, the

World Tag League The World Tag League may refer to any of the following professional wrestling tournaments held in Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Oc ...

, as well as the only team to win both tournaments in the same year (2008).

Results

List of winners

1977

The 1977 Tag League, featuring 9 teams, was held from December 2 to December 15.

1978

The 1978 Tag League, featuring 6 teams, was held from December 1 to December 15.

Abdullah the Butcher Lawrence Robert Shreve (born January 11, 1941), better known by the ring name Abdullah the Butcher, is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. He has a reputation for being involved in some of the most violent and bloody hardcore wrestling m ...

used both The Sheik and

Tor Kamata McRonald Kamaka (March 9, 1937 – July 23, 2007) was an American-Canadian professional wrestler known by the ring name Tor Kamata. He won several heavyweight and tag team championships, most notably the PWF World Heavyweight Championship in A ...

as partners.

1979

The 1979 Tag League, featuring 7 teams, was held from November 30 to December 13.

1980

The 1980 Tag League, featuring 7 teams, was held from November 28 to December 11.

1981

The 1981 Tag League, featuring 9 teams, was held from November 27 to December 13. Winners Bruiser Brody and Jimmy Snuka were the first winners to never win the World Tag Team Championship or its predecessors the International or PWF titles, as Stan Hansen, who had recently jumped from

and helped Brody and Snuka win the final, became Brody's new regular tag team partner beginning the following year.

1982

The 1982 Tag League, featuring 7 teams, was held from November 26 to December 13.

1983

The 1983 Tag League, featuring 8 teams, was held from November 25 to December 12.

1984

The 1984 Tag League, featuring 8 teams, was held from November 22 to December 12.

1985

The 1985 Tag League, featuring 8 teams, was held from November 23 to December 12.

1986

The 1986 Tag League, featuring 9 teams, was held from November 22 to December 12.

1987

The 1987 Tag League, featuring 12 teams, was held from November 21 to December 11.

1988

The 1988 Tag League, featuring 11 teams, was held from November 19 to December 16. It was also to decide the vacant

1989

The 1989 Tag League, featuring 10 teams, was held from November 17 to December 6. It was also to decide the vacant

1990

The 1990 Tag League, featuring 12 teams, was held from November 15 to December 7. It was also to decide the vacant

1991

The 1991 Tag League, featuring 13 teams, was held from November 16 to December 6. It was also to decide the vacant

1992

The 1992 Tag League, featuring 11 teams, was held from November 14 to December 4. It was also to decide the vacant

1993

The 1993 Tag League, featuring 8 teams, was held from November 13 to December 2. It was also to decide the vacant

replaced Ted DiBiase as Stan Hansen's partner after one match due to injury. ¹Hansen and Ted DiBiase originally defeated Slinger & Smothers in 7:11; however, when Baba replaced DiBiase, the teams wrestled a rematch.

1994

The 1994 Tag League, featuring 10 teams, was held from November 19 to December 10. It was also to decide the vacant

1995

The 1995 Tag League, featuring 10 teams, was held from November 18 to December 9.

1996

The 1996 Tag League, featuring 7 teams, was held from November 16 to December 6. In an alteration of previous years, each team faced each other twice during the group stage.

1997

The 1997 Tag League, featuring 10 teams, was held from November 15 to December 5.

1998

The 1998 Tag League, featuring 8 teams, was held from November 14 to December 5.

1999

The 1999 Tag League, featuring 8 teams, was held from November 13 to December 3.

2000

The 2000 Tag League, featuring 8 teams, was held from November 19 to December 9. Due to a four-way tie for first place, the four teams were placed into a semifinals instead of the traditional one-match final.

2001

The 2001 Tag League, featuring 8 teams, was held from November 24 to December 7. As with the previous year, the top four teams faced off in the semifinals as a result of a four-way tie.

2002

The 2002 Tag League, featuring 8 teams, was held from November 23 to December 6.

2003

The 2003 Tag League, featuring 7 teams, was held from November 22 to December 2.

2004

The 2004 Tag League was held from November 21 to December 1. It was the first to utilize a multi-block system, featuring 10 teams in two blocks, with the winners of each block facing each other in the final.

2005

The 2005 Tag League, featuring 10 teams in two blocks, was held from November 20 to December 5.

2006

The 2006 Tag League, featuring 7 teams, was held from November 19 to December 2.

2007

The 2007 Tag League featured 8 teams and was held from November 23 to December 9.

2008

The 2008 league was held from November 22 to December 8 and featured 8 teams.

2009

The 2009 Tag League, featuring 9 teams, was held from November 23 to December 6.

2010

The 2010 Tag League, featuring 9 teams, was held from November 20 to December 7.

2011

The 2011 Tag League, featuring 9 teams, was held from November 19 to December 4.

2012

The 2012 Tag League was held from November 17 to November 30. It was only the second to utilize a multi-block system, featuring 10 teams in two blocks, with the winners of each block facing each other in the final, contested for the vacant

. Kenso and

Great Sasuke , born July 18, 1969), is a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter and politician, currently wrestling for Michinoku Pro Wrestling (MPW) under the ring name . Aside from professional wrestling, he is also a former Iwate Prefectural Assembly ...

were forced to pull out of the tournament and forfeit all of their matches after Sasuke suffered a shoulder injury.

2013

The 2013 Tag League, featuring 8 teams, will be held from November 30 to December 8. Bambi Killer was originally scheduled to take part in the tournament, but was forced to pull out due to a neck injury and was replaced by Kenso.

2014

The 2014 Tag League, featuring 8 teams, took place from November 16 to December 6. Atsushi Aoki and Hikaru Sato earned a spot in the tournament by winning the 2014 Jr. Tag Battle of Glory in October. The tournament was contested for the

, which

Jun Akiyama is a Japanese professional wrestler signed to DDT Pro-Wrestling, where he is a former KO-D Openweight Champion. He is best known for his time working for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he was the president, representative director, c ...

and

Takao Omori is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is a one-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion and seven-time World Tag Team Champion. He is also part of the All Japan Board of Directors. He ...

vacated on October 23 in time for the tournament.

2015

The 2015 World's Strongest Tag Determination League took place from November 23 to December 6. After their win, Suwama and Miyahara turned on each other.

2016

The 2016 edition of the World Strongest Tag Determination League took place from December 3 through December 18.

2017

The 2017 edition of the World Strongest Tag Determination League took place from November 19 through December 12.

2018

The 2018 edition of the World Strongest Tag Determination League took place from November 13 through December 11.

2019

The 2019 edition of the World Strongest Tag Determination League took place from November 11 through December 9.

2020

The 2020 edition of the World Strongest Tag Determination League, featured 8 teams in a single block, taking place from November 18 to December 7. The tournament featured outside participation from Big Japan Pro Wrestling's Daisuke Sekimoto &

Abdullah Kobayashi , is a Japanese professional wrestler best known by his ring name after Abdullah the Butcher, who was one of his trainers. Professional wrestling career He began his career in 1995 as one of the main wrestlers in Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) in ...

and from Pro Wrestling Zero1's

Masato Tanaka is a Japanese professional wrestler, best known for his appearances with Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling (FMW) in Japan where he was a one-time FMW Brass Knuckles Heavyweight Champion and a one-time WEW World Heavyweight Champion and in Ex ...

. On November 17, it was announced that

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek relig ...

had tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19), leading him to pull out of the tournament and be replaced by his Purple Haze stablemate

Izanagi Izanagi (イザナギ/伊邪那岐/伊弉諾) or Izanaki (イザナキ), formally known as , is the creator deity (''kami'') of both creation and life in Japanese mythology. He and his sister-wife Izanami are the last of the seven generations ...

2021

The 2021 edition of the World Strongest Tag Determination League, featured 16 teams in 4 blocks, taking place from November 13 to December 5.

2022

The 2022 edition of the World's Strongest Tag Determination League reverts back to the single-block format featuring 8 teams. The tournament takes place from November 13 to December 7. The tournament features outside participants from

Yuji Nagata is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). A two-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, World Heavyweight Champion and a GHC Heavyweight Champion, making him a four-time world champion in major professio ...

and Big Japan Pro Wrestling's

Takuya Nomura is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently working as a freelancer and is best known for his tenure with the professional wrestling promotions Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) and Pro Wrestling Zero1 (Zero1). Professional wrestling career Indep ...

. On November 25, it was announced that

Shotaro Ashino is a Japanese professional wrestler who is currently signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling. He was trained by and best known for his time in Wrestle-1, where he was a former two time Wrestle-1 Champion. Early life Ashino was an amateur wrestler th ...

would be absent for the remainder of the tournament, due to injury, leading them to forfeit the remainder of their matches.

References

External links

Tournament history at All-Japan.co.jp
{{World's Strongest Tag Determination League All Japan Pro Wrestling tournaments Tag team tournaments