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Dominion

Going into Dominion, both the IWGP Tag Team titles and the STRONG Openweight Tag Team titles were under hot contention. Bullet Club and Bishamon would swap the IWGP Tag titles back and forth, while TMDK and Guerillas of Destiny were trading claims on the STRONG Tag titles. These two feuds would collide at Dominion in a massive 4-Way Tornado Elimination Tag Team Match for both sets of tag titles. Yes, once again, the IWGP and STRONG Tag titles would come together.

The match was as hectic as you’d expect, and with both the current champions being eliminated first (Bullet Club being the IWGP Tag champs and GoD being the STRONG Tag champs), the final fall would guarantee a title change for both sets. Between Bishamon and TMDK, the ultimate winners of the match would be TMDK, capturing the STRONG Tag titles for the 2nd time, and the IWGP Tag titles for the first time in their careers.

King of Pro-Wrestling

After Dominion, the tag titles would take a bit of a back seat to the G1 Climax. Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste would spend more time backing up ZSJ in his G1 Climax campaign. Their first defense of the IWGP Tag titles would come 4 months later at King of Pro-Wrestling against the Bullet Club Rogue Army team of Bad Luck Fale & Caveman Ugg, a match set up in their native Australia. TMDK would be successful in their defense, but their next challengers would not take long to appear, as after the match, United Empire’s Great-O-Khan and HENARE came down to challenge TMDK to a match for the IWGP Tag Team titles. 

Power Struggle

This was not the first time that O-Khan & HENARE had challenged for the tag titles. They last challenged for the titles at Dominion in 2023. They were unsuccessful there, but the two have grown significantly since then. United Empire were in a much better place to take the titles from TMDK. The match would take place at Power Struggle, where after much back and forth, United Empire managed to overcome TMDK and capture the IWGP Tag Team titles (HENARE’s first, and O-Khan’s second).

Building to Wrestle Dynasty

Unfortunately, that’s where this story ends. O-Khan & HENARE had an admirable performance in this year’s World Tag League, becoming the first team in the tournament to make 10 points, and were scheduled for a title defense against the Young Bucks at Wrestle Dynasty. However, an errant injury for HENARE forced the team to vacate their titles. The match will be replaced with the Young Bucks taking on O-Khan and a partner of his choosing for the vacant tag titles, so we’ll be seeing a bit of a reset come January.