The Knockout Brothers are no longer champs.
United Empire’s HENARE and Great-O-Khan captured the IWGP Tag Team Championships on Sunday night, ending the more than 250-day run of OSKAR & Yuto-Ice. The physical 21-minute tag contest was part of this weekend’s NJPW Dominion 6.14 card from the Osaka-jo Hall in Osaka, Japan.
HENARE and Great-O-Khan were able to score the pinfall win on Yuto-Ice late in the match after connecting with a double-team Imperial Bomb. OSKAR, who had bailed out Yuto-Ice many times earlier in the match, was unable to do so late in the bout, as a chair shot from Great-O-Khan had him laid out at ringside.
Earlier moments in the match included a hard-hitting closed-fist punch showdown between HENARE and Yuto-Ice, and a near fall after the Knockout Brothers hit The Rumbling.
Great-O-Khan continued to attack the former champs after the bell, wailing away on OSKAR’s back with a series of chair shots.
The result ends a dominant reign for the Knockout Brothers, which started back in September of last year. The duo quickly captured gold after returning from an excursion, dethroning the team of Taichi and Tomohiro Ishii at Destruction in Kobe.
Their reign saw them beat other teams like Zack Sabre Jr. and Ryohei Oiwa, Shota Umino and Yuya Uemura, AEW’s Gates of Agony, and decorated former IWGP tag champs Bishamon.
Sunday’s title change marks the second-ever reign for Great-O-Khan and HENARE. They previously earned the belts back in 2024, putting together a brief 35-day reign which ended due to HENARE suffering an injury.
The tag title match this weekend also had G1 Climax implications. It was announced earlier in the night that the winners of the match would earn spots in this year’s tournament. Great-O-Khan and HENARE are now both confirmed for the tournament. The only path for OSKAR or Yuto-Ice to get into the tour is through upcoming play-in matches.
