History was made on March 6 at the Michinoku Pro event in Tokushima City, when new Tohoku Tag Team Champions were crowned. In the final match of the event, GAINA & Taro Nohashi defeated The Great Sasuke & Jinsei Shinzaki to win the championship. This is their third reign. Other great teams that are a part of the lineage of the Tohoku Tag Team Championship include Yapper Man 1 & Yapper Man 2, and Dick Togo & Sasuke.
Having had defeated The Great Sasuke & Jinsei Shinzaki last year for the UWA World Tag Team Championship, this title victory unifies both tag team championships. The Tohoku Tag Team Championship and UWA World Tag Team Championship had previously been unified by Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Fujita in June 2016.
GAINA & Taro Nohashi also hold the Kyushu Pro Tag Team Championship, making them the Tohoku, UWA World, Kyushu Pro Wrestling Triple Crown Tag Champions, the first in pro-wrestling history.
Before this Tohoku Tag Team Championship victory, GAINA & Tora Nohashi were already scheduled to defend the UWA World Tag Team Championship at the next Michinoku Pro event, which will take place on March 19. This alone is a valuable prize, with a history that dates back to 1982 in Mexico’s Universal Wrestling Association.
However, as a result of GAINA & Tora Nohashi’s historical achievement, all three tag team championships will now be on the line. And while on the surface this may only appear to be a match where the most legitimate tag team championship in pro-wrestling is at stake, there is even more to it than that.
There is a power struggle currently taking place in Michinoku Pro Wrestling, involving the established members of the Michinoku Pro roster, and members of a group of young wrestlers collectively considering themselves to be the new generation of the company. One of the members of that group is MUSASHI, the Tohoku Junior Heavyweight Champion. Not only does he defend the Championship in Michinoku Pro, but he has defended it outside of the promotion as well.
Two fellow members of the generation, Koji Kawamura & Yasutaka Oosera, are in line for the shot at the Triple Crown Tag Championship on March 19. A championship victory by Kawamura and Oosera would put all of Michinoku Pro’s championships in the possession of the new generation, making them a faction that not only Michinoku Pro Wrestling, but the pro-wrestling industry as a whole will be forced to take notice of.
However, GAINA & Taro Nohashi are on a roll as of late, capturing their three tag team championships in the span of only five months. It’s a safe bet that the new Triple Crown Tag Champions plan on that momentum carrying over into a successful title defense on March 19.
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