IWGP Tag Team title update following HENARE injury

It’s looking like the IWGP Tag Team titles will have to be vacated due to injury.

The current champions are Great-O-Khan & HENARE, but NJPW announced last night that HENARE is out of action due to a knee injury. It forced Great-O-Khan & HENARE to withdraw from World Tag League, where they were leading in the B Block.

O-Khan competed in a non-tournament match on Friday after being removed from Tag League contention. In his post-match comments, he said the IWGP Tag Team titles will likely have to be vacated. That means O-Khan & HENARE are also likely out of their scheduled title defense against The Young Bucks at Wrestle Dynasty on January 5.

“We were the tag champions and were the closest to winning the World Tag League as the sole [B Block] leaders,” O-Khan said. “However, [HENARE] was injured the day before the final match and [we] lost everything. I will probably have to give up the belts. The January 5 Tokyo Dome match will also be a no-go.”

United Empire members HENARE and Callum Newman both missed today’s NJPW show due to knee injuries. A timetable for when they are expected to be back has not been established yet.

The World Tag League finals are taking place this Sunday (December 8) with Gabe Kidd & SANADA facing Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi. The winning team will put themselves in IWGP Tag Team title contention.

NJPW has yet to confirm if the titles are being vacated and has not indicated how new champions would be crowned if they are.