El Phantasmo And Hikuleo Capture NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Titles At NJPW Destruction
El Phantasmo and Hikuleo are the new NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions.
El Phantasmo and Hikuleo had a triumphant outing at NJPW Destruction in Ryogoku. They managed to secure the NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Titles after emerging victorious over Bullet Club War Dogs (Alex Coughlin & Gabe Kidd).
This marks their first title win of NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team titles. Coughlin & Kidd had been the champs for 97 days. They had won the titles from Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) at NJPW Strong Independence Day. They didn't make any successful title defenses.
The War Dogs kicked off the bout with a sneak attack on their opponents. They targeted Hikuleo right from the onset and the eventual hot tag to El Phantasmo was short-lived. The War Dogs took charge and isolated him. The match saw some stunning moves as it was El Phantasmo and Hikuleo who had the last laugh following the back-and-forth contest.
The final moments of the match saw Hikuleo and El Phantasmo hit a tandem offense of superkick and a chokeslam. It was followed by an assisted Thunderkiss '86 that helped El Phantasmo get the pin on Coughlin to win the tag team titles.
