In a week which has already seen Ring of Honor‘s Briscoe Brothers become the first ROH tag team to hold the titles for over 1,000 days, WWE Superstar Kofi Kingston is just days away from setting his own tag team record in the WWE Universe (barring the New Day losing their titles this Tuesday on Smackdown Live). On Friday night, Kofi Kingston will have held WWE tag team gold for a combined 954 days throughout his career, putting him past Billy Gunn as the most tenured individual tag team champion in WWE history. His current 950 days was achieved through four different tag teams.
KOFI KINGSTON & CM PUNK, 47 days
Kofi Kingston’s first tag team reign was with an unlikely partner in CM Punk. The odd couple pairing teamed up to fight back the reign of Legacy, whose duo of Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. held the WWE World Tag Team titles. They beat Legacy on Monday Night RAW on October 27, 2008, but unfortunately didn’t have much luck with them. Despite holding them for 47 days, they lost them in their first title defense, at a WWE Live Event in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada to John Morrison & The Miz.
AIR BOOM, 146 days
Kofi’s second reign as tag team champion was considerably longer. Tagging with aerialist Evan Bourne (aka IMPACT Wrestling’s Matt Sydal) as Air Boom, the athletic tandem defeated another faction, Nexus, beating David Otunga and Curtis Axel (then Michael McGillicutty) for the titles on RAW August 22, 2011. They held the belts for 146 days, defending against the likes of R-Truth & The Miz, Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger and Epico & Primo, before finally losing them to the Puerto Rican cousins, once again at a WWE Live Event, this time in Oakland, California.
KOFI KINGSTON & R-TRUTH, 139 days
On April 30, 2012, Kingston teamed up with R-Truth to take back the tag titles he’d lost only months before with Air Boom. They defeated Epico & Primo on RAW, and held them for a respectable 139 days, before losing to the dominating tandem of Team Hell No (Daniel Bryan & Kane) at WWE Night of Champions in September.
NEW DAY, 619 days (and counting)
The bulk of Kofi’s tag team reigns comes in the form of his current outfit, The New Day, who have amassed a whopping 618 days (and counting) through five tag team title reigns. It will be through the help of “Pancake Power” that Kofi will pass Billy Gunn’s record as the longest reigning tag team specialist in WWE history.
THE TAG TEAM SPECIALISTS
#1. Billy Gunn, 953 days
“Bad Ass” Billy Gunn held the tag team titles an astounding 953 days during his WWE career, and did it with three teams. With “brother” Bart Gunn in the Smoking Gunns, they held the titles for 331 days over three reigns. During the Attitude Era, alongside “Road Dogg” Jesse James in D-Generation X’s New Age Outlaws, the duo held the belts six times for a combined 505 days. In the early 2000s, he formed another team, Billy & Chuck, with Chuck Palumbo, who won the tag team titles twice, for a total of 117 days.
#2. Kofi Kingston, 950 days+
The man about to take #1…
#3. Mr. Fuji, 932 days
Before he became of the 1980s most popular villain managers who guided such tag teams as Demolition, The Powers of Pain (Barbarian & Warlord) and Yokozuna & Owen Hart to tag team gold, Mr. Fuji was an accomplished wrestler himself. In the WWF in the 1970s and early 1980s, he was primarily a tag team specialist, winning three times with Professor Toru Tanaka in the 1970s (569 days), and twice in the early 1980s with Mr. Saito (363 days).
#4. Ax & Smash, Demolition, 698 days
Speaking of Demolition, Ax and Smash held the WWF World Tag Team titles on three separate occasions, including the historic 478 day reign that stood as a WWE record until New Day beat it last year.
#5. John Morrison, 646 days
Before breaking out as a singles star and a 3x WWE Intercontinental Champion, John Morrison was part of two very successful tag teams. His first introduction to the WWE Universe was in MNM, alongside Joey Mercury and Melina, who won the titles three times for 291 days. Following MNM’s demise, he paired up with The Miz and won two more titles, for a combined 355 days.
#6. Big E, 619 days+
Being beside Kofi Kingston brings good luck to his partners, as Big E‘s 619 days (and counting) as part of the New Day’s domination of the past few years already has him in sixth place of the longest reigning tag team specialists.
#6. Xavier Woods, 619 days+
Just like Big E, Xavier Wood’s tenure in the New Day has given him a big bump on his championship days.
#8. Johnny Valiant, 600 days
“Luscious” Johnny Valiant, another wrestler many remember from his managerial days in the WWF during the 1980s, was another accomplished tag team specialist, preferring to stick with his “family”, first winning the tag team titles with Jimmy Valiant in 1974 for 370 days, then again with Jerry Valiant in 1979 for another 230 days.
#9. Tony Garea, 597 days
A 5x WWE Tag Team Champion, with four different partners, Tony Garea was a longtime employee of the WWE through the 1970s and into the 1980s. His first reign was in 1973 with Haystacks Calhoun for 114, followed later in the year with 175 day reign alongside Dean Ho. In 1978, he won the titles a third time, this time with Larry Zbyszko. In the early 1980s, he teamed with a young Rick Martel, winning the titles twice, for a combined 213 days.
#10. The Usos (Jey & Jimmy Uso), 587 days
The Uso brothers have amassed five WWE Tag Team championship reigns in their WWE careers so far, with a combined total of 587 days. They’re longest reign was actually their first one, at 202 days, but they’ve had impressive runs of 182 days (their last one) and 124 days in 2017.
