The Guerrillas of Destiny, sometimes shortened to G.O.D., is a professional wrestlingstable which consists of Tanga Loa, and Hikuleo, alongside El Phantasmo and their manager Jado. The stable originally featured Loa's Tongan-American brother Tama Tonga. Tonga and Loa originally began wrestling together in 2008 under the team name Sons of Tonga, a reference to their father, professional wrestler Tonga Fifita. After a seven-year break, the team reunited in March 2016, when Loa joined Tonga in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where they are a record seven-time IWGP Tag Team Champions. Tonga then left NJPW, leaving Loa as the sole founding member.
From 2016 to 2022, they were members of the Bullet Clubstable, they are the former three-timeNEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions with various Bullet Club teammates. In March 2022, during the New Japan Cup; Tonga, Loa, and Jado were removed from Bullet Club and the Guerrillas of Destiny became a stable in NJPW with Jado joining the group. They also appear in the U.S. based promotion Ring of Honor (ROH) and Impact Wrestling, where they are former ROH World Tag Team Champions, making them overall eight-time World Tag Team Champions between NJPW and ROH.
In 2008, Alipate and Tevita began wrestling under the names Kava and Nuku, respectively, and the team name "Sons of Tonga".[1][6] In 2009, the brothers took part in a WWE tryout camp, which resulted in Tevita being signed to a contract.[1][4] Tevita eventually made it to WWE television under the ring name "Camacho", while Alipate traveled first to Puerto Rico and then to Japan, joining New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in May 2010, where he became a founding member of the Bullet Clubstable in 2013 as "Tama Tonga".[2][4]
On February 14, 2016, at NJPW's The New Beginning in Niigata event, Bullet Club's Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson unsuccessfully challenged G • B • H (Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma) for the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Following the match, Gallows and Anderson's stablemate Tama Tonga, entered the ring to challenge Makabe and Honma, stating that his partner would be a new Bullet Club member. The challenge was accepted by Makabe and Honma.[7][8] On March 12, Tonga revealed that his partner would be his brother Tevita,[9] who was given the ring name "Tanga Loa"[note 1] with their tag team dubbed "Guerrillas of Destiny" (G.O.D.).[1][4] The brothers together came up with their team name, which references their feeling of "fighting for a cause" and the belief that destiny had brought them back together. The team's acronym stemmed from Alipate's ring name meaning "God of War" and Tevita's ring name meaning "Family of God" in the Polynesian Islands.[1][4]
Loa made his NJPW debut on March 27, attacking Togi Makabe during his match with Tonga.[14][15] This led to his first match with the promotion on April 1, where the Bullet Club quintet of Loa, Tonga, Bad Luck Fale, Kenny Omega and Yujiro Takahashi were defeated by Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Juice Robinson, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin in a ten-man elimination tag team match.[16] On April 10 at Invasion Attack 2016, G.O.D. defeated G.B.H. to become the new IWGP Tag Team Champions.[17][18] They made their first successful title defense on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2016, defeating G.B.H. in a rematch.[19][20] Later that month, G.O.D. took part in a North American tour, co-promoted by NJPW and the American Ring of Honor (ROH) promotion.[4] During the War of the Worlds event on May 14, ROH wrestler Jay Briscoe pinned Loa to win an eight-man tag team match between Team ROH and Bullet Club and afterwards announced that he and his brother Mark were coming to NJPW to take the IWGP Tag Team Championship from Loa and Tonga.[21] On June 8, NJPW officially announced that the win had earned the Briscoe Brothers a shot at the IWGP Tag Team Championship.[22] The title match took place on June 19 at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall and saw the Briscoe Brothers end G.O.D.'s title reign and become the new champions.[23][24]
On September 22 at Destruction in Hiroshima, after the Briscoe Brothers had successfully defended the IWGP Tag Team Championship against Bullet Club's The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson), they were attacked by G.O.D., who demanded a title rematch.[25] This led to a match on October 10 at King of Pro-Wrestling, where G.O.D. defeated the Briscoe Brothers to regain the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Following the match, G.O.D. and The Young Bucks attacked the Briscoe Brothers as well as Tomohiro Ishii, who tried to save the former champions.[26][27] This led directly to G.O.D.'s first title defense on November 5 at Power Struggle, where they defeated Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi.[28] From November 18 to December 10, G.O.D. took part in the 2016 World Tag League.[29] After winning their block with a record of six wins and one loss, G.O.D. advanced to the finals of the tournament,[30] where they were defeated by G.B.H., setting up another title match between the two teams.[31][32] However, before the match could take place at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome, G.O.D.'s title belts were stolen by Toru Yano, which resulted in him and Tomohiro Ishii being added to the match.[33][34] On January 4, 2017, at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome, G.O.D. lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Yano and Ishii in the three-way match.[35][36] The match became infamous for the excessive loud cursing in English by Tonga and Loa. This was the result of their mother telling them that they needed to stand out at the "WrestleMania of New Japan Pro Wrestling".[5] On June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall, G.O.D. defeated War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship for the third time.[37] They lost the title back to War Machine in a no disqualification match on July 1 at G1 Special in USA.[38]
The Guerrillas spent the bulk of 2018 being embroiled in the Bullet Club civil war, as part of the OG faction of the group, feuding with the Elite faction. The Elite would ultimately separate from Bullet Club, and G.O.D. would remain with the new streamlined Bullet Club under new leader Jay White. On August 12 during the G1 Climax event, G.O.D. won their third NEVER Openweight 6-Man Title, this time teaming with Bullet Club teammate Taiji Ishimori, and would hold the championships until January 30, 2019, losing them to Taguchi Japan at a Road to New Beginning event.
On February 23, 2019, they would regain the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles by defeating Sanada & Evil at Honor Rising 2019: Day 2, starting their fifth reign.[49][50] On April 6, 2019, G.O.D. won a Winner Take All Fatal Four-Way tag team match at G1 Supercard, successfully defending the IWGP titles and winning the ROH World Tag Team Championship for the first time, making them double champions between NJPW and ROH. They would lose the titles against The Briscoes at Manhattan Mayhem.[51] After defending the IWGP Tag Team Championships another six times, their reign would end when G.O.D lost to FinJuice (Juice Robinson & David Finlay) at Wrestle Kingdom 14.[52][53][54][55] They would soon immediately regain the belts at The New Beginning in the USA event in Atlanta, before again losing them without a defence to Golden*Ace (Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi) on a New Japan Road show in Korakuen Hall.[56][57][58][59][60]
After the 2020 Pandemic, Guerrillas of Destiny would make their return to Japan as participants of the World Tag League. They would win the tournament for the first time after defeating FinJuice in the finals.[61] They would go on to win an IWGP Tag Team Titles at Wrestle Kingdom 15, defeating champions Dangerous Tekkers (Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.) after Tanga Loa hit 'Apeshit' (a Sitout Reverse Piledriver) on Taichi after 19 minutes & 18 seconds.[62][63][64] They retained the championships against Dangerous Tekkers in a rematch at The New Beginning in Hiroshima.[65] They retained the championships again at Castle Attack, defeating Chaos'sHirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi.[66] On June 1, they lost the IWGP Tag Team Championships back to the Dangerous Tekkers at the Road to Dominion.
Guerrillas of Destiny performing the Guerrilla Warfare on Mark Briscoe
The Guerrillas of Destiny made a surprise appearance at NJPW Resurgence where they confronted former Bullet Club stablemates The Good Brothers (Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows).[67] The Guerillas returned to Japan to compete in the World Tag League in November, however, failed to advance to the finals after only scoring 14 points in the tournament.[68]
Guerrillas of Destiny stable (since 2022)
Following Guerillas of Destiny's removal from Bullet Club at Impact Wrestling's, No Surrender in February 2022, Tonga and Loa returned to Japan to participate in the New Japan Cup. Both men received bye's to the second round, but Loa was eliminated by Shingo Takagi and Tonga was eliminated by Evil. Following the match, GOD was attacked by the Japanese branch of Bullet Club, confirming their departure, whilst Jado was also expelled by Bullet Club and allied with Tonga and Loa.[69] Following this, Tonga claimed Guerrillas of Destiny would become their own stable, which contained Tonga, Loa and Jado as members. The trio would form an alliance with Ryusuke Taguchi, Master Wato and Hiroshi Tanahashi, turning the trio face for the first time since before joining Bullet Club.[70]
In April, Loa suffered a torn MCL, causing him to be out injured for an undisclosed amount of time.[71] Whilst Loa was out injured, Tama Tonga competed in singles competition, earning quick success by defeated EVIL to win the Never Openweight Championship at Wrestling Dontaku in May, winning his first NJPW singles championship.[72] The following month at Dominion 6.12 in Osaka-jo Hall, Tonga lost the championship to former tag-team partner Karl Anderson. Tonga experienced further success, by topping the B Block during the G1 Climax 32 tournament, by eliminating, IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and former teammate Jay White.[73] Tonga advanced to the tournament semi-finals, but was eliminated by A-Block winner Kazuchika Okada.[74]
In September, Hikuleo joined Guerillas of Destiny, leaving Bullet Club and betraying Jay White by attacking him as he attacked Tama Tonga.[75] Due to being the only man to defeat White in the tournament, as well as ending is G1 campaign, Tonga received an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match in October at Declaration of Power, but was defeated by White.[76] On January 4 at Wrestle Kingdom 17, Tonga regained the Never Openweight title from Anderson.[77] In February, Hikuleo expelled Jay White from NJPW, defeating him The New Beginning in Osaka.[78] Following a loss to David Finlay in the semi-finals of the New Japan Cup, Tama Tonga lost the Never Openweight Championship to Finlay at Wrestling Dontaku.[79] In May, Hikuleo won is first NJPW title, defeating Kenta Kobayashi to win the Strong Openweight Championship.[80] Hikuleo lost the title back to Kenta just 18 days later at Resurgence.[81]
By July, Loa returned to NJPW, joining his two brothers in the G1 Climax tournament.[82] Whilst Loa and Tonga failed to advance from the B and C Blocks respectively, Hikuleo finished runner-up in the A Block, advancing to the quarter-finals.[83] In the quarter-final round, Hikuleo lost to Tetsuya Naito, eliminating him from the tournament.[84] Following the tournament, GOD invited El Phantasmo, who had similarly been ejected from Bullet Club to join the stable, which he did on the tournament's final day.[85]
Impact Wrestling (2022)
On the January 27, 2022, episode of Impact!, Guerrillas of Destiny made their Impact Wrestling debut attacking Jake Something and Mike Bailey before challenging The Good Brothers to a match at No Surrender for the Impact World Tag Team Championship.[86]
At No Surrender, Jay White interfered in G.O.D's match against The Good Brothers, hitting the Blade Runner on Tama Tonga causing them to lose the match. Afterwards, Jay White, Chris Bey, Anderson and Gallows all gave the "Too Sweet" hand gesture in the middle of the ring, signaling that G.O.D. had been traded out of Bullet Club in favor of The Good Brothers.
WC Big Top Tag Team Championship (1 time) – Tonga and Loa[90][91][92]
Notes
^The name has been written as both "Tanga Roa" and "Tanga Loa".[10][11][12] NJPW originally used the spelling Roa,[13] but have since switched to Loa.[3]
