Background In August 1998,
Masahiro Chono was leader of
nWo Japan and won the
IWGP Heavyweight Championship. By September, Chono suffered a neck injury which forced him to vacate the IWGP Title and take time off. During Chono's absence,
Keiji Mutoh assumed control of nWo Japan and changed its philosophy making them a
Face stable.
1999 Upon his return in February 1999, Chono became angry with nWo Japan's direction and decided to break away from the faction and formed a new stable, Team 2000, to battle nWo Japan. In August 1999, Chono entered the
1999 G1 Climax but finished in 4th place with 6 points. Despite the loss, Chono was still able to get several big wins, including one over
Shinya Hashimoto and eventual winner
Manabu Nakanishi. At the next big event:
The Battle of Last Summer on August 28, T2000 would go 2–0 with Frye defeating fellow
gaijin and nWo Japan member
Scott Norton, while Chono defeated Hashimoto. In September 1999, Chono and Frye entered the
1999 G1 Tag League but ultimately finished in 6th place with 6 points. By the end of 1999, T2000 went through several changes as nWo Sting became
Super J and Wallstreet left New Japan to return to
WCW.
2000 At
Wrestling World 2000 on January 4, 2000, the Team 2000/nWo Japan feud continued as both groups would go 1–1 with Frye losing to Norton while Chono defeated Mutoh. On February 4, T2000/nWo Japan feud finally ended when the two stables went at it in a best of 4 series. During the first two matches, the groups would tie 1–1 with AKIRA defeating
Hiro Saito while Scott Norton defeated Super J. On February 20, Team 2000 did a 10 match series with New Japan which saw Team 2000 emerge victorious with Chono defeating Sasaki in a tie-breaker match. In March, Team 2000 took on New Japan in several title matches hoping to win some gold but would lose both of their title matches with Kojima falling to Sasaki in an IWGP Title match on March 19, while Chono and Tenzan lost to
Yuji Nagata and
Manabu Nakanishi for the
IWGP Tag Team Championship on March 20. On July 20,
Tencozy would defeat Nagata and Nakanishi to win the IWGP Tag Titles. In August, Chono, Tenzan, Kojima, Goto, and Saito entered the 2000 G1 Climax but none of them would win as Chono made it the semi-finals losing to Nakanishi. On October 8 at
Do Judge, Team 2000 would once again dominate as Frye defeated
Takashi Iizuka, Tencozy defeated Nagata and Nakanishi to successfully defend the Tag Team Titles, and Chono teaming with a masked man named "Mr. T" (Goto) defeated
Shiro Koshinaka and
Masanobu Fuchi but the group did experience one loss as Norton fell to
"Dr. Death" Steve Williams. In October, T2000 began a feud with Yuji Nagata's Fighting Club G-EGGS as the two stables began a series with the winning team getting match making rights for
Battle Final 2000, in the end thanks to the numbers advantage T2000 won the series 11–8. In November, Team 2000 entered the 200 G1 Tag League with three teams (Tencozy, Chono/Norton, & T2000 Machines), in the end Team 2000 came up short with Chono and Norton (semi-finals) and Tencozy (finals) both fell to eventual winners: Yuji Nagata and Takashi Iizuka. At
Battle Final 2000 on December 10 saw Team 2000 get match making rights. Chono would book himself and Goto to challenge Tencozy for the Tag Team Championship, ensuring that win, lose, or draw Team 2000 kept the titles. Chono also booked AKIRA to challenge
Minoru Tanaka for the
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and had Ohara take on Kensuke Sasaki for Sasaki's spot in the IWGP Heavyweight Championship tournament. While Tencozy retained the title, everything else went wrong as AKIRA fell to Tanaka and Ohara was squashed in six seconds by Sasaki.
2001 At
Wrestling World 2001 on January 4, 2001, Chono, Tenzan, and Kojima entered the IWGP Heavyweight Championship tournament hoping to win the IWGP Heavyweight Title but they all lost as Tenzan fell to
Toshiaki Kawada in the semi-finals while Kojima (first round) and Chono (semi-final) were defeated by eventual winner: Kensuke Sasaki. In February 2001, Tencozy retained the IWGP Tag Team Title against Manabu Nakanishi and
Osamu Nishimura but Team 2000 lost Don Frye. Things picked up for T2000 in March as Chono recruited
nWo co-founder:
Scott Hall, Tencozy retained the IWGP Tag Titles against
Riki Choshu and
Shinya Makabe, and in an upset: Scott Norton defeated Sasaki to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Beginning in the spring, Team 2000 began a feud with Keiji Mutoh and his new stable,
Bad Ass Translate Trading. On April 9 at
Strong Style, T2000 had mixed results as Chono and Tencozy defeated BATT but Norton lost the IWGP Title to
Kazuyuki Fujita. In September, T2000 added more members including
Giant Singh (who began forming a team with Giant Silva as Club 7) &
Koji Kanemoto (both entered Team 2000 at
Indicate of Next). Chono also expanded Team 2000 to
All Japan Pro Wrestling and recruited Steve Williams,
Mike Barton,
Jim Steele, & reunited with Mike Rotunda (Michael Wallstreet). On October 27, Chono entered All Japan to challenge Mutoh for the
Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship but was defeated, around the same time, Chono also began having problems with Tencozy and a power struggle in Team 2000 began. In December, Williams and Rotundo entered the
2001 World's Strongest Tag Determination League but finished in 5th place with 6 points. At the same time, Team 2000 had 4 teams enter the 2001 G1 Tag League (Tencozy, Chono/Silva,
Barton/Steele, & Norton/J), in the end, Tencozy would win the tournament defeating Barton and Steele in the finals.
2002 At the
January 4 Dome show, Jado and Gedo (teaming with
Dick Togo) lost to Liger,
Great Sasuke, &
Tiger Mask, Silva lost to Nakaniashi by countout, & Tencozy defeated Chono and Singh. On January 11, 2002, Keiji Mutoh shocked the Japanese Wrestling World by defecting to All Japan. Kojima would be one of the few wrestlers to follow Mutoh to All Japan, ending his involvement with Team 2000. New Japan also ended their relationship with All Japan and the All Japan branch also left as a result, Scott Hall also left New Japan to return to the
WWF. Beginning in February/March, Team 2000 added both
Black Tiger III and
Eddie Guerrero to the group while Super J left to join the New Japan army, and Chono and Tenzan buried the hatchet and reunited. In February, Team 2000 added another accomplishment as Chono, Singh, and Silva won the Teisen Hall Six Man Tag Team Tournament. In the same month, Chono and Silva entered a tournament for the vacated IWGP Heavyweight Championship but neither won. On March 21, Tenzan challenged
Tadao Yasuda for the IWGP Title but was defeated. On March 24, Chono and Tenzan reunited their old team and defeated Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi for the vacated IWGP Tag Team Titles. In June, Team 2000 sent 5 participants (Kanemoto, Jado, Gedo, Black Tiger, & AKIRA) in the
2002 Best of the Super Juniors tournament with Kanemoto winning the tournament. In August, Chono and Tenzan entered the 2002 G1 Climax with Chono eventually winning his fourth G1 Climax defeating
Yoshihiro Takayama. Following the G1 Climax tour, Team 2000 began to form an alliance with New Japan against the new
Makai Club as well as a foreign army of wrestlers/MMA fighters led by
Kazuyuki Fujita and by September 2002, Team 2000 was absorbed into the New Japan army.
2017 Team 2000 made a one-night reunion January 5, 2017, when Kojima, Tenzan, Saito and Norton teamed up with
Cheeseburger to defeat
Bullet Club (
Bad Luck Fale,
Bone Soldier,
Kenny Omega,
Tama Tonga and
Tanga Loa) in a ten-man tag team match. ==Championships and accomplishments==