Tencozy first began teaming up in 1998 after Tenzan's regular tag team partner Masahiro Chono was injured, as both were members of nWo Japan. In their first shot, they defeated Genichiro Tenryu and Shiro Koshinaka at Wrestling World 1999 on January 4, 1999 to claim their first IWGP Tag Team Title. The team would make one successful title defense against Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi on February 5, 1999 before losing the titles to Koshinaka and Kensuke Sasaki on March 22, 1999.