Giant Bernard and
Karl Anderson first came together in
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), when Bernard, along with his Detonators tag team partner
Rick Fuller turned on the
RISE stable on September 5, 2008, and jumped to the
villainousGreat Bash Heel (GBH) stable by helping
Togi Makabe and
Toru Yano retain the
IWGP Tag Team Championship against
Hirooki Goto and
Shinsuke Nakamura.[5] Bernard teamed with new GBH stablemate Anderson for the first time on October 20,[4] but the two did not become regular tag team partners until after the
2008 G1 Tag League, when Fuller left NJPW.[6][7] Anderson and Bernard represented GBH until April 5, 2009, when the entire stable, with the exception of
Tomoaki Honma, turned on Togi Makabe and joined Shinsuke Nakamura to form the new
Chaos stable.[8][9][10] As representatives of Chaos, Anderson and Bernard earned their first shot at the
IWGP Tag Team Championship by defeating
Tencozy (
Hiroyoshi Tenzan and
Satoshi Kojima) in a number one contender's match on May 3 at
Wrestling Dontaku 2009.[11] They received their title shot on June 20 at
Dominion 6.20, but were defeated by the defending champions,
Team 3D (
Brother Devon and
Brother Ray), representatives of American promotion
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).[12] On October 17, Anderson and Bernard entered the
2009 G1 Tag League.[13] After a clean record of four wins and zero losses,[14] Anderson and Bernard advanced to the semifinals of the tournament, where, on November 1, they defeated Wild Child (
Manabu Nakanishi and
Takao Omori).[15] Later that same day, Anderson and Bernard defeated
Apollo 55 (
Prince Devitt and
Ryusuke Taguchi) in the finals to win the tournament, after which Bernard declared war on Team 3D.[15][16] During the following day's press conference Anderson and Bernard reiterated their intention of defeating Team 3D for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, while also announcing their new tag team name, "Bad Intentions".[1] The title rematch between Bad Intentions and Team 3D took place on November 8 at
Destruction '09 and ended in a double count-out, meaning that Team 3D retained the title.[17][18]
IWGP Tag Team Championship reign (2010–2012)
On January 4, 2010, at
Wrestle Kingdom IV in Tokyo Dome, Bad Intentions took part in a
hardcore three-way match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, which also included defending champions Team 3D and
No Limit (
Tetsuya Naito and
Yujiro Takahashi). The match ended with Takahashi pinning Anderson to capture the title for No Limit.[19][20][21][22] On April 4, Chaos members
Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano turned on Anderson and gave his and Bernard's spots in the stable to No Limit.[23] On May 3 at
Wrestling Dontaku 2010, another three-way match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship took place, where Team 3D was replaced by
Seigigun (
Wataru Inoue and
Yuji Nagata), who ended up winning the match and capturing the title from No Limit.[24] Finally, on June 19 at
Dominion 6.19, Bad Intentions defeated Seigigun and No Limit in a three-way elimination match to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship.[25] The third and final three-way match between Bad Intentions, Seigigun and No Limit took place on July 19 and saw Bad Intentions emerge victorious, making their first successful defense of the IWGP Tag Team Championship.[26] After another successful title defense against Seigigun on September 26,[27] Bad Intentions got involved in a
storyline rivalry with another TNA tag team,
Beer Money, Inc. (
James Storm and
Robert Roode), losing to them in a non-title match on October 22.[28] From October 24 to November 7, Bad Intentions took part in the
2010 G1 Tag League, where they reached the semifinals, before losing to eventual tournament winners, Wataru Inoue and Yuji Nagata of Seigigun.[29][30][31] This led to another title match on December 11, where Bad Intentions defeated Seigigun for their third successful title defense.[32] On January 4, 2011, at
Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome, Beer Money, Inc. returned to NJPW to challenge Bad Intentions for the IWGP Tag Team Championship in a three-way match, which also included Muscle Orchestra (Manabu Nakanishi and
Strong Man). In the end, Bad Intentions was victorious, making their fourth successful title defense.[22][33][34][35] Their fifth defense took place just eighteen days later, when they defeated the
Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) tag team of
Atlantis and
Okumura as part of the Fantastica Mania 2011 weekend.[36][37] On February 16, Bad Intentions made their debut for
Pro Wrestling Noah, defeating
Akitoshi Saito and
Takashi Sugiura in a tag team match.[38] Four days later at
The New Beginning, Bad Intentions defeated Muscle Orchestra back in NJPW for their sixth successful title defense.[39][40] As part of the rivalry with Muscle Orchestra, Bad Intentions also started a storyline rivalry with Tokyo Sports, attacking one of the magazine's reporters, after it had named Muscle Orchestra the 2010
Tag Team of the Year, despite Anderson and Bernard's lengthy title reign.[41] On May 3 at
Wrestling Dontaku 2011, Bad Intentions made their seventh successful title defense against No Limit and, as a result, now shared the record for most successful defenses of the IWGP Tag Team Championship with
Cho-Ten (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and
Masahiro Chono).[42]
On June 18 at
Dominion 6.18, Bad Intentions defeated the Pro Wrestling Noah tag team of
Takuma Sano and
Yoshihiro Takayama to not only break the record for most successful defenses of the IWGP Tag Team Championship, but to also win the
GHC Tag Team Championship.[43][44][45] After their ninth successful IWGP Tag Team Championship defense against Hirooki Goto and
IWGP Heavyweight ChampionHiroshi Tanahashi on July 3,[46] Bad Intentions returned to Pro Wrestling Noah on July 23 to make their first successful defense of the GHC Tag Team Championship against
Takeshi Morishima and
Yutaka Yoshie.[47][48] On September 9, the 447th day of their title reign, Anderson and Bernard became the longest reigning IWGP Tag Team Champions in history, breaking the previous record held by Cho-Ten. Their second defense of the GHC Tag Team Championship took place on October 31, when they defeated
Go Shiozaki and
Shuhei Taniguchi.[49][50] On November 6, Bad Intentions made it to the finals of the
2011 G1 Tag League, before losing to
Suzuki-gun (
Lance Archer and
Minoru Suzuki).[51] This led to a rematch between the two teams on November 12 at
Power Struggle, where Bad Intentions was victorious, making their tenth successful defense of the IWGP Tag Team Championship.[52] On January 4, 2012, at
Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome, Bad Intentions lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to the recently reunited Tencozy, ending their reign at 564 days and ten successful title defenses.[22][53][54][55][56] Eighteen days later, they also lost the GHC Tag Team Championship to the team of Akitoshi Saito and
Jun Akiyama.[57] Bad Intentions attempted to regain the IWGP Tag Team Championship from Tencozy on February 12, but were unsuccessful in what would turn out to be the team's final match together.[58] The following month, Bernard left NJPW to return to
WWE, disbanding Bad Intentions.[59]