Giant Bernard andKarl Anderson first came together inNew Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), when Bernard, along with his Detonators tag team partnerRick Fuller turned on theRISE stable on September 5, 2008, and jumped to thevillainousGreat Bash Heel (GBH) stable by helpingTogi Makabe andToru Yano retain theIWGP Tag Team Championship againstHirooki Goto andShinsuke 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 the2008 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 ofTomoaki Honma, turned on Togi Makabe and joined Shinsuke Nakamura to form the newChaos stable.[8][9][10] As representatives of Chaos, Anderson and Bernard earned their first shot at theIWGP Tag Team Championship by defeatingTencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan andSatoshi Kojima) in a number one contender's match on May 3 atWrestling Dontaku 2009.[11] They received their title shot on June 20 atDominion 6.20, but were defeated by the defending champions,Team 3D (Brother Devon andBrother Ray), representatives of American promotionTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).[12] On October 17, Anderson and Bernard entered the2009 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 andTakao Omori).[15] Later that same day, Anderson and Bernard defeatedApollo 55 (Prince Devitt andRyusuke 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 atDestruction '09 and ended in a double count-out, meaning that Team 3D retained the title.[17][18]
On January 4, 2010, atWrestle Kingdom IV in Tokyo Dome, Bad Intentions took part in ahardcore three-way match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, which also included defending champions Team 3D andNo Limit (Tetsuya Naito andYujiro Takahashi). The match ended with Takahashi pinning Anderson to capture the title for No Limit.[19][20][21][22] On April 4, Chaos membersTakashi Iizuka and Toru Yano turned on Anderson and gave his and Bernard's spots in the stable to No Limit.[23] On May 3 atWrestling Dontaku 2010, another three-way match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship took place, where Team 3D was replaced bySeigigun (Wataru Inoue andYuji Nagata), who ended up winning the match and capturing the title from No Limit.[24] Finally, on June 19 atDominion 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 astoryline rivalry with another TNA tag team,Beer Money, Inc. (James Storm andRobert Roode), losing to them in a non-title match on October 22.[28] From October 24 to November 7, Bad Intentions took part in the2010 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, atWrestle 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 andStrong 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 theConsejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) tag team ofAtlantis andOkumura as part of theFantastica Mania 2011 weekend.[36][37] On February 16, Bad Intentions made their debut forPro Wrestling Noah, defeatingAkitoshi Saito andTakashi Sugiura in a tag team match.[38] Four days later atThe 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 withTokyo Sports, attacking one of the magazine's reporters, after it had named Muscle Orchestra the 2010Tag Team of the Year, despite Anderson and Bernard's lengthy title reign.[41] On May 3 atWrestling 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 withCho-Ten (Hiroyoshi Tenzan andMasahiro Chono).[42]
On June 18 atDominion 6.18, Bad Intentions defeated the Pro Wrestling Noah tag team ofTakuma Sano andYoshihiro Takayama to not only break the record for most successful defenses of the IWGP Tag Team Championship, but to also win theGHC Tag Team Championship.[43][44][45] After their ninth successful IWGP Tag Team Championship defense against Hirooki Goto andIWGP 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 againstTakeshi Morishima andYutaka 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 defeatedGo Shiozaki andShuhei Taniguchi.[49][50] On November 6, Bad Intentions made it to the finals of the2011 G1 Tag League, before losing toSuzuki-gun (Lance Archer andMinoru Suzuki).[51] This led to a rematch between the two teams on November 12 atPower Struggle, where Bad Intentions was victorious, making their tenth successful defense of the IWGP Tag Team Championship.[52] On January 4, 2012, atWrestle 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 andJun 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 toWWE, disbanding Bad Intentions.[59]
