Chaos, often stylized as CHAOS, was a professional wrestling stable performing in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The group was formed in 2009, when nearly all the members of the Great Bash Heel (G.B.H) stable turned on leader Togi Makabe and reformed under new leader Shinsuke Nakamura. Soon after, the new group was named Chaos, with Nakamura as the leader. As the leader of Chaos, Nakamura was one of NJPW's top wrestlers, winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and the IWGP Intercontinental Championship as well as the 2011 G1 Climax and the 2014 New Japan Cup.

Since its founding, Chaos has added several new members, including Kazuchika Okada, who has held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship five times and won the G1 Climax tournament in 2012, 2014 and 2021, as well as the 2013 and 2019 New Japan Cup. Okada became the leader of Chaos after Nakamura's departure from New Japan and succeeded Hiroshi Tanahashi as the promotion's "ace", or top star. Rocky Romero, another member of Chaos, won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship a record eight times.

Chaos originally was the only villainous group in New Japan. In 2013, Chaos started feuds with two other villainous groups, Suzuki-gun and Bullet Club, which led to the stable being portrayed in a more sympathetic way. After Takashi Iizuka and Yujiro Takahashi jumped to Suzuki-gun and Bullet Club respectively, Chaos finalized its transition into full fan favorites. From 2021 to 2024, Chaos were represented in American promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW), when Best Friends, initially consisting of Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta, rejoined the stable. This also saw Chaos gain their first female member in Kris Statlander. Aside from an appearance from Tomohiro Ishii, Chaos' NJPW representative in AEW was Romero, who usually acted as wrestler and manager for the stable.

On March 6, 2025, at the NJPW 53rd Anniversary Show, both Chaos and GBH were folded into Main Unit, officially ending the tenure of the stable.

History Under Shinsuke Nakamura (2009–2016)

On April 5, 2009, Toru Yano turned on Great Bash Heel (G.B.H) leader Togi Makabe, costing Makabe his match against Shinsuke Nakamura. Throughout that month, all members of G.B.H besides Tomoaki Honma turned their backs on Makabe, joining Nakamura and Yano. On April 23, the group was officially dubbed Chaos, with Nakamura and Yano positioned as its two central figures.

After Chaos was formed, members Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson (collective known as Bad Intentions), received a shot at the IWGP Tag Team Championship, but were unable to defeat the defending champions Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon). Also on that day, Black Tiger V was defeated by Tiger Mask in a mask vs. mask match and afterwards it was revealed to be Tatsuhito Takaiwa by removing his mask and leaving the stable.

Championship success

On September 27, Nakamura defeated Togi Makabe in a decision match to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the third time. Upon winning the title, Nakamura drew the ire of Antonio Inoki by announcing his plan of wanting to restore the "Strong Style" of New Japan by capturing the original IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt from Inoki to replace the fourth generation title belt Nakamura himself had. From October 17 to November 1, Chaos participated at the 2009 G1 Tag League, during which Chaos members Bad Intentions (Bernard and Anderson) defeated Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) in the finals to win the tournament.

On January 4, 2010, at Wrestle Kingdom IV in Tokyo Dome, Bad Intentions received a match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, but lost to No Limit (Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro Takahashi) in a three-way hardcore tag team match also involving Team 3D (Brother Devon and Brother Ray). Later that night, Nakamura successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Yoshihiro Takayama in a rematch of their 2004 Tokyo Dome title unification bout. After defeating Takayama, Nakamura was challenged by Manabu Nakanishi, whom he pinned on February 14 at New Japan's ISM show in Sumo Hall.

On April 4, Yano and Iizuka turned on Anderson and kicked him out of the stable with help from Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro Takahashi, who joined the stable in the process. Giant Bernard, who was not present at the show, left Chaos alongside his tag team partner. On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2010, Yano defeating Tanahashi in a singles match while Naito and Takahashi lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Seigigun (Wataru Inoue and Yuji Nagata) in a match also involving Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson), and Nakamura lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship to Togi Makabe in the main event. Following the loss, Nakamura was sidelined with a shoulder injury until he returned on June 19 at Dominion 6.19, defeating Daniel Puder and being eyed up by Simon Inoki and Atsushi Sawada of Inoki Genome Federation, who appeared at the show.

On July 19, Nakamura received a rematch for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, but was once again defeated by Makabe. From August 6 to August 15, Yano, Naito, Takahashi and Nakamura participated at the 2010 G1 Climax. Nakamura won four out of his seven-round robin stage matches, including one over eventual winner Satoshi Kojima and was leading his block heading to the final day, where he wrestled Pro Wrestling Noah's Go Shiozaki to a 30-minute time limit draw and thus missed the finals of the tournament by a single point. The draw with Shiozaki led to a no time limit match at a Pro Wrestling Noah show on August 22, where Nakamura was defeated. On November 13, Jado and Gedo defeated their Chaos teammates Davey Richards and Rocky Romero in the finals of a five-day-long tournament to win the 2010 Super J Tag League. As a result of their victory, Gedo and Jado received a match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, which took place at a Dramatic Dream Team event on December 26, where they were defeated by defending champions Golden☆Lovers (Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi).

On January 4, 2011, at the Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome, Naito unsuccessfully challenged Jeff Hardy for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship, but Nakamura avenged his loss to Go Shiozaki by defeating him in a singles match later that night. On May 26, Takahashi and all Chaos members turned on Naito and kicked him out of the group.

On June 18, Mitsuhide Hirasawa turned on Seigigun and its leader Yuji Nagata, renaming himself "Hideo Saito" and joining Chaos. From August 1 to August 14, Yano, Takahashi, Saito and Nakamura participated in the 2011 G1 Climax, which Nakamura won by defeating Tetsuya Naito on August 14 and earning another shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. On September 19, Saito lost to Nagata in a grudge match, but attacked Nagata after the match. Later that night, Nakamura went on to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, but failed to recapture the title from Hiroshi Tanahashi. On October 10 at Destruction '11, Richards and Romero defeated Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the first time. Later that night, Yano lost to Nagata in a rematch, but later attacked Tanahashi after he had successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Tetsuya Naito and then accepted Nagata as his next challenger, stealing his championship belt and renaming it the "YWGP Heavyweight Championship". Also later that night, Tanaka defeated MVP to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.

From October 22 to November 6, Tanaka and Takahashi, Saito and Iizuka, Nakamura and Yano (who named their team "Chaos Top Team") and Ishii with Don Fujii participated at the 2011 G1 Tag League. On November 6, Nakamura and Yano were eliminated from the tournament in the semifinals by Lance Archer and Minoru Suzuki. On November 12 at Power Struggle, Richards and Romero defeated Kushida and Tiger Mask to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. Later that night, Tanaka made his first successful title defense against Hirooki Goto. In the main event, Yano failed to capture the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from Tanahashi. As a result of pinning Prince Devitt during the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match, Richards was granted another shot for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on December 4, but failed in his attempt to become a double champion. Also on December 4, Tanaka defeated MVP in a rematch to retain the IWGP Intercontinental Championship with help from Yujiro Takahashi . That same night, Saito's erratic behaviour and poor match results eventually led to the rest of Chaos kicking him out of the stable. On December 28, Yoshi-Hashi joined the stable.

Kazuchika Okada's rise to stardom

On January 4, 2012, at Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome, Richards and Romero lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship back to Apollo 55 (Devitt and Taguchi), while new member Yoshi-Hashi was defeated in five minutes by Kazuchika Okada in both men's NJPW return match. Later that night, Chaos Top Team was defeated by Pro Wrestling Noah representatives Go Shiozaki and Naomichi Marufuji. At the following day's press conference where his upcoming title match was made official, Kazuchika Okada, who had issued a challenge to Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at the end of Wrestle Kingdom, revealed that he had joined Chaos as well, enlisting new stablemate Gedo as his manager and spokesperson. On February 12 at The New Beginning, No Remorse Corps defeated Apollo 55 to regain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. Later that night, Tanaka lost the IWGP Intercontinental Championship to Hirooki Goto. In the main event, Okada defeated Tanahashi to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the first time. Okada made his first title defense on March 4, defeating Tetsuya Naito in the main event of NJPW's 40th anniversary event. On March 18, Yano and Iizuka attacked Tenzan and Kojima after they had successfully defended their title against Lance Archer and Yoshihiro Takayama and stole their championship belts.

On April 21, Low Ki returned to NJPW, aligning himself with the Chaos and teaming with Gedo, Jado and Rocky Romero in an eight-man tag team match to defeat Jyushin Thunder Liger, Prince Devitt, Ryusuke Taguchi and Tiger Mask, with Ki pinning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Devitt for the win. On May 2, Richards and Romero were stripped of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship after a car accident forced Richards to miss his flight to Japan and the following day's Wrestling Dontaku 2012 event, where the two were scheduled to defend the title against Jyushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask. On May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2012, Low Ki defeated Prince Devitt to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship while Iizuka and Yano defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship, starting Yano's second reign with the title. From May 27 to June 10, Gedo, Jado and Low Ki participated at the 2012 Best of the Super Juniors tournament, where Low Ki defeated Prince Devitt to advance to the finals but lost to Ryusuke Taguchi. Also at the last day of the Best of the Super Juniors, Alex Koslov joined the stable and formed Forever Hooligans with his former AAA partner Rocky Romero.