Back Champion Carnival French チャンピオン・カーニバル (プロレス) Japanese

Champion Carnival

Champion Carnival
Jake Lee with the Champion Carnival trophy in 2021
PromotionsAll Japan Pro Wrestling
First event1973

The Champion Carnival (チャンピオン・カーニバル, Chanpion Kānibaru) is a professional wrestling tournament held by All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). The tournament is also known by the nickname Haru no Saiten (春の祭典, "Spring Festival") and is sometimes abbreviated to CC.[1][2] Created by AJPW founder Giant Baba, the tournament has been held annually since 1973 and is the longest-running singles tournament in professional wrestling, while also ranking as the most prestigious event in the AJPW calendar.[3] It is considered a successor to the World League, held by Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA) between 1959 and 1972, predating the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) G1 Climax tournament by a year.[4]

The tournament is held in a round-robin format, where all participating wrestlers face each other once with the winner being awarded two points and the loser none. A draw results in both wrestlers being awarded a point. After all wrestlers have faced each other once, the top two wrestlers advance to the final to determine the tournament winner.[5]

Baba himself holds the record for most Champion Carnival wins, having won the tournament seven times.[6] Other notable winners include Abdullah the Butcher, Jumbo Tsuruta, Keiji Mutoh, Mitsuharu Misawa, Stan Hansen, Toshiaki Kawada and Kento Miyahara.[6] Four wrestlers have won both the Champion Carnival and the G1 Climax: Mutoh, Satoshi Kojima, Kensuke Sasaki and Yuji Nagata, with Kojima the only one to win them alongside Fire Festival and Nagata the only one to win them alongside the Global League.[4]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference AJPWHistory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference 2016TS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Molinaro, John F. "Tenryu wins Carnival Championship, All Japan tournament concludes". Slam! Sports. Canadian Online Explorer. Archived from the original on August 3, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  4. ^ a b Sempervive, Mike (July 19, 2015). "New Japan 2015 G1 Climax: History, Schedule, Predictions, Scouting Reports". Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference SlamHistory was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference 2004NS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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