WrestleMania Season won't only be the start of the biggest event in wrestling history, but also the most prestigious and longest running tournament in all of Puroresu: All Japan Pro Wrestling's Champion Carnival! Debuting in 1973, the Champion Carnival has been a yearly tradition for AJPW ever since it's inception. Similar to NJPW's G1 Climax, the tournament is being participated by 16 wrestlers divided into two blocks: A and B, tournament rules are under Round Robin. Giant Baba holds the record for most wins in the Champion Carnival, having won the tournament 7 times! Other notable legends who have won are Jumbo Tsuruta, Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Toshiaki Kawada, Akira Taue, Stan Hansen, Keiji Mutoh, and Abdullah the Butcher. Now the tournament is more exciting than ever, with the resurgence of AJPW along with other Puro promotions in general, more eyes will be able to watch the tournament especially with AJPW's new streaming service: AJPW TV Participants this year involves AJPW main stays as well as wrestlers from other promotions. Veterans, up and comers, gaijins, local heroes, and many more are all aiming for the top and include their name in the history books as a Champion Carnival Winner! Without further ado, let us take a look at each wrestler for the 2018 AJPW Champion Carnival. A BLOCK Kento Miyahara CC Appearances: 4 Promotion: AJPW Height: 6'1'' Weight: 225 lbs From: Fukuoka, Japan Kento Miyahara is The Ace of AJPW right now. He is what Kazuchika Okada is to NJPW. Miyahara is a 3x Triple Crown Champion, the most prestigious belt in the company, as of the writing of this blog he is also the current holder of said championship. His legendary 464 day reign left fans with many exciting and great matches! It is sadly just overshadowed by other title reigns such as that of Okada's IWGP Heavyweight Championship run because AJPW have loss their position in the spotlight and is trying to regain it back. Earlier in his career Miyahara has wrestled for different promotions such as NOAH, DDT, and Diamond Ring but around 2014 decided to call AJPW his home. Many believe Miyahara is one of (if not the) best babyface in wrestling right now. Besides the Triple Crown Title, he also has the AJPW World and All Asia Tag-Team Championships under his accolades. He has already participated in the Champion Carnival four times, but never won. I have watched a few of his matches and I can say that I agree with the people giving him credit as one of the best in the world today. He is just often out of radar for most fans as AJPW are still climbing back at the top of the wrestling food chain, but with their new streaming service being available, here's hoping more eyes would see Miyahara and other AJPW wrestlers in general. How will he fair in this year's CC? Expect him to win a lot of matches, he is THE Champion after all but I don't see him winning the whole tournament. Shuji Ishikawa CC Appearances: 1 Promotion: Freelance Height: 6'5'' Weight: 286 lbs From: Iwate, Japan Shuji Ishikawa is a journeyman in terms of that he has wrestled for multiple promotions across Japan in his ongoing 16 year run in wrestling. He has competed for AJPW, DDT, BJW, Kaientai Dojo, and many more. Often winning championships as well, most notably being a former Triple Crown Champion himself! Being a traveled performer gives justice in the ring as well, often considered as one of the best in Japan but not seen mainly by Western fans as he is yet to wrestle for the big one: NJPW. Ishikawa won the Champion Carnival last year, which was also his first appearance in the tournament. He is looking for a repeat this year! Yuji Hino CC Appearances: 0 Promotion: WRESTLE-1 Height: 5'10'' Weight: 264 lbs From: Osaka, Japan I'm not too familiar with Yuji Hino and honestly never watched a match involving him so pardon me for only sharing what I've read so far about him. Hino made his wrestling debut in 2003 and was trained by TAKA Michinoku. During his early years he mainly competed for TAKA's Kaientai Dojo, but also honed his craft elsewhere competing for AJPW, ZERO1, and Pro Wrestling El-Dorado. His only match for NJPW took place in 2012 at a small event where he defeated Ryuichi Sekine. Later on Hino found lots of success in DDT, having won championships there multiple times most especially the KO-D Openweight Championship. Though a freelancer, he mainly competes under the WRESTLE-1 banner where he also held the company's World and Tag-Team Championships. Hino will be making his debut for the Champion Carnival this year. Shingo Takagi CC Appearances: 0 Promotion: Dragon Gate Height: 5'10'' Weight: 209 lbs From: Yamanashi, Japan Shingo Takagi is one of the best wrestlers in Dragon Gate right now. It is his home promotion actively competing there since his debut in 2004. He also competed a few times for AJPW, NJPW, ZERO1, and WRESTLE-1 before. Takagi also has experience wrestling in the United States having matches earlier on in his career for promotions such as ROH, PWG, and Full Impact Pro. In fact he is a former ROH World Tag-Team Champion with partner: Naruki Doi back in 2007, although their reign was only short. Speaking of title reigns, Takagi has plenty under Dragon Gate: 6x Open the Triangle Gate Champion, 5x Open the Twin Gate Champion, 4x Open the Dream Gate Champion, and the current holder of the Open the Owarai Gate Championship. He will be making his Champion Carnival debut this year as well and is looking to make Dragon Gate and his compatriots proud by doing well in this tournament. Ryouji Sai CC Appearances: 2 Promotion: Land's End Height: 6'3'' Weight: 231 lbs From: Osaka, Japan Ryouji Sai is a professional wrestler and mixed martial artist. At 15 years old he studied in Sidmouth, England and while in Europe studied martial arts under Gerard Gordeau, an accomplished Dutch martial artist. For the longest time, Sai mainly competed for Pro Wrestling ZERO1 having won the ZERO1 World Heavyweight Championship twice and is the longest reigning ZERO1 United National Heavyweight Champion at 1,117 days! In 2016 he founded his own promotion: Pro Wrestling Land's End. He is the current holder of the All Asia Heavyweight Championship, the top title of said promotion. Since last year he started actively competing for AJPW as well, having participated in two Champion Carnivals already, he is also the current AJPW World Tag-Team Champion with Dylan James, so Sai is looking to establish his name some more with AJPW. The Bodyguard CC Appearances: 3 Promotion: AJPW Height: 5'9'' Weight: 242 lbs From: Osaka, Japan Noboru Kurakawa or better known to wrestling fans as The Bodyguard, simply to say is one jacked dude! A former bodybuilder turned pro wrestler, Bodyguard made his wrestling debut in 2009 mainly competing for Osaka Pro Wrestling, winning the OPW Tag-Team Championships with his long time partner; Zeus, who we will also talk about later. They are collectively known together as "The Big Guns." In 2014 he started actively competing for AJPW and in the process has became a 4x AJPW World Tag-Team Champions, also with Zeus. From what I've gathered online Bodyguard is what Scott Steiner is to a lot of fans. You either love or hate his style of wrestling, but me personally I don't mind him at all. Obviously he is not ranking it up as one of the best in the world right now, but he plays his role well as a big brute. Naoya Nomura CC Appearances: 1 Promotion: AJPW Height: 6'1'' Weight: 231 lbs From: Ishikawa, Japan At 24 years old, Naoya Nomura is the youngest competitor in this whole tournament. A young upstart who is looking to make an impact in the world of pro wrestling. In his relatively short career so far, Nomura already held the AJPW World and All Asia Tag-Team Championships and participated in last year's Champion Carnival as well. He also competed for WRESTLE-1, Kaientai Dojo, and Land's End. A bright future is ahead of this young man as he finds his groove in wrestling. Joe Doering CC Appearances: 7 Promotion: AJPW Height: 6'5'' Weight: 297 lbs From: Chicago, Illinois, USA Joe Doering is without a doubt one of the best gaijin wrestlers in Puroresu today! The man already has a storied career and is looking to continue on for many more years to come. He started out in wrestling on 2004 wrestling for local promotions early on until competing for TNA from 2005 until 2006, the latter year he also wrestled shortly for Carlos Colon's WWC before going to AJPW in 2007. Doering found lots of success for his career in AJPW becoming a 4x AJPW World Tag-Team Champion in multiple occassions and with different partners too with each reign! In 2010 he was signed in a developmental a contract for the WWE but it prospered to nowhere and went back to AJPW. On February 25, 2016 Doering was diagnosed with brain tumor, it seemed like his career halted for good but fortunately the tumor was removed and his recovery was a success! It won't be long before he became the Triple Crown Champion once again last year! He was only somewhat of a transitional champion though as after 155 days he loss the belt back to Miyahara. I don't like comparing much when it comes to wrestlers, but Joe Doering really is the modern day Stan Hansen. They both got similar styles of "beat the fuck out of their opponents"! While they did find minimal success in the States, it is in Japan where they truly left a mark! Coincidentally they primarily wrestled for AJPW too. Doering has already competed for 7 Champion Carnivals in the past, but never won one. He could be one of the favorites to win this year though, definitely has a high chance. B BLOCK Jun Akiyama CC Appearances: 18 Promotion: AJPW Height: 6'2'' Weight: 242 lbs From: Osaka, Japan What better way to start off introducing wrestlers in the B Block with the legendary: Jun Akiyama! Uncle Jun is a "legend" in every sense of the word, in fact we are lucky to see him still wrestling at this day and age, and he hasn't lost a step too! In 1992 he made his pro wrestling debut for AJPW. A testament to Akiyama's greatness in the ring is that he was able to hang with The Four Pillars, easily some of the greatest wrestlers of ALL TIME. During those years from the 90's through 2000, he won the AJPW World Tag-Team Championships three times and also the All Asia Tag-Team Championship once! Around this time Akiyama only found success in tag-team competition, it wasn't until later where he found his stride as a singles competitor. When Mitsuharu Misawa left AJPW and created Pro Wrestling NOAH, Jun Akiyama was one of the wrestlers who jumped ship with him. In 2001 he got his first taste at singles gold with the prestigious GHC Heavyweight Championship of NOAH, he held it for 254 days. He would win the title two more times later on. After Misawa's unexpected passing in 2009, just two years later Akiyama left NOAH to return in AJPW. He helped in the rebuild of the company and to this day is still the head booker, while also an active competitor. In his comeback run Akiyama won the AJPW World Tag-Team Titles again four times, making him a 7x Champion! As of the writing of this blog, he is also the current All Asia Tag-Team Champion with Yuji Nagata. In 2011 he held the Triple Crown Championship for the first time and had an impressive 308 day reign! He won it again in 2015 but this time the reign only lasted for 62 days. Despite having numerous appearances, Akiyama has only won one Champion Carnival back in 2013. He has announced last year that he is retiring from the tournament as a whole but shocked the fans again by entering himself this year, could be his one last hoorah perhaps? KAI CC Appearances: 2 Promotion: AJPW Height: 5'10'' Weight: 220 lbs From: Kanagawa, Japan Atsushi Sakai or just simply KAI is one of the underrated workers today in Puroresu. Making his debut in 2007, KAI is a former 2x AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Champion and won the Junior League tournament twice. It wasn't until in 2012 where he transitioned into becoming a Heavyweight. When WRESTLE-1 was opened, he mainly competed there while also wrestling for other promotions such as ZERO1 and FMW. He is a 3x WRESTLE-1 Champion. On 2014 in a collaboration event between TNA and WRESTLE-1, KAI wrestled Magnus for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship but loss. Since last year, KAI started actively competing for AJPW once again and looks to build up his career there more now that he has left WRESTLE-1. He has already competed on two Champion Carnivals before and in fact on 2013 he was a finals participant. Let's see what he will bring to the table for this year's tournament. Zeus CC Appearances: 4 Promotion: AJPW Height: 5'11'' Weight: 231 lbs From: Osaka, Japan Kensho Obayashi or better known as Zeus, pretty much had a similar path to wrestling with his tag-team partner: The Bodyguard. Started out in Osaka Pro Wrestling until looking out for other ventures in other promotions. In 2014 he started actively competing for AJPW, becoming a 4x AJPW World Tag-Team Champion in the process. He has challenged multiple times for the Triple Crown Championship but is yet to get a hold of the belt. If I were to compare the two, Zeus is the better wrestler than Bodyguard. But both of them compliment each other well, and they make a solid hoss tag-team. He has already competed in four Champion Carnivals, the farthest he got was in the finals on 2016. Naomichi Marufuji CC Appearances: 0 Promotion: NOAH Height: 5'9'' Weight: 198 lbs From: Saitama, Japan Another legendary figure shall be participating for this year's Champion Carnival and it's none other than Naomichi Marufuji! In my opinion Marufuji is easily in the Top 5 Greatest Japanese Wrestlers of today! He started out his career in 1998 but in 2000 left AJPW to join Pro Wrestling NOAH, which has been his home promotion ever since. Marufuji became one of the biggest stars of NOAH outside of Misawa, Kobashi, and Taue. He has had a decorated career with NOAH becoming a 3x GHC Heavyweight, 5x GHC Tag-Team, 2x GHC Jr. Tag-Team, and 1x GHC Hardcore Openweight Champion. During those years in NOAH, Marufuji competed in some of the best matches in the company's history, my personal favorite was the one he had against KENTA in 2006. He has his fair share of international success too having competed for American and Mexican promotions. While Marufuji is loyal to NOAH, he isn't shy to showcase his talents for other promotions as well. From late 2008 to 2009 he had a short return to AJPW, becoming the Junior Heavyweight Champion there. In 2010 he also competed at NJPW, capturing the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship. Speaking of NJPW, Marufuji competed in the G1 Climax on 2016, reaching the semi-finals! He also challenged Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, which is still one of the greatest matches I have ever seen in modern day wrestling! Marufuji is a veteran when it comes to tournaments, he has participated in many throughout his illustrious ongoing two decade career. Now he will add the Champion Carnival in his resume of tournaments and looks to find success back to where it all started for him, in All Japan! SUWAMA CC Appearances: 12 Promotion: AJPW Height: 6'2'' Weight: 264 lbs From: Kanagawa, Japan Before Kento Miyahara took the top spot in AJPW today, it was Kohei Suwama or just simply SUWAMA who was the ace of AJPW throughout their twilight years! SUWAMA has had an accomplished career both as a singles and tag-team competitor. He made his in-ring debut on 2004 for AJPW and to this day still remains loyal to the company. He is a 6x Triple Crown Champion which is the record for most reigns with said belt! Also a 2x AJPW World Tag-Team Champion. He also had few matches for other promotions, mainly due to crossover events such as NJPW and NOAH. When AJPW weren't at the top of the food chain, SUWAMA helped in keeping the promotion alive. He was their top star and to this day is still one of the draws for the company, he was what Tanahashi is to NJPW if you will. A great wrestler in his own right too, certainly underrated to a lot of Western fans. Speaking of the West, he made appearances for TNA before but never wrestled inside the six-sided ring from my recollection. SUWAMA is second behind Akiyama for the most appearances at Champion Carnivals in this tournament, at 12 participations. He is won the tournament in 2008 but is yet to repeat that same feat. Could receive the same fate as well this year as the tournament is stacked with big names, but rest assured that SUWAMA will still deliver. Yoshitatsu CC Appearances: 0 Promotion: AJPW Height: 6'2'' Weight: 224 lbs From: Gifu, Japan Probably the name most Western fans are familiar of throughout this whole post is Yoshi Freakin' Tatsu! While most of you are probably aware of Yoshitatsu already, let me just do a quick background on him anyway. Initially competing for NJPW in his early years under his real name "Naofumi Yamamoto." NJPW had high hopes for him as he went under the same dojo class as Shinsuke Nakamura, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Katsuyori Shibata. Yes folks, Yoshi Tatsu at one point was seen at the same level as those men! But he never flourished and in 2007 signed a full time contract with the WWE. Yamamoto then went by the ring name "Yoshi Tatsu" during his tenure with the WWE and sadly for him he was a lower midcard at best, the closest he got to getting at the top was calling John Cena "his friend" against The Nexus, oh joy. Another failed run, Yoshi Tatsu left the WWE in 2014 and returned to NJPW only to minimal success again. This time he donned a persona of "The Bullet Club Hunter" and with Billy Gunn, they were the Anti-BC of NJPW, but once again he never came close to anything big and any hopes for a push got derailed when he suffered an injury at the hands of AJ Styles, a freak accident for sure but still an unfortunate one. Yoshi Tatsu also tried his hand at the commentary table while recovering from injury, leaving us with great lines such as "I WILL STEAL!" and "Yes." He is certainly not the second coming of Gordon Solie, I can assure you that. On March of 2016 he made his return in the ring, he won his first and only title with NJPW by becoming the NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag-Team Champion with Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin, the trio only held it for 23 days though. He wrestled his final match for NJPW in the G1 US Special, losing in a 6 man tag. After leaving NJPW, Yoshitatsu made his AJPW debut on September 2017. To this day he is still actively competing for the promotion and is one of the top midcarders. Just this year he already captured the AJPW World Tag-Team Championships with Kento Miyahara but they only held it for 22 days. Now he is looking to have a "career resurgence" by participating in his inaugural Champion Carnival. Never was a fan of Yoshi Tatsu, I just am not interested in him is all. But I do hope he finds success eventually. Yutaka Yoshie CC Appearances: 4 Promotion: Freelance Height: 5'11'' Weight: 330 lbs From: Gunma, Japan It ain't Puroresu without some comedy somehow, Yutaka Yoshie will certainly be providing that in some way for this year's Champion Carnival. Yoshie is a journeyman as well having wrestled for multiple promotions across Japan in his ongoing two decade career. He began with NJPW where he is a former IWGP Tag-Team Champion with Hiroshi Tanahashi, in 2006 he began his career as a freelancer. As a freelance, he wrestled notably for NOAH, ZERO1, Dradition, and Kaientai Dojo. Since 2014 however he has mainly been competing for AJPW and in 2015 even held the AJPW World Tag-Team Championships with Akebono. I've primarily watched his work at NOAH and what I like about Yoshie is that despite having his comedic side, he can get serious when the situation abides. He's not a bad wrestler as well for a man his size, he ain't no young Big Show in terms of athleticism for a big man, but far from terrible. This year will be his 5th Champion Carnival, although he never really went anywhere with his previous appearances. Despite being a big guy and all, look for him to eat up lots of pins. Someone has to do it sadly. James Raideen CC Appearances: 0 Promotion: ZERO-1 Height: 6'5'' Weight: 253 lbs From: Auckland, New Zealand Not really familar with James Raideen, all I know is that he is a graduate of the Team 3D Academy, a decent wrestler from New Zealand, and has mainly competed for ZERO1 even becoming a former World Champion there. Other than that this is my first time seeing him in action so I'm interested to see what he has to offer in his inaugural Champion Carnival. That's it for the discussion regarding the participants for the 2018 AJPW Champion Carnival! Hopefully you're just as excited as I am and also hoping for a continous success for AJPW and other Puro promotions.
Who is your bet to win? Any predictions in advance? Feel free to leave them in the comments below or tweet @SuperMastodon or @MastoWC Catch the whole tournament at AJPW TV and subscribe! Thanks For Reading. |
AuthorSuper Mastodon. Spent countless of hours throughout my life watching professional wrestling. Now I write about it, because I like that too. Archives
March 2021
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