The is a

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

tournament held by

All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW/AJP) or simply All Japan is a Puroresu, Japanese professional wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on October 21, 1972, by Giant Baba after he left the Japanese Wrestling Association to create his own promotion. Ma ...

(AJPW). The tournament is also known by the nickname and is sometimes abbreviated to CC. Created by AJPW founder

Giant Baba , best known by his ring name , was a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter, and professional baseball player. He is best known as a co-founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), a promotion he founded in 1972 along with Mitsuo Momota ...

, 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. It is considered a successor to the World League, held by

Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance The , also known as the Japan Pro Wrestling Association and the Japanese Wrestling Association (JWA), was the first professional wrestling promotion to be based in Japan. It operated from 1953 to 1973. History JWA under Rikidōzan (1953–1963 ...

(JWA) between 1959 and 1972, predating the

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Puroresu, Japanese professional-wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, and based in Nakano, Tokyo. It is currently majority owned by card-game company Bushiroad, with TV As ...

(NJPW)

G1 Climax The is a professional wrestling tournament held each August by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. Though it has sometimes been held as a single-elimination tournament, it is usually – and currently – held as a round-rob ...

tournament by a year. 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. Baba himself holds the record for most Champion Carnival wins, having won the tournament seven times. Other notable winners include

Abdullah the Butcher Lawrence Robert Shreve (born January 11, 1941), better known by the ring name Abdullah the Butcher, is a Canadian retired professional wrestler. He has a reputation for being involved in some of the most violent and bloody hardcore wrestling mat ...

Jumbo Tsuruta , better known by his ring name , was a Japanese professional wrestler who wrestled for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) for most of his career, and is well known for being the first ever Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, having won the PWF Heavy ...

Keiji Mutoh is a Japanese professional wrestling executive, actor and retired professional wrestler. He is known for his work under his real name and as his alter ego in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), as well as World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and duri ...

Mitsuharu Misawa was a Japanese professional wrestler and promoter. He is primarily known for spending 18 years with All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and subsequently leading the 2000 All Japan Pro Wrestling mass exodus, which culminated in him forming Pro W ...

Stan Hansen John Stanley Hansen II (born August 29, 1949), best known as Stan "the Lariat" Hansen, is an American retired professional wrestler. Hansen is known for his stiff wrestling style, which he attributed to his poor eyesight, and for his gimmick a ...

Toshiaki Kawada (born December 8, 1963) is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his work in All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), whom he worked for from his debut in 1982 up until 2008. In the promotion, he was a five-time Triple Crown He ...

and

Kento Miyahara is a Japanese professional wrestler, signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is a six time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion. He was trained by Kensuke Sasaki and started his career in his Kensuke Office promotion in February 2008, ...

. Four wrestlers have won both the Champion Carnival and the G1 Climax: Mutoh,

Satoshi Kojima is a Japanese professional wrestler. He is signed to both New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Major League Wrestling (MLW), where he is a former two-time MLW World Heavyweight Championship, MLW World Heavyweight Champion and former one half of the MLW W ...

Kensuke Sasaki is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his numerous runs in the top three Japanese wrestling promotions; New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and Pro Wrestling Noah. He was the founder and o ...

and

Yuji Nagata is a Japanese Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, and former mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist and amateur wrestling, amateur wrestler signed to New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). Considered one of the greatest Japanese wrestlers ...

, with Kojima the only one to win them alongside

Fire Festival is an annual professional wrestling round-robin tournament held by Pro Wrestling Zero1 to determine the top wrestler in the promotion, typically contested in late July/early August. Within the English-speaking professional wrestling world, the ...

and Nagata the only one to win them alongside the

Global League The N-1 Victory is an annual professional wrestling Round-robin tournament, round-robin professional wrestling tournament, tournament held by Pro Wrestling Noah, established in 2010 as the Global League. In 2019, the tournament was rebranded as t ...

History

From 1959 to 1972, the

(JWA), run by

Rikidōzan (born Kim Sin-rak; ; November 14, 1924 – December 15, 1963), better known as Rikidōzan (), was a Korean-born Japanese wrestler who competed in sumo and professional wrestling. He was known as The Father of Puroresu (professional wrestling ...

, held a tournament called World League (also known as the "World Big League"), which featured both Japanese and foreign professional wrestlers. Rikidōzan himself dominated the annual tournament early on, however, after his death in 1963, the tournament was won six times by

and once by

Antonio Inoki (born ; 20 February 1943 – 1 October 2022) was a Japanese professional wrestler, Glossary of professional wrestling terms#school, professional wrestling trainer, martial arts, martial artist, politician, and Promoter (entertainment), promot ...

. JWA folded shortly after both Baba and Inoki left the promotion to create

(AJPW) and

(NJPW), respectively. Both men took the concept of World League with them to their new promotions, with Baba creating the "Champion Carnival" in 1973 and Inoki creating the World League in 1974, later renaming it

. The first Champion Carnival took place only six months after Baba had founded AJPW. The initial tournament was held in a

single-elimination A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

format and was intended for AJPW's heavyweight wrestlers such as

Hiro Matsuda (July 22, 1937 – November 27, 1999), best known by his ring name , was a Japanese professional wrestler and trainer. Professional wrestling career Kojima played an active role as an ace pitcher at baseball in Nittai Ebara High School Baseball ...

Samson Kutsuwada was a Japanese professional wrestler, better known by the ring name . Professional wrestling career Kutsuwada trained under Karl Gotch and joined Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JPWA) in August 1967. In 1972, Kutsuwada left the JPWA to join t ...

and Thunder Sugiyama. For the tournament, Baba also recruited several foreign wrestlers, such as

Baron Scicluna Mikel Scicluna (July 29, 1929 – March 20, 2010) was a Maltese professional wrestler who gained his fame during the 1960s and 1970s. He reached the peak of his success in WWWF where he was 2-time tag-team champion, having held the United ...

, The Destroyer,

King Curtis Iaukea Curtis Piehau Iaukea III (September 15, 1937 – December 4, 2010) was an American professional wrestler better known as King Curtis Iaukea. Iaukea won championships in several of the major regional U.S. promotions, both as a single and in vari ...

and

Mark Lewin Mark Lewin (born March 16, 1937) is an American retired professional wrestler. He worked for various promotions throughout his 35-year career, including Big Time Wrestling, Championship Wrestling from Florida, and the World Wide Wrestling Fede ...

. Baba himself won the inaugural tournament, defeating Lewin in the final. A year later, AJPW presented the second Champion Carnival, which most notably introduced former Olympian

, who eventually went on to become one of the promotion's top names. Baba also won the second Champion Carnival, this time defeating

Mr. Wrestling George Burrell Woodin (July 28, 1934 – November 30, 2002) was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring names, Mr. Wrestling and Tim Woods. Collegiate wrestling career Woodin received a degree in agricultural engineering f ...

in the final. Heading into the 1975 Champion Carnival, Baba changed the tournament's format. Now the four wrestlers who advanced to the semifinals in the single-elimination tournament were put into a

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

, where the wrestler with the best record would be declared the winner. Baba went on to win the tournament for the third year in a row, defeating

Gene Kiniski Eugene Nicholas Kiniski (November 23, 1928 – April 14, 2010) was a Canadian athlete who played football for the Edmonton Eskimos and then became a three-time professional wrestling world heavyweight champion. "Canada's Greatest Athlete", as he ...

in the final. A year later, the single-elimination portion of the tournament was eliminated and the Champion Carnival was changed to a pure round-robin tournament, a format it holds to this day. The 1976 tournament was the first Champion Carnival not won by Baba. It was instead won by Canadian

, who defeated Baba in the final. Baba went on to win the tournament four more times, winning a total of seven out of the ten first Champion Carnivals. In early 1980s, AJPW loaded the Champion Carnival with some of the top foreign wrestlers in the world, including

Billy Robinson William Alfred Robinson (18 September 1938 – 27 February 2014) was an English professional wrestler, amateur wrestler, and coach. Having trained at Billy Riley's gym, better known as " The Snake Pit" in Wigan, Robinson was one of the leadin ...

Bruiser Brody Frank Donald Goodish (June 18, 1946 – July 17, 1988) was an American professional wrestler who earned his greatest fame under the ring name Bruiser Brody. He also worked as King Kong Brody, the Masked Marauder, and Red River Jack. Over the year ...

Dick Slater Richard Van Slater (May 19, 1951 – October 18, 2018) better known by his ring name "Dirty" Dick Slater, was an American professional wrestler who wrestled in the 1970s, 1980s, and mid-1990s for various promotions including Mid-Atlantic Champ ...

Jack Brisco Freddie Joe "Jack" Brisco (September 21, 1941 – February 1, 2010) was an American amateur wrestler and professional wrestler. As an amateur for Oklahoma State, Brisco was two-time All-American and won the NCAA Division I national championship ...

Ted DiBiase Theodore Marvin DiBiase Sr. (; born January 18, 1954) is an American retired professional wrestler, manager, and color commentator. He is signed to WWE as of 2024, where he works in their Legends program. DiBiase achieved championship succ ...

and

Terry Funk Terrance Dee Funk (June 30, 1944 – August 23, 2023) was an American professional wrestler and actor. Widely considered one of the most influential and greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Funk was known for the longevity of his car ...

. However, after rival promotion NJPW took over as the number one promotion in Japan with a record-breaking business streak, AJPW decided to put the Champion Carnival on hiatus, not wanting the tournament to be overshadowed by their competitors. The hiatus lasted from 1983 to 1991. In 1991, AJPW had overtaken NJPW and was again the top promotion in Japan, boasting a roster of top foreign wrestlers mixed with top Japanese wrestlers. The 1991 tournament showcased several younger wrestlers, including

Kenta Kobashi (born, March 27, 1967) is a Japanese professional wrestling promoter and retired wrestler. Broadly referred to by the nickname , he is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time. He is best known for his two run ...

and

, who bypassed the promotion's aging veterans and went on to become the promotion's cornerstones for the next decade. However, despite the emergence of the younger wrestlers and the participation of foreign wrestlers such as

Doug Furnas Dwight Douglas Furnas (December 11, 1959 – February 2012) was an American professional wrestler and powerlifter. He was an APF National and World Powerlifting Champion, who set multiple world records in the weight class. As a wrestler, Furna ...

The Dynamite Kid Thomas Wilton Billington (5 December 1958 – 5 December 2018), best known by the ring name the Dynamite Kid, was a British professional wrestler. Trained by former wrestler "Dr Death" Ted Betley, he competed in the World Wrestling Federation ...

Johnny Ace John Marshall Alexander Jr. (June 9, 1929 – December 25, 1954), known by the stage name Johnny Ace, was an American rhythm-and-blues singer. He had a string of hit singles in the mid-1950s. He emerged as a prominent figure in postwar R&B an ...

Johnny Smith Johnny Henry Smith II (June 25, 1922 – June 11, 2013) was an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist. He wrote " Walk, Don't Run" in 1954. In 1984, Smith was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. Early life During the Great ...

and

Mick Foley Michael Francis Foley (born June 7, 1965) is an American retired professional wrestler and author. He is signed to WWE, under a Legends contract while also serving as an ambassador. Foley worked for many wrestling promotions, including the W ...

, the 1991 tournament was won by an AJPW veteran Jumbo Tsuruta, who defeated Stan Hansen in the final. The 1992 tournament was booked around the storyline of the "young lions" challenging the veterans for AJPW supremacy. Stan Hansen went on to win his first Champion Carnival, defeating Mitsuharu Misawa in the final. Despite losing in the final, the tournament made Misawa a star, someone earmarked to occupy the promotion's top spot. A year later, Hansen again defeated Misawa in the final. The 1993 tournament was also noteworthy for introducing rookie

Jun Akiyama (born October 9, 1969) is a Japanese professional wrestler signed to DDT Pro-Wrestling, where he is a former KO-D Openweight Champion. He is best known for his time working for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he was the president, rep ...

. In 1994, Toshiaki Kawada became the first of the "young lions" to win the Champion Carnival, defeating "Dr. Death" Steve Williams in the final, a match that has been called "arguably the greatest Carnival tournament match of all time". For the next several years the tournament was dominated by AJPW's younger wrestlers with Kawada repeating his win, Mitsuharu Misawa winning two tournaments and Kenta Kobashi one tournament. The 1997 tournament ended in a rare three-way draw between Kawada, Kobashi and Misawa, resulting in a round-robin playoff between the three, where Kawada emerged victorious. On January 31, 1999, Giant Baba died, leaving the promotion in the hands of Mitsuharu Misawa. The 1999 Champion Carnival was the first one not booked by Baba. As the new booker, Misawa made a controversial decision to leave Stan Hansen out of the tournament, while giving Vader the win in the final over Kenta Kobashi. Problems between Misawa and Giant Baba's widow Motoko Baba led to Misawa exiting AJPW in 2000, taking 26 out of the 28 Japanese AJPW wrestlers with him to form the new Pro Wrestling Noah promotion. Struggling to cope with the loss of the majority of its roster, AJPW eventually hired NJPW wrestler

to lead the promotion. Mutoh went on to win the Champion Carnival three times (2002, 2004 and 2007), before leaving the promotion in 2013, after which he was replaced by Jun Akiyama. 2013 also saw Akiyama finally win his first Champion Carnival, twenty years after his debut appearance in the tournament. In recent years, several outsiders have won the tournament, with

freelancer ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

Minoru Suzuki (born June 17, 1968) is a Japanese Professional wrestling, professional wrestler and former Mixed martial arts, mixed martial artist, known for his tenure in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a former one-time IWGP Intercontinental Ch ...

winning it in

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

and

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, NJPW representative

winning it in

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion established in 1995. It is most famous for its deathmatch style contests. History Big Japan Pro Wrestling was founded in March 1995 by former AJPW wrestlers Shinya Kojika and Kendo Nagas ...

(BJW) representative

Daisuke Sekimoto (born February 9, 1981) is a Japanese professional wrestler, currently signed to Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW) in the Strong BJ division. He is also known for his appearances in Pro Wrestling Zero1-Max. He is a three-time BJW World Strong Hea ...

winning it in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, freelancer

Shuji Ishikawa is a Japanese people, Japanese Professional wrestling, professional wrestler, currently signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is a former Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, World Tag Team Championship (AJPW), World Tag Team Champio ...

winning it in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, and Pro Wrestling Noah representative

Naomichi Marufuji (born September 26, 1979) is a Japanese professional wrestler signed to Pro Wrestling Noah. Marufuji is a four-time GHC Heavyweight Champion, as well as the first of two men to win Junior Heavyweight Championships in all three major Japanese ...

winning it in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

. On April 2, 2020, AJPW held a press conference, delaying this year's Champion Carnival, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On May 28, they confirmed that the tournament has been moved to September.

List of winners

1973

The 1973 Champion Carnival is the first edition of the Champion Carnival. It took place from March 17 to April 21, featuring fifteen wrestlers in a single-elimination format.

received a first-round bye, and was the inaugural winner of the tournament. ¹This match originally ended in a no-contest on April 10, so a rematch was scheduled for April 14 to determine the 1st finalist with Mark Lewin winning.
²The finals were contested under best of 3 falls rules, with Baba winning the first fall at 12:49 and Lewin winning the second fall at 16:55. Baba won the third and decisive fall at 19:20, thus becoming the inaugural Champion Carnival winner.

1974

The 1974 Champion Carnival is the second edition of the Champion Carnival. It took place from April 13 to May 11, featuring fifteen wrestlers in a single-elimination format.

emerging as the winner after defeating

in the final match. It was Baba's second tournament win. ¹The first round match between Destroyer and Abdullah was so rough that it was impossible for the match to take place, and both were disqualified due to four consecutive no-contests.
²The finals were contested under best of 3 falls rules, with Wrestling winning the first fall at 8:30 and Baba winning the second fall at 11:15. Baba won the third and decisive fall at 14:20, thus becoming the second Champion Carnival winner.

1975

The 1975 Champion Carnival is the third edition of the Champion Carnival. It took place from April 5 to May 3, featuring fourteen wrestlers in a unique single-elimination format with repechage and a final round-robin league.

emerged as the winner after defeating

in the final match. It was Baba's third tournament win. ¹This match originally ended in a time limit draw on April 6, so a rematch was scheduled for April 10 to determine the winner with Jumbo Tsuruta winning.
²This match originally ended in a no-contest on April 5, so a rematch was scheduled for April 6 to determine the winner but the match ended with double count-out, so a rematch was scheduled for April 12 to determine the winner with Giant Baba winning.
³This match was contested under best of 3 falls rules, with Baba winning the first fall at 12:12 and Kiniski winning the second fall at 15:14. Baba won the third and decisive fall at 18:39, thus becoming the third Champion Carnival winner.

1976

The 1976 Champion Carnival took place from April 7 to March 8, featuring fourteen wrestlers in a round-robin format. The tournament was won by

, who defeated

via disqualification in the finals. It was Butcher's first tournament win.

1978

The 1978 Champion Carnival took place from March 4 to April 7, featuring fifteen wrestlers in a round-robin format. The tournament was won by

, who defeated

via countout in the finals. It was Baba's fifth tournament win.

1979

The 1979 Champion Carnival took place from March 3 to April 6, featuring sixteen wrestlers in a round-robin format. The tournament was won by

, who defeated

in the second of two playoff matches after both men tied atop the standings. The first playoff match resulted in a double-countout, and a second match was held. *Playoff matches: :*

vs.

ended in a double-countout (13:14) :*Abdullah the Butcher defeated Jumbo Tsuruta (2:11)

1980

The 1980 Champion Carnival took place from March 28 to May 1, featuring thirteen wrestlers in a round-robin format. The tournament was won by

, who defeated

in the final.

1981

The 1981 Champion Carnival took place from March 27 to April 23, featuring fourteen wrestlers in a round-robin format.

won the tournament for the sixth time.

1982

The 1982 Champion Carnival took place from March 23 to April 18, featuring eighteen wrestlers in a round-robin format.

won the tournament for the seventh time.

1991

The 1991 Champion Carnival took place from March 23 to April 18, featuring fourteen wrestlers participating in a two-block round-robin format. The two wrestlers who finished atop each block met in the final.

, the reigning

Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion The is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in the Japanese All Japan Pro Wrestling promotion. The current champion is Jun Saito, who is in his first reign. Title history The championship was established after the unificat ...

, defeated

in the final.

1992

The 1992 Champion Carnival took place from March 20 to April 17, featuring twenty wrestlers participating in a two-block round-robin format. The two wrestlers who finished atop each block met in the final. Stan Hansen, the reigning

, defeated

in the final.

1993

The 1993 Champion Carnival took place from March 25 to April 21, featuring thirteen wrestlers participating in a single-block round-robin format. Stan Hansen repeated as tournament champion, a feat that had only been achieved by

suffered an arm injury in a tag team match on the first event of the tournament, partnered with

Takao Omori is a Japanese professional wrestling, professional wrestler, working for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he is a one-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship, Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion and seven-time World Tag Team Championship ( ...

against

Satoru Asako is a retired Japanese professional wrestler who worked for All Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Noah. Professional wrestling career All Japan Pro Wrestling (1991–2000) Asako made his debut in a tag team match with Richard Slinger, losi ...

and Masao Inoue (their first match as a team). Akiyama was unable to participate in the tournament as a result.

1994

The 1994 Champion Carnival took place from March 19 to April 16, featuring twelve wrestlers participating in a single-block round-robin format.

won the tournament in his fourth appearance.

was injured during the tournament, causing him to miss most of it.

1995

The 1995 Champion Carnival took place from March 21 to April 15, featuring eleven wrestlers participating in a single-block round-robin format.

won the tournament. There were originally twelve wrestlers scheduled for the tournament, but that number dropped to eleven on March 22 when Steve Williams was suspended from AJPW for one year after being found in possession of

painkillers An analgesic drug, also called simply an analgesic, antalgic, pain reliever, or painkiller, is any member of the group of drugs used for pain management. Analgesics are conceptually distinct from anesthetics, which temporarily reduce, and in so ...

at the airport and returned to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

1996

The 1996 Champion Carnival took place from March 22 to April 20, featuring twelve wrestlers in a single-block round-robin format.

Akira Taue is a Japanese retired professional wrestler. He is best known for his runs in All Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Noah, where he worked for all of his career in both promotions. A former sumo wrestler who went under the name , he retire ...

, one-half of the reigning AJPW World Tag Team Champions, won the tournament, after having fallen to

in the 1995 final.

1997

The 1997 Champion Carnival was held from March 22 to April 19, featuring thirteen wrestlers in a single-block round-robin format. Due to a three-way tie for first place between

and

, a one-night round-robin playoff was contested among them with the winner claiming the tournament.

1998

The 1998 Champion Carnival was held from March 21 to April 18, featuring thirteen wrestlers in a single-block round-robin format, with the top two finishers wrestling in the final. The reigning

won the tournament for the second time, also having won in 1995.

1999

The 1999 Champion Carnival was held from March 24 to April 16, featuring ten wrestlers in a single-block round-robin format, with the top two finishers wrestling in the final. Vader, reigning

, won the tournament in his first appearance.

2000

The 2000 Champion Carnival was held from March 24 to April 15, featuring sixteen wrestlers in a single-elimination format.

, reigning

, won the tournament in his 10th consecutive appearance.

2001

The 2001 Champion Carnival was held from March 23 to April 11, featuring ten wrestlers in a single-block round-robin format, with the top two finishers wrestling in the final.

Genichiro Tenryu , better known as is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and professional wrestling promoter. At age 13, he entered sumo wrestling and stayed there for 13 years, after which he turned to Western-style professional wrestling. "Tenryu" was h ...

, reigning

, won the tournament in his second appearance, his first since 1982.

2002

The 2002 Champion Carnival was held from March 23 to April 10, re-introduced the dual-block round-robin format used in 1991 and 1992, this time with seven men in each block; the top two scorers in each would advance to a four-man tournament, with Block A's first place finalist facing Block B's runner-up, and vice versa, and the winners wrestling in the final. Despite the

Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship The is a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship in the Japanese All Japan Pro Wrestling promotion. The current champion is Jun Saito, who is in his first reign. Title history The championship was established after the unifica ...

being vacant as a result of

injuring his knee after his match against

Arashi is a Japanese boy band consisting of five members formed under the Johnny & Associates talent agency. The members are Satoshi Ohno, Sho Sakurai, Masaki Aiba, Kazunari Ninomiya, and Jun Matsumoto. Arashi officially formed on September 15, 199 ...

(thereby forfeiting all his other scheduled matches), All Japan decided not to use the tournament to fill the vacancy, citing the time limit for tournament matches (30 minutes as opposed to 60 in championship bouts). The winner,

, became the first man in history to win both the Champion Carnival and the G1 Climax, as well as the second man (after Vader) to win the Carnival in his first appearance.

2003

The 2003 version of the Champion Carnival took place between March 22 and March 28.

George Hines George Hines (born June 1, 1963) is an American retired professional wrestler, best known by his ringname Jackie Fulton, who competed in regional and independent promotions including the American Wrestling Association, East Coast Championship W ...

and Nobutaka Araya received byes to the quarterfinals, leaving

Yoji Anjo (born March 28, 1967) is a retired Japanese professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and kickboxer. Anjo is considered to be one of the pioneers of the shoot style movement during the 1980s and early 90s. Professional wrestling career Uni ...

Gigantes In Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, the Giants, also called Gigantes (Ancient Greek, Greek: Γίγαντες, ''wiktionary:gigantes, Gígantes'', Γίγας, ''wiktionary:gigas, Gígas''), were a race of great strength and aggression, ...

, The Gladiator and Big John Tenta to fight in the first round.

Shinya Hashimoto was a Japanese professional wrestler, promoter and actor. Along with Masahiro Chono and Keiji Mutoh, Hashimoto was dubbed one of the " Three Musketeers" that began competing in New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in the mid-1980s and dominated the p ...

, reigning

, did not participate, citing prior commitments to his

Pro Wrestling Zero1 , often referred to simply as Zero1 and sometimes referred to as Pro Wrestling Zero1 Catch as Catch Can (stylized as ZERO1 and PRO WRESTLING ZERO1 CATCH AS CATCH CAN, respectively), is a Professional wrestling in Japan, Japanese professional wre ...

promotion.

2004

The 2004 version of the Champion Carnival took between April 10 and April 20.

2005

The 2005 version of the Champion Carnival took place between April 9 and April 20.

, the winner of this edition, was the second man to win both Champion Carnival and

tournaments, the first man being Keiji Mutoh.

2006

The 2006 version of the Champion Carnival took place between April 7 and April 20.

2007

The 2007 version of the Champion Carnival took place between March 26 and March 30.

2008

The 2008 version of the Champion Carnival took place between April 5 and April 9.

2009

The 2009 version of the Champion Carnival tournament took place between April 5 and April 12.

2010

The 2010 version of the Champion Carnival took place between April 3 and April 11.

2011

The 2011 version of the Champion Carnival tournament took place between April 8 and April 13. Kenso suffered an injury and was forced to drop out of the tournament after his first match, forfeiting the rest of his matches.

2012

The 2012 version of the Champion Carnival took place between April 21 and May 7.

Yutaka Yoshie was a Japanese professional wrestler, who worked as a freelancer in Japan, performing most notably for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), where he was a former World Tag Team Champion. He had previously worked for promotions such as New Japan Pr ...

suffered an injury and was forced to forfeit the rest of his matches. Takumi Soya was injured after his fifth match and was pulled out of the tournament as well, forfeiting his final match.

, the reigning

, did not participate due to commitments with Pro Wrestling Noah.

2013

The 2013 version of the Champion Carnival tournament took place between April 18 to April 29.

2014

The 2014 version of the Champion Carnival tournament took place between April 13 and April 27. Akebono, reigning

, who was leading his block at the time, was forced to pull out of the tournament on April 22 after being hospitalized with poor health, forfeiting his last two matches (The title was eventually declared vacant on May 30, after the tournament was over.) On April 25,

Go Shiozaki is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to Pro Wrestling Noah. He is a record-holding five time former GHC Heavyweight Champion. He made his debut for the Pro Wrestling Noah in July 2004 and initially remained with Pro Wrestling No ...

also withdrew from the tournament due to a broken thumb, and forfeited his final match against

2015

The 2015 version of the Champion Carnival tournament took place between April 5 and April 25.

2016

The 2016 version of the Champion Carnival tournament took place between April 9 and April 24.

2017

The 2017 version of the Champion Carnival tournament took place between April 16 and April 30.

2018

The 2018 version of the Champion Carnival tournament took place between April 7 and April 30.

2019

The 2019 version of the Champion Carnival took place between April 4 and April 29. Eighteen wrestlers competed in this tournament with nine men in each block.

Kengo Mashimo is a Japanese professional wrestler currently working for Active Advance Pro Wrestling (2AW). His style is a combination of submission wrestling and hard martial arts style strikes. Professional wrestling career Kaientai Dojo/Active Advance ...

was originally scheduled to compete, but was forced to withdraw due to injury.

Atsushi Aoki was a Japanese professional wrestler who worked for All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) as a wrestler, president of talent relations and head trainer at their dojo. Aoki began his career in Pro Wrestling Noah in 2005, where he went on to become a tw ...

took his place.

, reigning

, won the tournament in his sixth consecutive appearance.

2020

The 2020 Champion Carnival was a ten-man, two-block round-robin tournament that took place from September 12 until October 5, postponed from its original dates of April as a result of the

2021

The 2021 edition of the Champion Carnival took place between April 9 and May 3, 2021. For the first time since 2001, the round-robin tournament was a single table, with ten participants. Shinjiro Otani forfeited his final two matches due to injury.

2022

The 2022 edition of the Champion Carnival took place between April 9 and May 4, 2022. This edition saw the return of the two-block round robin format after its absence in the 2021 edition. There were twelve participants including Big Japan Pro-Wrestling's Takuya Nomura and

Gleat Gleat (stylized as GLEAT and pronounced as "great") is a Japanese professional wrestling and mixed martial arts promotion founded in 2020 by former Pro Wrestling Noah parent company Lidet Entertainment after the acquisition of Noah and DDT Pr ...

's T-Hawk competing in this year's tournament as special guests.

2023

The 2023 edition of the Champion Carnival took place between April 8 and May 7, 2023, with sixteen wrestlers participating.

Naoya Nomura Naoya Nomura (born October 26, 1993) is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling, where he is former All Asia Tag Team and World Tag Team Champion. He also has a background in rugby. Early life Nomura starte ...

was originally scheduled to compete, but pulled out due to injury.

took his place in the tournament.

2024

The 2024 edition of the Champion Carnival took place between April 18 and May 12, 2024, with sixteen wrestlers participating.

Hideki Suzuki is a Japanese professional wrestling, professional wrestler and Catch wrestling, catch wrestler signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling. Trained by Billy Robinson, Suzuki started his career with the Inoki Genome Federation (IGF) promotion in 2008. In ...

Ren Ayabe is a Japanese professional wrestler currently signed to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). He is also known for his tenure with Professional Wrestling Just Tap Out (JTO) and for his work in various other Japanese independent scene promotions. Pro ...

Hartley Jackson Hartley Jackson (born 17 April 1980) is an Australian professional wrestler who primarily works as a freelancer for various Japanese promotions, including New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), where he is a member of TMDK. After working on the indep ...

, Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lord Crewe made their tournament debuts. This was also Crewe's AJPW debut.

2025

The 2025 edition of the Champion Carnival will take place between April 9 and May 18, 2025, with eighteen wrestlers participating. Xyon, Aigle Blanc, Mike D Vecchio, and Madoka Kikuta will be making their tournament debuts. Cyrus was originally meant to take part in the tournament, but due to health issues,

Takashi Yoshida , also known by his former stage name , is a Japanese professional wrestler currently wrestling for Dragon Gate (wrestling), Dragongate under his real name. Professional wrestling career Cyber Kong's career started in 2006. He competed as an ar ...

was inserted in his place.

References

External links

Official tournament history at All-Japan.co.jp
{{AJPW All Japan Pro Wrestling tournaments

History

List of winners

1973

1974

1975

1976

1978

1979

1980

1981

1982

1991

1992

1993

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

2025

See also

References

External links