Champion Carnival
All Japan Pro Wrestling tournament / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Champion Carnival?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
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]
Champion Carnival | |
---|---|
Promotions | All Japan Pro Wrestling |
First event | 1973 |
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]