Kento Miyahara wins AJPW Champion Carnival
By Paul Bradley
After a month-long tournament, Kento Miyahara has won the 2019 AJPW Champion Carnival by defeating Jake Lee in the finals.
The Champion Carnival, All Japan’s equivalent to New Japan’s G1 Climax, is a month-long tournament featuring two blocks of 18 wrestlers competing for the the title of the Champion Carnival winner and the prestigious Carnival trophy.
The Champion Carnival began in 1973 and has been a stable of the Japanese pro wrestling scene ever since. Previous winners have included Giant Baba, Stan Hansen, Vader and Minoru Suzuki.
This year’s historic tournament featured wrestlers from All Japan, Big Japan, Dragon Gate, and even featured wrestlers from the United States, the UK, and Italy.
Kento Miyahara, the current AJPW Triple Crown Champion and face of the company, came into the finals with five wins and three losses and was heavily favored as the projected winner of the tournament.
Jake Lee, a former stablemate of Miyahara, came in with five wins and three losses as well and was fresh off a hotly contested semi-final tie-breaker win against Naoya Nomura.
Both men had never won a Champion Carnival before but Miyahara had been to the finals in the previous year, almost beating Naomichi Marafuji for the win, so many expected Miyahara to not lose two finals in a row.
The match ended up being a fierce contest with the momentum swinging back and forth throughout. Lee’s cockiness cost him quite a bit as Miyahara would capitalize and even hit a German suplex off the ring apron. The crowd, firmly behind their ace, erupted when Miyahara hit his patented bridging package German suplex to secure the win.
Many All Japan fans are calling this rigorous contest a match of the year candidate and are recommending this match to all who will listen.
This year’s edition of the Champion Carnival was a great month of spectacular matches and come highly recommended by many wrestling fans.
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To watch the finals and the rest of the Carnival, All Japan has a streaming service available.