AJPW Champion Carnival Edition 2019 - Get to know all 18 competitors
All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) will hold the 46th edition of Champion Carnival from April 4 to 29, the longest-running singles tournament in professional wrestling.
This is the most important event of the AJPW calendar, whose first and last day of competition will take place in the historic Korakuen Hall. The winner of the tournament will become a contender for the Triple Crown Championship.
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 finals to determine the tournament winner.
Among the Carnival Championship winners, we find names of many pro wrestling legends such as Giant Baba, Abdulla the Butcher, Stan Hansen, Mitsuharu Misawa, Big Van Vader, Kenta Kobashi, Keiji Mutoh (aka The Great Muta), Minoru Suzuki, Yuji Nagata and Jun Akiyama.
On this occasion, the tournament will have the participation of 18 wrestlers: thirteen Japanese and five gaijin. The gaijin of the tournament will not only be Joe Doering (USA), Dylan James (New Zealand) and Gianni Valletta (Malta), regular wrestlers of the AJPW roster, because in this edition will also participate two other gaijin: Sam Adonis, an American heel very famous for his work in Mexico, and Joel Redman (fka Oliver Gray), former NXT Superstar and first NXT Tag Team Champion with Neville as British Ambition.
Here's an introduction to every wrestler competing at the Champion Carnival 2019.
#1 Kento Miyahara
Kento Miyahara, with only 30 years of age, is now the face of AJPW. After starting at Pro Wrestling NOAH in 2008, Miyahara was hired by AJPW full-time since 2013 and his career has not stopped climbing.
Miyahara has once been All Asia Tag Team Champion (with Kotaro Suziki as Xceed), twice AJPW World Tag Team Champion (with Go Shiozaki and Yoshitatsu), once Real World Tag League champion in 2015 (with Suwama), once Odo Tournament champion in 2018 and current Triple Crown Champion in his fourth reign.
Despite all his achievements at AJPW, Miyahara has not been able to win the Champion Carnival and is a pending goal to fulfill for him.