The 2026 Champion Carnival winner was crowned on Sunday as All Japan Pro Wrestling wrapped up the annual tournament.
The Champion Carnival began in 1973 and remains the biggest tournament of the year for AJPW despite its lower profile from the promotion’s glory period.
The 2026 version featured sixteen participants over two blocks, with the round-robin stage beginning five weeks ago.
The final four were confirmed on May 5 as Go Shiozaki and Rei Saito topped Block A with eight points each and advanced past Kengo Mashimo and Talos on the tiebreaker rule. Hideki Suzuki and Dragongate’s Madoka Kikuta were the representatives of Block B, earning advancements in a tiebreaker scenario with Ren Ayabe, Ryuki Honda, and Daisuke Sekimoto.
Sunday’s semi-final and final went down at Ota City Gymnasium in front of 3,055. Shiozaki beat Kikuta in the first semi-final match, lasting over eighteen minutes and ending when Shiozaki hit the strong arm lariat. Suzuki advanced over Saito but only required sixty-nine seconds, winning with a horizontal cradle.
The show closed with Suzuki beating Shiozaki in 24:15 with a double arm suplex hold to win his first Champion Carnival.
The tournament victory sets Suzuki up to challenge Kento Miyahara for the Triple Crown on June 18 at Korakuen Hall.
Results (Courtesy: Purolove.com):
- Champion Carnival – Semifinal: Go Shiozaki over Madoka Kikuta in 18:13
- Champion Carnival – Semifinal: Hideki Suzuki over Rei Saito in 1:09
- Xyon, Oddyssey & Shotaro Ashino over Hokuto Omori, Takashi & Aizawa No. 1 in 11:10
- Yuma Aoyagi over Yasutaka Yano in 12:24
- Ren Ayabe, Talos & Shota Kofuji over Jun Saito, Naruki Doi & Senor Saito in 11:35
- Kento Miyahara, Yuma Anza, Ryuki Honda & Kuma Arashi over Daisuke Sekimoto, Hikaru Sato, Suwama & Kengo Mashimo in 16:21
- Dan Tamura, Rising HAYATO & Atsuki Aoyagi over MUSASHI, Ryo Inoue & Seiki Yoshioka in 14:31
- Champion Carnival – Final: Hideki Suzuki over Go Shiozaki in 24:15
