On April 4th, All Japan Pro Wrestling had a round-robin tournament called the Champion Carnival, which is what New Japan’s G1 Climax is. They had nine wrestlers per block and our Triple Crown Champion, Kento Miyahara was a part of the A Block and wanted to redeem himself when he lost in the finals last year to Naomichi Marufuji, which was an incredible match, and should definitely watch it. Anyway, Kento suffered losses to guys like Zeus, Shuji Ishikawa, and even Gianni Valletta and it looked like his chances of winning the tournament. On April 25th, Kento would defeat Yuji Okabayashi on the last day of A Block to get enough points to advance to the final round.
Now that he was able to secure a spot in the final round much like last year, he promised the fans that he wouldn’t repeat his failures and it’s time to see if that’ll actually happen as he was set to fight the winner of B Block, Jake Lee. If you’re not familiar with Kento and Jake, the two share a history together as they were once both members of NEXTREAM until Jake announced he left the faction when he returned last years from injury since Jake wanted to shine on his own. But between these two, however, Jake has never defeated Kento in one on one competition and that started on June 13, 2015, and Jake has failed to defeat him since. But now Jake is looking to finally defeat his former ally and rival in the final round of the Carnival.
The two fought on April 29th and after having an incredible match for nearly a half hour, Kento would once again defeat Jake to win the Carnival. Jake was really close to putting Kento away and I genuinely thought that he was actually going to win this match, that’s how intense that was but no matter how close he gets, it’s still not enough to put the ace of All Japan away. Don’t worry, Jake, you’ll one day defeat Kento and the moment will be huge the moment you do but it’s still Kento’s time. Kento did fulfill his promise of not repeating his failure of last year and won it while being their Triple Crown Champion and the last time that happened was in 2001 when Genichiro Tenryu won the tournament as champion.
There was significant importance of Kento winning this tournament and it was to better solidify himself as the face of the company. He won the Odo Tournament, four-time Triple Crown Champion, All Asia Tag Team Champion, two-time World Tag Team Champion, Real World Tag League, and now he’s the Champion Carnival winner. Aside from the All Asia Heavyweight Championship, he was able to accomplish everything he could in All Japan. He’s someone people should be invested in as he has that old school feel of wrestling but is able to make it entertaining at the same time along with his charisma. He’s someone that will lead All Japan to a better future along with Jake Lee, Naoya Nomura, and Yumi Aoyagi as they’re known as the future of the company.
So what is next for Kento to do now that he won the tournament? Well, he has his next Triple Crown Championship scheduled as he fights one of the people that defeated him in the tournament, Shuji Ishikawa and that’ll happen on May 20th. He does have a few goals in mind as he wants to hold the Triple Crown and World Tag Team Championships at the same time to become a five-crown champion and also wants to break the record of most successful title defenses. That record currently belongs to Toshiaki Kawada as he had ten title defenses before he had to drop it and he did get close during his first defense, but he failed at the end. He currently has three successful defenses in this reign and needs eight more to go if he wants to break that record.
I wanna thank you all for taking the time of your day to read this article and hoped you all enjoyed it. I highly recommend looking this guy up if you haven’t seen him as the guy is an incredible worker and can make most matches good. If you need more convincing, even Dave Meltzer, you know the guy that the majority of fans believe even praised him by saying “Kento Miyahara, who is an old school sort of way, may be the best worker in the business right now.” And he’s right, he really is one of the best workers right now. I even have a gift for you all, I have three of Kento’s matches down below for you to enjoy and see if it’ll have your attention in him and All Japan. If you like what you see, then subscribe at ajpw.tv and enjoy the experience.
Champion Carnival 2018 Final
Kento Miyahara vs. Naomichi Marufuji
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RqREt399R4
Champion Carnival 2019 Final
Kento Miyahara vs. Jake Lee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nfUfKNjybI&t=2s
Triple Crown Championship
Zeus (c) vs. Kento Miyahara
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFWkoHIdmjk
