Tenryu wins Carnival Championship, All Japan tournament concludes
By JOHN F. MOLINARO -- SLAM! Wrestling
Current
Triple Crown Heavyweight champion Genichiro Tenryu defeated Taiyo Kea in the finals of All
Japan Pro Wrestling's annual
Champion Carnival tournament today before 4,850 fans at the City Gymnasium
in Sendai, Japan.
Tenryu secured the victory after 17:08 of action when he pinned Kea following a lariat clothesline.
The three-week tournament kicked off on March 23 in Tokyo as a field of ten wrestlers that included Steve Williams, Johnny Smith and Toshiaki Kawada began to compete in a round
robin tournament where a win was worth two points and a draw worth one. Tenryu and Kea finished tied atop the standings with fifteen points each, thus earning the right to face each
other in the finals.
The Carnival Championship is the longest running singles tournament in wrestling and ranks as the most prestigious event of the year on the All Japan calendar.
This is the first time the 51-year old Tenryu has won the Carnival Championship. Tenryu became a two-time Triple Crown Heavyweight champion on
October 28 of last year when he defeated Toshiaki Kawada at Tokyo's Budokan Hall.
