Champion Carnival
From 1959 to 1972, the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA), run by Rikidōzan, held a tournament called World League (also known as the "World Big League"), which featured both Japanese and foreign professional wrestlers. Rikidōzan himself dominated the annual tournament early on, however, after his death in 1963, the tournament was won six times by Giant Baba and once by Antonio Inoki. JWA folded shortly after both Baba and Inoki left the promotion to create All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), respectively. Both men took the concept of World League with them to their new promotions, with Baba creating the "Champion Carnival" in 1973 and Inoki creating the World League in 1974, later renaming it G1 Climax.
Gallows and Anderson
On November 11, 2013, New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) announced the participating teams in the 2013 World Tag League. Included was a team representing the Bullet Club stable, made up of founding member Karl Anderson and the debuting Doc Gallows. Anderson had been working for NJPW regularly since 2008, while Gallows, a former WWE performer, had most recently worked for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). The two ended up winning their block with a record of four wins and two losses, and on December 8, first defeated Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma in the semifinals and then Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima in the finals to win the tournament. This led to a match on January 4, 2014, at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome, where they defeated K.E.S. (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Anderson and Gallows ended up holding the title for a full year, successfully defending it six times. In December 2014, the two made it to the finals of their second consecutive World Tag League, but were defeated there by Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata. who then went on to defeat them for IWGP Tag Team Championship on January 4, 2015, at Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome.