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.
New Japan Cup
The New Japan Cup (often abbreviated NJC) is an annual single-elimination professional wrestling tournament held by New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Originally intended for every April, it was rescheduled to March in 2007. Though NJPW also runs the annual G1 Climax tournament, the NJC is different in that it is single-elimination, whereas the G1 is a round-robin. Like the G1 however, the winner of the tournament receives a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship; this stipulation was added in 2006. In 2014, the winner was given the right to choose whether to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight or the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. The following year, the winner could have also chosen to challenge for the NEVER Openweight Championship.