Former WWE & NRL star Daniel Vidot to compete in AJPW’s Champion Carnival this year
On the 9th of February, All Japan Pro Wrestling announced the lineup for their annual Champion Carnival tournament, marking the 44th edition of the tournament. One of the participants announced for the tournament was the former Xyon Quinn, Daniel Vidot, in what many see as a surprising addition to the tournament. With his most recent matchups since being released from the WWE taking place here in Australia, competing in matches for the All Star Wrestling Australia, Rock ‘N’ Roll Wrestling and Venom Pro Wrestling, Vidot, now competing as XYON, looks abroad to one of Japan’s most prestigious tournaments.
The All Japan Champion Carnival is a grueling, 18 man, two block, round robin tournament that’s a test of endurance just as much as it is a series of wrestling matches, with the two wrestlers from each block that score the most points through various victories competing in a single elimination, semi-final matchup and then the finals against the winner from the opposing block, the winner of that being declared the winner of the entire Champion Carnival, as well as most likely being in line for a shot at the AJPW Triple Crown Championship. This means that Vidot will have to wrestle the eight other wrestlers in the tournament’s A Block and defeat enough of them to advance to the second stage.
Vidot is seen as a bit of a dark horse in the lineup, given that this will be his first time inside of an All Japan, but being a part of, as well as potentially winning, such a prestigious tournament would put his name right up there with legends such as Mick Foley, Terry Funk, Ted Dibiase, Giant Baba, Jumbo Tsuruta, Stan Hansen, Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi, Akira Taue & Toshiaki Kawada, all of whom have either competed in or won the whole tournament.
The 2025 Champion Carnival kicks off this Wednesday at the famous Korakuen Hall, however Daniel Vidot’s first tournament matchup will take place next Saturday at the Fukuoka Island City Forum against Kuma Arashi.
To see Vidot in the tournament, as well the rest of the participants, you can subscribe to AJPWTV (link below) for 900¥, which is $10 AUD, a month.
Subsrice to AJPW TV here: https://www.ajpw.tv/
My name is Lachlan Andrews, I’m based in Brisbane, QLD and I’ve been a fan of professional wrestling fan for as long as I can remember and even spent a very short time as a professional wrestlerYou can find me right here as the sole contributor to the “What’s On This Weekend” feature, detailing all of the upcoming events taking place across the country each and every weekend, with articles dropping every Thursday.
