Young Lion Cup

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The Young Lion Cup is an in-frequent professional wrestling tournament promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) as a means of showcasing the younger talent on their roster. The tournament is the successor to the Karl Gotch Cup that NJPW promoted in the 1970s. The Young Lion Cup is a round-robin tournament in the same style as NJPW's annual G1 Climax tournament. NJPW has held the tournament twelve times since 1985, with the most recent tournament held in 2019. NJPW did not hold another Young Lion Cup for 12 years, until reviving the tournament in 2017 and again in 2019. Wrestlers traditionally earn 2 points for a victory, 1 point for any sort of draw and 0 points for a loss. The two wrestlers with the most points at the end of the round-robin tournament will then face off in a singles match for the Young Lion Cup trophy.
==Young Lion Cup winners==
Tournament	Year	Winner 	Total won	Reference
 	1985	Shunji Kosugi 	1 	
 	1986	Keiichi Yamada 	1 	
 	1987	Masahiro Chono 	1 	
 	1989	Naoki Sano 	1 	
 	1991	Michiyoshi Ohara 	1 	
 	1993	Hiroyoshi Yamamoto	1 	
 	1994	Satoshi Kojima 	1 	
 	1995	Manabu Nakanishi 	1 	
 	1996	Tokimitsu Ishizawa	1 	
 	2000	Kenzo Suzuki 	1 	
 	2002	Kenzo Suzuki 	2 	 
 	2004	Ryusuke Taguchi 	1 	 
 	2005	Hirooki Goto 	1 	
 	2017	Katsuya Kitamura 	1 	
 	2019	Karl Fredericks 	1 	
Category:New Japan Pro Wrestling
Category:Professional wrestling tournaments
Category:Tournaments