STARDOM’s final PPV of the year is on Friday, December 29th in Sumo Hall with eight matches, including four Championship matches with the vacant World of Stardom Championship on the line in the main event between the 5STAR Winner Suzu Suzuki and the one-night tournament winner Maika facing off one more time. This show needs to be the first step in the right direction for the promotion after all the bad stuff with injuries, backstage trouble, and more going on. The show is available on PPV, and the link to buy the show will be posted on the English STARDOM Twitter account.
Miyu Amasaki, Yuzuki & Azusa Inaba vs. HANAKO, Rana Yagami & Sayaka Kurara
The opening match is a Six-Woman Tag Team match between the younger generation, with HANAKO, Rana, and Kurara teaming up to face Miyu Amasaki, Yuzuki, and Azusa Inaba from JUST TAP OUT.
This will be a great showcase of what the 2022-2023 Rookie generation of Joshi can do already, This will be just the second match of Yagami & Kurara’s career after their debut match at the latest New Blood show, while Yuzuki just debuted a month ago, so it will be interesting to see how they will all mix up with each other. It will be interesting to see how the five Rookies in this match will perform on such a big stage. With Miyu Amasaki being the veteran in this match, she’s likely picking up the victory here for her team and will help Yuzuki to the first victory of her career.
Prediction: Miyu Amasaki, Yuzuki & Azusa Inaba
Queen’s Quest (Lady C & Hina) vs. Donna del Mondo (Thekla & Mai Sakurai) vs. Tropikawild (Yuna Mizumori & SAKI) vs. God’s Eye (Saki Kashima & Ami Sourei)
The next match is a four-way match between wrestlers who have nothing else to do on the card. The interesting part here is the return of SAKI, who has not appeared in the promotion since the Cinderella Final in April of this year. She will team up with her Tropikawild partner, Yuna Mizumori, with the pair having prevuously teamed up in Gatoh Move before Mizumori joined STARDOM.
It’s not like the winner of this match will matter, so it’s tough to predict it. Considering Mai Sakurai cutting a promo after this match seems realistic, that’s the likeliest winner here.
Prediction: Thekla & Mai Sakurai
7Upp (Nanae Takahashi & Yuu) & AZM vs. Mei Seira, Syuri & Mina Shirakawa
An All-Star Six-Woman Tag with six great wrestlers is up next on the card, with Nanae Takahashi & Yuu teaming up with AZM to face Syuri, Mina Shirakawa, and the High-Speed Champion Mei Seira in trios actions, and there is no doubt in my mind that this won’t be great if it gets enough time on the Sumo Hall show.
Syuri officially announced at the Year-End show that she will challenge for the IWGP Women’s Championship at Ittenyon and is trying to gain momentum in this match. She is teaming with Mina Shirakawa, who is lost in the shuffle after losing the Goddess Of Stardom Championships in August and hasn’t found a new direction yet, and Mei Seira, who has been doing great as the High-Speed Champion and is slowly moving up the card. STARDOM has teased a High-Speed Title match between AZM and Seira before, and this will likely continue here, with both squaring off here.
7Upp being in the mix again is interesting, with STARDOM seemingly trying to heat up the former Goddess Of Stardom Champions again for a potential future title match against the winner of the co-main event. With that in mind, a win off the 7Upp & AZM duo seems likely.
Prediction: AZM, Yuu & Nanae Takahashi
STARS (Mayu Iwatani, Hanan, Saya Iida & Hazuki) vs. Oedo Tai (Starlight Kid, Rina, Ruaka & Fukigen Death)
Mayu Iwatani will make her return to action after a month due to a dislocated finger on this show when she teams up with STARS to face off against the rest of Oedo Tai.
The return of the Icon is the main (and only) selling point of this match, but it’s an important one for STARDOM, who needs their Ace to be back with the tough ending of 2023 the promotion had. When the match was announced, everything pointed at Starlight Kid challenging Iwatani for the IWGP strap at Ittenyon, but that changed since with Syuri jumping in, still, this match could have future implications if Starlight Kid picks up the victory for her team.
But realistically, this match has only one winner, and it’s STARS, especially with them coming with their strongest line-up against the weakest Oedo Tai team with Watanabe & Tora being in the Tag Title match.
Prediction: Mayu Iwatani, Hazuki, Hanan & Saya Iida
NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship
Giulia (c) vs. Megan Bayne
Giulia will try to defend her STRONG Women’s Championship for the 7th time on this show against Megan Bayne.
This will be the second match between the two, after facing off on a house show last month that ended in a time-limit draw. It didn’t take long for Bayne to make the challenge to Giulia to challenge her. “Megasus” has been one of the most improved Wrestlers in STARDOM over the second half of the year, and is showing her potential as a great hoss, that she throws her opponents around. She and Giulia have great chemistry and will deliver here.
Giulia has been the talking point of Joshi news in the past few months, with rumors coming out regarding her future, and her interview on the ongoing behind the scenes in STARDOM. Her title run went under the radar with that, but she has made the NJPW Strong Women’s Title interesting, with her defenses against AZM, Hyan, Risa Sera, and now Megan Bayne. With her future in question, the chance of dropping the title is higher than ever, but she will conquer the Megasus and retain the title at least one more time.
Prediction: Giulia
Goddess of Stardom Championship
AphroditE (Utami Hayashishita & Saya Kamitani) (c) vs. XL (Natsuko Tora & Momo Watanabe)
Just four weeks after winning the Goddess of Stardom Championships for a second time, AphroditE is putting the belts on the line against Natusko Tora and Momo Watanabe from Oedo Tai.
The Oedo Tai-Queen’s Quest story has been one of the few highlights the promotion had this year, and it’s going in another round. The two stables went all out in a Steel Cage match in June, where Utami proved to her stable that she was the rightful leader, and it led to her finally being the leader that everyone wanted her to be.
The follow-up was rough for the Champs, with nothing getting injured during the 5STAR Grand Prix. A lot changed in STARDOM when both came back, but it didn’t take long for them to win the vacant Tag Team Championships by defeating Maika & Megan Bayne, who won the Goddess League just 2 weeks prior. Entering: Momo Watanabe & Natsuko Tora. They want another rodeo with Queen’s Quest and take away their belts, and their hope by putting them back on the shelf and crown themselves Champion.
Considering this is the first defense for the new Champions, a title change seems unlikely, but STARDOM has done a great job building up the challengers, with Watanabe defeating Queen’s Quest week after week, including pinning Saya Kamitani and destroying AZM.
Prediction: Utami Hayashishita & Saya Kamitani
Wonder of Stardom Championship
MIRAI (c) vs. Saori Anou
MIRAI will once again defend her Wonder Of Stardom Championship against Saori Anou after their time-limit draw at Gold Rush last month.
Since Anou is back in STARDOM at All-Star Grand Queendom, she has been one of the focal points in the promotion this year with holding the Artist Of Stardom, Goddess Of Stardom Championships and now trying to win the Wonder Of Stardom Championship on STARDOM’s biggest show of the year. She has earned every opportunity she got so far, and has been an incredible asset to the promotion. MIRAI on the other hand, has been Champion for close to 6 months and is still searching for the championship-defining match with the Wonder Of Stardom title, and there couldn’t be a better place than on the biggest stage she had so far as a Champion.
Their last match had a disappointing finish for both wrestlers, and both have said that this time things will be different. Considering MIRAI has yet to beat Anou, this show feels like the time to get her major win over someone as protected as Saori
Prediction: MIRAI
World of Stardom Championship
Suzu Suzuki vs. Maika
In the main event of the show, Maika and Suzu Suzuki will battle for the vacant World of Stardom in the most important match for STARDOM this year. The 5STAR Winner Suzuki will try to fulfill her destiny and become World Champion, while Maika is trying to overcome her failures in the past, and defeat the one who has been calling her a loser over the past year, and finally claims the top prize of Joshi Wrestling.
Suzuki earned the Championship match by winning the 5STAR Grand Prix, where she defeated Maika in the final. Suzu was scheduled to face Tam Nakano at Gold Rush, but due to Nakano’s injury she needed to vacate the title, and a one-night tournament was decided. Quickly it was clear, that Maika was winning it, and she did by defeating Momo Watanabe in the final. With that, the match was official at Dream Queendom, with Maika having one more chance to defeat Suzu, while the prodigy wants to claim, what in her eyes should be hers – the World Of Stardom Championship
The story has been the best-told story in STARDOM this year, the story goes far and beyond the Championship. It’s about fulfilling destiny, overcoming failures, the mental game of both, and much more. Now the question is.. who wins this match? It’s a 50-50 match and the result that you just can’t predict and be 100% sure that they walk out as the winner, but one of them needs to win, and for us, it seems to be Suzu, who is winning her first World Of Stardom Championship, and once again defeats Maika.
Prediction: Suzu Suzuki
