Forbidden Door
On Sunday, STARDOM took part in AEW’s Forbidden Door PPV in Long Island as Momo Watanabe, Tam Nakano, and Mina Shirakawa were part of the show. Tam Nakano teamed together with Willow Nightingale to face Kris Statlander and Momo Watanabe in the buy-in of the show. This was part of the storyline between Willow-Kris, where they had a preview match before their Quarter Final Match in the Owen Hart Foundation 2024 Women’s Tournament on Dynamite. The match between the four was fine as Momo & Tam seemingly were tired from the long flight on Saturday and Kris & Willow didn’t have that much chemistry with each other. Nakano was able to win the match for her team by pinning Watanabe with the Twilight Dream Suplex.
Mina Shirakawa challenged Toni Storm on the main show for the AEW Women’s World Championship. This has been building up since Storm made a surprise appearance on STARDOM’s Wrestlemania Weekend show. Over the past two months, Shirakawa has made numerous appearances on AEW Television as a little “love triangle” was brewing between Shirakawa, Storm, and Mariah May, who not only is the protege of Toni Storm but also the former Tag Team partner of Mina Shirakawa in STARDOM as they won the Goddess of Stardom Championship together as “Rose Gold”.
The match was good as the work was good, but they weren’t able to get the drama into the match as it never seemed like Mina Shirakawa had any chance of winning the match with the 5STAR Grand Prix coming up and the Mariah May-Toni Storm storyline getting hotter. Still, it was one of the better World Title matches of Toni Storm’s run, who has found new motivation after the AZM Match on Collision two months ago. Post-match, Shirakawa, Storm & Mariah May put their differences aside as they hugged and walked out together.
While Mina Shirakawa didn’t win the Championship, she looked like a superstar in this storyline as she felt like a natural fit for US TV. She won over the fans with her charismatic nature and her in-ring skills that made her stand out in America. The “We Want Mina” catchphrase established itself over her run in AEW as fans started to chant it more and more. Overall, a more than successful short stint for Shirakawa in AEW.
STARDOM
STARDOM held a show at Korakuen Hall in front of 946 fans as a follow-up to the newsworthy “THE CONVERSION” show with the split of Queen’s Quest. The Korakuen Hall show featured three championship matches, including a Goddess of Stardom Championship match between FWC and the God’s Eye team of Syuri & Konami and more.
In the opening match of the show, Saya Kamitani retained her High-Speed Championship over Fukigen Death in just under 5 minutes in her first match in STARDOM as the sole member of Queen’s Quest. Similarly to Giulia after losing her hair, STARDOM used Fukigen to bring Kamitani back on the winning way. She teased backstage that she will open Queen’s Quest up more and presumably will invite outside wrestlers to the stable and has someone in mind that she has met in Pro Wrestling WAVE during her run in the Catch the Wave tournament.
After being forced to leave Queen’s Quest, Hina & Lady C teamed up with God’s Eye’s Ami Sohrei, Ranna Yagami, & Saki Kashima to defeat Natsupoi, Saori Anou, Sayaka Kurara, Tam Nakano, & Yuna Mizumori after Sohrei surprisingly pinned Anou to continue the down spiral of the former Wonder of Stardom Champion. Taro Okada announced after the match that at the next Korakuen Hall show, Anou & Natsupoi will face Manami & Wonder of Stardom Champion Mika Iwata in a special tag team encounter, where Anou has the chance to get a little bit of revenge after dropping her title to Iwata at the show in Yoyogi.
AZM, Mei Seira, Miyu Amasaki, & Starlight Kid teamed up together for the first time after teasing the formation of a new unit as they defeated OEDo Tai’s Momo Watanabe, Natsuko Tora, Ruaka, & Thekla when Starlight Kid pinned Ruaka and got her revenge for Ruaka turning on her at All Star Grand Queendom in April. The four young wrestlers looked great together as they showed exceptional chemistry with each other. A good first match for the potential next stable in STARDOM.
Diana’s Nanami challenged Rina for the Future of Stardom Championship as the Diana Crystal Champion tried to dethrone the longest reigning Future of Stardom Champion in history, but the match ended in a 15-minute time limit draw. The two young wrestlers showed good chemistry as they had a solid outing against each other. The sequences were great as Rina & Nanami continue to be more than promising prospects for their respective promotions as their skill level is beyond what wrestlers in their age class should do.
Syuri & Konami defeated Koguma & Hazuki to win the Goddess of Stardom Championship to end a good show at Korakuen Hall. The match between FWC & God’s Eye was another great tag title match in STARDOM, who continue to have the best tags in all of wrestling this year. FWC are outstanding and prove it in every tag team match they have – it doesn’t matter who the opponent is and where the match is happening, the two are always going out there and stealing the show. Koguma especially had another fantastic outing here and continues to show why she’s so great. Konami also did more than well in her first major match since coming back full-time to STARDOM with a fantastic ending stretch together with Hazuki, who in the end passed out after a chair shot to the head and then a choke by Konami. It’s an interesting decision as the title run of FWC was just starting and now is already over. STARDOM has been doing this a lot in recent years with the Goddess of Stardom Title as the runs start promisingly with signs of being something special, but more often than not they’re cut short before they can reach that level. This has been the case for FWC, Crazy Star, MaiHime, meltear, or any other duo in recent memory that has held the belt. The hope is that Konami & Syuri are getting a lengthy title run now to make the titles feel more important again.
Konami is now tied as a record 3x Champion, while Syuri won the belt for a second time. OEDo Tai came out after the match and announced that they will be the next challengers for the belts. It has yet to be announced which combination will face Syuri & Konami, but it’s going to be an exciting match regardless.
Pro Wrestling WAVE
WAVE announced that Kizuna Tanaka has left the company on July 1st. She is the daughter of Minoru Tanaka and Yumi Fukawa and has been out of action for the past two months due to “poor health”, which according to her mother was not due to an injury, but because of something positive.
Tanaka debuted back in April 2023 and has been one of the most promising rookies in the recent memory of Joshi wrestling. She managed to win the WAVE Tag Team Titles with her “Harmonie” tag team partner Honoka last December and was meant to be the future Ace of WAVE. It’s a big loss for the promotion as after losing Nagisa Nozaki, the second wrestler has left the small roster of WAVE that only has four active full-time wrestlers left with Cohaku, Honoka, Sakura Hirota, and Regina di WAVE Champion Yuki Miyazaki
The 19-year-old commented on social media, saying she thought for a long time about the decision but felt she would prove this was the right decision to make with her own strength. She is expected to join Marigold as Minoru Tanaka revealed last year that he called Rossy Ogawa just a few hours after Kizuna was born in 2004 and told him that she would be a wrestler for Ogawa in the future, and now this could potentially come true.
Marigold
Marigold continued their Grand Opening Wars tour with two shows last weekend, with the first in Sendai and the second in Miyako.
The main event of the show in Sendai saw the rematch between MIRAI & Miku Aono in the United National Championship tournament after their draws in Nagoya & Shin-Kiba. The match once again went to a time-limit draw, including an overtime draw. The two were not able to find a decision after a combined 60 minutes in the ring against each other. It was announced that the two will face each other once again on July 13th at Sumo Hall to decide who will face Bozilla for the United National Championship later in the show. It’s an interesting decision as it seems to be too complicated for the simple goal of one of the two advancing to the final of the tournament.
A couple of days later, Marigold announced the full card for the Summer Destiny 2024 show at Sumo Hall on July 13th. The show has 9 matches, including at least two champions being crowned. Next to the already set-up main matches, a few interesting matches have been added, including Rea Seto, formally known as Rea Marumori, making her debut in Marigold against Komomo Minami. Additionally, Kouki Amarei & Chika Goto will once again team up to face Victoria Yuzuki & X. There are a lot of speculations about who the X could be, but the most logical theory is Kizuna Tanaka, who, as mentioned previously, is the daughter of Minoru Tanaka and Yumi Fukawa and just left Pro Wrestling WAVE.
The main event between Giulia & Sareee is yet to be 100% set in stone as Giulia’s participation is pending medical clearance later this week or early next week. If she is cleared, Rossy Ogawa will decide if this match is for the Marigold World Championship.
The Full for Marigold Summer Destiny 2024 on July 13
- Komomo Minami vs. Rea Seto
- Kouki Amarei & Chika Goto vs. Victoria Yuzuki & X
- Nagisa Nozaki & CHIAKI vs. Zayda Steel & Myla Grace
- Misa Matsui vs. Natsumi Showzuki for the Marigold Superfly Championship
- Nanae Takahashi, Nao Ishikawa & Mai Sakurai vs. Shinobu Kandori, Takako Inoue & NORI
- MIRAI vs. Miku Aono in the Marigold United National Tournament
- Bozilla vs. MIRAI or Miku Aono for the Marigold United National Championship
- Utami Hayashishita vs. IYO SKY
- Giulia vs. Sareee
