STARDOM
STARDOM presented its biggest show of the year, All Star Grand Queendom, on April 27th in Yokohama BUNTAI. The expectations were high for this card as it’s the show that kicks STARDOM off in the new era with Taro Okada as the head booker with Rossy Ogawa’s fingerprints being gone, so it was the biggest test for him so far as he needed to deliver a great show to win the trust of the fans over.
In the opener of the show, Rina retains her Future of Stardom Championship against the new Cosmic Angels Member Sayaka Kurara. It should be obvious by now how good Rina is, and she continues to prove it, while Kurara had a great performance in the biggest spot of her young career. The underdog vs. heel dynamic worked well with the crowd eating up the comeback spots of Kurara.
Rina is seemingly keeping the title until her twin sister Hina is returning from her injury. Meanwhile, she’s beating all the newest trainees after Rina essentially called the rookies of STARDOM “weak” after Miran from Diana put on a tougher fight than STARDOM’s young prospects. It’s a solid story to use the time from now until Hina is back.
Konami announced her return to STARDOM as a full-time roster member at the press conference to this show and had here her return match. The match against EXV was nothing and only had the purpose of introducing Konami back into the fold as a dangerous threat to everyone, which was done well. She may take a bit until she’s back in full form after not wrestling full-time in 2 ½ years, but a great Konami is a tremendous addition to the STARDOM roster that needs wrestlers like her after the most recent departures.
The High-Speed Championship was on the line as Saki Kashima put her title on the line against Saya Iida, Saya Kamitani, and Fukigen Death in a four-way match. It was another comedy match for the belt with Kashima waiting on the outside to come in at the last moment to steal the win, but this time she wasn’t able to retain her belt as Saya Kamitani pinned Fukigen Death with the Frankensteiner to win the Championship, which is an interesting new direction for the ‘Golden Phoenix’.
It’s yet to be seen what Taro Okada plans are for the High-Speed Division, but giving the Championship to such a major name, who easily can compete for the World of Stardom title, is quite a development that wasn’t expected. The division has been lacking bodies for quite some time and felt uninteresting, so having a new name with Kamitani as Champion helps the excitement of the High-Speed Division.
Mina Shirakawa’s match against Natsuko Tora was more of an angle than an actual match. Heel interferences have always been part of Joshi wrestling and date back to the 70s and 80s of All Japan Women. Interferences themselves are fine if done well, but that wasn’t the case here. Whenever Shirakawa wasn’t working the knee of Tora, OEDo Tai were interfering at every chance possible, and it was rather distracting than helping the match.
The swerve angle of Thekla returning for the first time since Ittenyon and joining OEDo Tai was a pleasant surprise, but the execution could’ve been better. It felt weird & forced to believe that Thekla wasn’t helping Tora. The match ends in a no contest. Knowing that both wrestlers are capable of having a good match, this was a disappointing affair.
Tam Nakano & Natsupoi were in special tag team action as they faced Aja Kong and Kaoru Ito. Aja & Nakano have been teasing to face each other ever since the Spark Joshi show, which led to this match at Yokohama BUNTAI. The match was slow at times and needed a long time to get to the next gear, but it turned out fine enough for what it was aimed to be. The Zenjo Legends tossed meltear around but gave them enough offence to make them look competitive. Aja Kong pinning Tam Nakano was unexpected, but it seems that Kong will be back, so this likely isn’t over between the pair.
The four-way match for the Goddess of Stardom Titles was just a fun time. All eight just went in there with the go of having a banger with no breaks and just action. There was not a second in the match where nothing happened, which was a nice change of pace after the rather slow tag team match with the legends. Crazy Star was able to escape the titles after SLK accidentally hit Ruaka with the box, allowing Mei Seira to hit her new finisher and win the match.
The story coming out of the match is that OEDo Tai turned on Starlight Kid as Ruaka blamed the ‘Sky Tiger’ for their loss. The faction stomped on Starlight Kid like there was no tomorrow until Tam Nakano made the shocking save and protected Kid. It was only a matter of time until SLK turned babyface again, but this was shocking as there was no evidence of this happening until the moment Ruaka turned on her. It’s an interesting development and a story fans can look forward to.
Originally, Mayu Iwatani & Sareee were scheduled to face for the World of Stardom Championship, but it got called off at the last minute. Now, four years later, they finally squared off with the IWGP Women’s Championship on the line. Since then, Sareee had a little stint in WWE and came back better than ever as she is in her prime and constantly having fantastic matches, and this wasn’t any different. This match had everything a fan could ask for as both just beat each up other with kicks, strikes, suplexes, and brutal shoot headbutts that are still stuck in my head. Mayu Iwatani retained with the Two Step Dragon Suplex Hold in a bit over 20 minutes in one of the best Joshi Matches of this decade. An unreal match that everyone needs to see.
Seeing STARDOM talents clashing in dream matches against wrestlers outside of the company is rare, so it was great to see Sareee in STARDOM. If that wasn’t enough, Tsukasa Fujimoto, who is one of the best Joshi wrestlers of the 2010s, appeared after the match. The ace of Ice Ribbon made her shocking return and made a challenge to Mayu Iwatani as she will team up with her retiring tag team partner Arisa Nakajima to face Mayu Iwatani and a partner of her choosing in a special tag team match. This crazy STARDOM year has gone insane and I’m looking forward to it.
Hanan, who earned this shot by winning the Cinderella Tournament, challenged Saori Anou for the Wonder of Stardom Championship. The match was all about whether Hanan belonged and she did. They had a difficult spot as they were following one of the greatest matches in the history of STARDOM, but the pacing was perfect with them going into the next gear way earlier than normal and it created an exciting finishing sequence. The ‘Young Lioness’ had the match in her bag with her firey performance until she gave Anou one chance to escape another Backdrop Driver, which Anou countered and rolled up Hanan with the Pottering to retain her title.
After the match, Ami Sohrei & Natsupoi came out, and a No.1 Contender match was made official as Ami & Poi will face off with the winner challenging Saori Anou next.
The main event of the show is for the World of Stardom Championship as Maika & Momo Watanabe face off with a special stipulation – Two Out Of Three Falls. The first fall is a normal singles match, the second fall is a hardcore match with Falls Count Anywhere rules applied, and if a third fall is needed, it will be held under Last Woman Standing rules.
Coming into the match, there were worries that the match would be too overbooked with OEDo Tai interfering at every chance imaginable, but that wasn’t the case at all, as Momo & Maika wrestled three falls that were all clean with no interference spots. It was rather the opposite and too tame in the second fall, which was fun but underwhelming as they weren’t using the hardcore stipulation well.
Overall, this match helped Maika a lot to get established at the top of the promotion with her defeating another rival of hers and ending the show by calling herself the ‘Ace of Stardom’. Maika has big shoes to fill and needs to grow in them as the World Champion in a tough time. She has done well and will continue to so.
OZ Academy
Mayumi Ozaki & Mio Momono fought once again as part of the most recent OZ Academy show in the Korakuen Hall in front of 1,087 fans, which is the highest number for an OZ Korakuen Hall show since Dynamite Kansai’s retirement at the end of 2016. Their match last year in Marvelous was controversial on social media.
With Mayumi Ozaki holding the AAAW Title and Mio Momono holding the OZ Academy Openweight Title, it was only a matter of time until the two would collide again, and it didn’t take long. Ozaki was able to win a No. 1 Contender match against Sonoko Kato a month later and a title match was decided for the Korakuen Hall show in April, but this time both the AAAW Title & OZ Academy Openweight Title are on the line – Winner Takes All.
Overall, it didn’t hit the heights for me as it did for others, but it was way better than last year’s match between the two. It starts from the entrances alone as instantly the tensions were on a high, with the crowd being LOUD for both Ozaki & Momono, leaning towards Ozaki, who is fighting in front of her crowd. The match had tremendous heat and an outstanding Momono performance who stood out with her fiery babyface performance as the match was built around her trying to overcome all the heel obstacles they could throw at her to finally get one over on Ozaki, but she couldn’t.
The final minutes saw Takumi Iroha run into the ring to take down the Police completely with multiple vicious kicks & elbows. Ozaki used that to mist Iroha and used Iroha’s body to connect with an Oza kick right in the face of Mio Momono. She then finished Momono off by dropping her right on the head for the win and crowning herself the OZ Academy Openweight Champion. Ozaki is now holding four championships, including the top titles of both OZ & Marvelous. Mio gave it all, showed heart and fighting spirit, but in the end, she was still defeated and needed to watch how Ozaki was stomping & disrespecting the AAAW title amidst loud “Ozaki” chants. Momono was never as close to beating her rival as she was at that moment, but it got ruined by the constant interference of Seiki-gun.
