STARDOM
Stardom holds its second annual Stardom Dream Queendom on December 29 in the Sumo Hall, one of the promotions biggest events to date. At the last STARDOM Show of 2022 it will be decided who reigns on top coming into the new year and also many new angles will be set up for 2023.
The Show will start with a Stardom Rumble where all the Wrestlers inside and outside of Stardom will take part to possibly win a future title shot like Mei Suruga did in the past. Two mystery entrants are also announced for the match, with a good chance that these are also two of the Xs in the Triangle Derby mystery team.
Mina Shirakawa makes her return to Stardom after being out of action since her injury in the Wonder Of Stardom Title Match in November. She teams together with the returning Unagi Sayaka, who is currently on the “Gyan Period” wrestling in other Joshi Promotions like Marvelous. Pink Kabuki is facing Mai Sakurai and Thekla from Donna del Mondo. Mai Sakurai and have a history since Mai was part of the Cosmic Angels until she left the promotion to get better at DDM. Thekla and Mina are rivals since the Toxic Spider joined Stardom at the beginning of January. With their feud over the SWA Title, they gained a lot of interest from many fans. This Match will be about Mina Shirakawa. Her bandaged-up face at the Press Conference was one of the most talked about things on the entire presser, and it is a big mystery what she hides under it. This match will be the start of a great return run for the returning Shirakawa.
The third match on the card is a Six Woman Tag between the STARS Members. On the one side, we have Mayu Iwatani, Momo Kohgo, and Hanan who will be teaming up under the name “H & M” in the Triangle Derby while on the other side Hazuki, Koguma, and Saya Iida who will represent STARS under the name “Classmates”. This preview match for the Triangle League also includes the issues with Momo Kohgo trying to prove to Mayu Iwatani and Hazuki, who both gave up on her, that she is improving. This will be a fun match of the card, where the STARS girls will give everything they can.
The next challengers for the Goddess of Stardom Championship will be decided in a three-way match between the former Champions Maika & Himeka, Ruaka & Natsuko Tora, and MIRAI & Ami Sourei. All three teams had great results in the Goddess of Stardom Tag League, with MaiHime and BMI2000 just being one win shy from advancing to the final. Every team has its own claim of why they should with this match and challenge the winner of 7Upp vs. Meltear down the line. MaiHime were never able to get the Tag Titles back after losing them after just 49 days to Syuri and Giulia in April last year. The New Eras challenged had a shot at Meltear in August and came close to defeating the Champions. They also had a 15-minute time-limit draw against 7Upp and now want to prove that they can beat either team. Ruaka and Tora were the biggest surprises of the Tag League. Both have fantastic chemistry with each other and were able to secure wins over the former Champions MaiHime and FWC.
The dream match between Utami Hayashishita and KAIRI is finally happening on the 29th. Since returning to the company everyone spoke about this match, and now it’s finally happening, but with an interesting stipulation that is more important than any championship belt. Whoever loses has to go back to their roots and lose everything. The loser needs to wear their Rookie Gear again and will lose their big entrance. It’s humiliating for whoever loses. At the same time, this could be the restart of the Red Queen, who hasn’t had the best 2022 with it being her first calendar year when she didn’t hold any title belt. 2023 will be an interesting year for both of them, but for one it will remember them of their Rookie days.
The High-Speed Championship always produces dark horse matches, especially since the current Champion AZM holds the belt. Her 300+ day reign has been nothing more than fantastic, with her facing talents from inside and outside of Stardom. The title defense against Mei Suruga in May has been one of the most talked about Matches of 2022 while for many the Starlight Kid Match has been a legit Match of the year candidate. This time the High-Speed Bomb girl has been challenged by COLOR’s Hikari Shizumu who just came back from an excursion to Mexico. She wants to show what she learned there in the biggest singles match of her career.
The Artist Of Stardom Title Match between the Starlight Kid, Momo Watanabe and Saki Kashima against Suzu Suzuki, Risa Sera and Hiragi Kurumi will be decided in a Hardcore Match which favors the Prominence Trio. The Deathmatch group has been killing it in Stardom since the Nagoya Supreme Fight PPV in January. Since then, they have yet to be defeated in hardcore matches. Suzu and Risa have been killing it in the 5STAR, with Suzu coming one win why from even reaching the 5STAR final on her first try. The stipulation gives the challengers an advantage over the Oedo Tai trio, even though they have a secret weapon – Saki Kashima. She’s the Queen of Artist Belt matches with being the 3rd longest Artist of Stardom Champion, just behind Io Shirai and Mayu Iwatani. Whenever Oedo Tai is in trouble, Saki can change the entire match with the Kishikaisai. This might be one of the best matches of the night, with a good chance that the titles change hands here.
Meltear have made the Tag Team division since them teaming for the first time. Tam and Poi get better and better every time they team together. Their chemistry is amazing but for their third title defense, they have the toughest test yet. The Goddess of Stardom Tag League winners 7Upp have dominated the Tag League with only just one loss and they will be the favorites in the match. They have the height and weight advantage over the Cosmic Angels duo and in the preview match, Natsupoi stand no chance when she tried to suplex Yuu. Meltear needs to prove here against 7Upp why they are at the top of the division.
With an amazing 2022, Saya Kamitani placed herself in contention to be the Wrestler of the year. So the talk about who will be the last defense of the year for Golden Phoenix was huge. KAIRI, MIRAI, Starlight Kid, Maika, and Himeka all got named but in the end, Stardom shocked us and Diana’s Haruka Umesaki challenged the White Belt Champion. For many, Umesaki is only known from her few NEW BLOOD matches on the side of Starlight Kid under the “KARMA” Gimmick, but she’s far more than that. The trainee of WWE’s Sarray is just 21 years old and one of the brightest prospects in all of Joshi. It will be the biggest match of her career and she will show why she deserves to be in that spot. Will she be the one to dethrone the historic reign of Saya? Likely not. Saya will try everything to get to V12, which would bring her just one defense of tying Momo Watanabe’s record of most successful title defense with the White Belt at 13.
The biggest Match of the calendar year for Stardom is the Main Event of the show. Syuri defends her World Of STARDOM Title against Giulia. The DDM Leader earned this opportunity by winning the 5STAR GP back in October, and she’s facing non-other than the most dominant Wrestler Stardom has seen since Io Shirai left the company. Syuri is only the second Wrestler to reach V10 with the World Of Stardom Championship and is on the run of her lifetime.
The build-up of this match started three years ago when Syuri debuted in Stardom next to Giulia and Maika as “Donna del Mondo”. Since then, the duo had its ups and downs. From winning the Goddesses of Stardom Championship to splitting up after the World Climax Match between each other. It’s Giulia’s destiny to win the belt after all the downs she had over the past three years including losing her hair against Tam Nakano, the injury during the 5STAR GP 2021 and the failure at World Climax against Syuri. Giulia needed to build herself up again and won the 5STAR GP to get another chance at Syuri. This feels like her moment to write her name down in the history books next to Io Shirai, Mayu Iwatani, Meiko Satomura as World Of Stardom Champions.
Full STARDOM Dream Queendom Card:
STARDOM Rumble
Cosmic Angels (Unagi Sayaka & Mina Shirakawa) vs Donna del Mondo (Mai Sakurai & Thekla)
STARS (Mayu Iwatani, Momo Kohgo & Hanan) vs STARS (Hazuki, Saya Iida & Koguma)
Donna del Mondo (Maika & Himeka) vs God’s Eye (MIRAI & Ami Sourei) vs Oedo Tai (Natsuko Tora & Ruaka) – Goddess of Stardom Championship No. 1 Contendership
Utami Hayashishita vs KAIRI
AZM (c) vs Hikari Shimizu – High-Speed Championship
Oedo Tai (Starlight Kid & Momo Watanabe & Saki Kashima) (c) vs Prominence (Suzu Suzuki & Risa Sera & Hiragi Kurumi) – Artist Of Stardom Championship in a Hardcore Match
Meltear (Natsupoi & Tam Nakano) (c) vs 7Upp (Nanae Takahashi & Yuu) – Goddesses Of Stardom Championship
Saya Kamitani (c) vs Haruka Umesaki – Wonder Of Stardom Championship
Syuri (c) vs Giulia – World Of Stardom Championship
