STARDOM
STARDOM held two shows with implications for Queendom this past week with the first being in Korakuen Hall, where the “Right to challenge” tournament happened, where the fans found out, who advances to Dream Queendom to challenge for the vacant World Of Stardom Championship. The second Wrestler to advance was decided on the December 2nd Nagoya PPV, where Suzu Suzuki put her 5STAR Victory contract on the line against Hazuki.
In the first round, Maika defeated Ami Sohrei in their heated match built around Lariat, while Momo Watanabe defeated Mina Shirakawa in the other first-round match to advance to the final. The two faced off in the main event of the show, with the winner getting a spot in the biggest match of the year in STARDOM. With the crowd screaming her name loudly, Maika picked up a huge victory with the Michinoku Driver II.
The undercard of the Nagoya PPV was interesting, Mei Seira defeated Thekla to retain her High-Speed Championship in a fine match. They started well and gained a good amount of momentum until Thekla took the momentum away with the bottle spot. The match never really recovered from it, but the action was still good and ended with Seira rolling up the Toxic Spider to retain for the second time.
The top trios of Oedo Tai & God’s Eye collided against each other, with Natsuko Tora picking up the victory for their team after pinning Ami Sohrei, but the newsworthy part came after the match. MIRAI stood alone in the ring and then Saori Anou came out and once again challenged MIRAI for the Wonder Of Stardom Championship at Dream Queendom. Their last match was well received but ended in a 30-minute time-limit draw, so there is a score to be settled. It’s not the most interesting match-up they could have run for Queendom, but a good one.
In a UWF Rules match, Nanae Takahashi defeated the Scandinavian Hurricane in a bit over 7 minutes, in a solid match. Aliss Ink once again had a solid showing and is slowly finding her footing in STARDOM. On the Sunday tour show, she also joined God’s Eye, which means she now has a direction on the tour shows as well, instead of just being in singles matches, and will team up with God’s Eye on the upcoming shows.
In her biggest singles match of her career, AZM challenged Giulia for the NJPW Strong Women’s Championship. The current Champion has been the talk of the wrestling industry recently, but it’s the former High-Speed Champion who stole the show in this match. From the early moments of this match, her speed made it tough for Giulia to keep up with since she is not used to it, and caused her trouble in their 5STAR match, when AZM shocked the world by beating Giulia in under a minute. The near falls towards the end of this match were great, with the crowd getting vocal and eating up many of them including the Destroyer into the Azumi Sushi. Giulia barely survived, and beat AZM with the Nothern Lights Bomb to retain her title.
In the semi-main event of the Nagoya show, Saya Kamitani & Utami Hayashishita won the Goddess of Stardom Championships after defeating Maika & Megan Bayne and made their return after their injuries suffered during the 5STAR Grand Prix a successful one. The story in the match, was AphroditE trying to take down the Monster Megan Bayne, who only suffered one pinfall loss in her STARDOM run. The Queen’s Quest duo tried hard and had trouble, but after Maika hit Bayne with the Discuss Lariat, Utami was able to hit the German Suplex and pin Megasus to crown themselves Goddess Of Stardom Champions. AphroditE is now the second duo to win the Tag Team Titles twice with the first being Koguma & Hazuki. Utami now joins the group that won the Goddess Champions for the third time.
In the main event match, Suzu Suzuki defeated Hazuki retaining her Red Belt shot that she earned with the victory in the 5STAR Grand Prix and is moving on to Dream Queendom. The Wild Heart and the Prodigy didn’t go all out, but they went hard in this match, with Hazuki showing her typical fire that elevates all of her matches, but this is Suzu’s year and nobody will take it away from her. Suzuki would reverse the Hazukistral flash pin attempt with three swift kicks to the head and follow it up with her Locomotion German Suplexes, but Hazuki managed to kick out, but Suzuki instantly followed right up with a Deadlift German Suplex to earn herself the victory, and move on to Dream Queendom.
Maika vs. Suzu Suzuki 2 will be the most anticipated match of STARDOM’s year with both having good chances to walk out of the Sumo Hall main event as World Of Stardom Champion.
Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling
The 10th Anniversary show of TJPW happened on Friday, with the main event being a Generation Battle between the old generation including Miyu Yamashita, Rika Tatsumi, Shoko Nakajima, Mizuki and Yuka Sakazaki, who wrestled her last Korakuen Hall match for TJPW there, and the young generation represented by Arisu Endo, Suzume, Miu Watanabe, Moka Miyamoto and Yuki Arai in a Two Out Of Three Falls Match.
This was likely the best match of Toyko Joshi in 2023. 30 minutes pure action with all 10 Wrestlers going all out, and having a great performance. Everyone got time to showcase their unique character and unique skills. Arisu Endo was one of the standouts with a remarkable performance and got the surprise first fall for her team by pinning the former Princess Of Princess Champion Shoko Nakajima to bring the young team an advantage. From then on, the older generation was behind and needed to score a fall to equal, while it took them long, it was Yuka Sakazaki who was able to pin Moka Miyamoto to equal the score 1-1.
The final fall was what made that match so amazing. All the young Wrestlers tried their best to let their team stay in this match and fought against the Older Gen if their life and careers depended on it, but it wasn’t enough. Moka continues to rebelliously challenge her seniors but pays for it again every single time. Yuki Arai demonstrates everything she’s learned against her trainer Shoko but it’s still not enough, especially when the Miraclians team up again, and hit their double team moves on the Genius Girl. Arisu has to stand up and not get pinned against the full force of the MVP team to keep them in the game. Suzume came in and saved the match countless times for her team as well by breaking up endless pinning attempts. Miu is the last person standing against the ace, who she once beat, but this time goes down after the current POP champ Miyu Yamashita ends her with a skull kick.
While the younger team lost, the score this time was 1-2, which is an improvement from the last Two Out Of Three Falls Match, where the young team got swept 0-2 and had no chance at all. An incredible match that deserves all the praise, that it gets online.
Pro Wrestling WAVE
WAVE has its biggest show of the year on December 24th in Kawasaki coming up, and build up the key match-ups on the December 1st Shinjuku FACE show. Next to the well-known names in WAVE, GAMI announced that STARDOM’s Starlight Kid will participate in the show. It’s yet to be known in what match she will be in.
In the opening match, Kizuna Tanaka picked up the first pinfall victory of her career after pinning Chi Chi with the “HEAT Clutch” to decide the WAVE Rookies vs. Evolution Joshi Match for her team. The “HEAT Clutch” is the roll-up finish of her father Minoru Tanaka, and he seemed to have given her that. It is the first tag team victory for Honoka & Kizuna as a duo.
In the semi-main, SAKI & Risa Sera dethroned Ikuto Hidaka & Itsuki Aoki to crown themselves the 32nd WAVE Tag Team Champions. They were looking for challengers when ringside Honoka & Kizuna Tanaka stood up and just looked them in the eyes. The Champions seemed confused and surprised, but they accepted the challenge, and the match was made official for December 24th.
The NEXT Tournament ended on the show as well, with Yuki Miyazaki facing Ayame Sasamura, where the winner challenges VENY for the Regina di WAVE Championship on December 24th. In a hard-fought battle that went over 20 minutes, Miyazaki was able to pin Sasamura and is getting another chance to crowd herself RdW Champion against the Wrestler with whom she built up a little rivalry over the past 12 months. It will be VENY’s first defense with the Championship, and her dropping here seems unlikely, but Miyazaki isn’t to underestimate and has the potential to upset the Champion and finally win the RdW Championship.
