STARDOM
STARDOM presented the final night of the 5STAR Grand Prix on August 31st in the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza Main Arena. It was the promotion’s next major PPV as the outcome of the show decided the upcoming direction for the World of Stardom Championship. Along with the semifinal and the final of the 5STAR Grand Prix, the show featured a World of Stardom Championship match as Tam Nakano challenged the leader of H.A.T.E. – Natsuko Tora.
In the semifinal of the 5STAR, Maika overcame Mayu Iwatani with the arm trap Michinoku Driver II. At the same time, Saya Kamitani defeated Hanan to advance to the final, where the two rivals face off. The semifinals were both good. Maika and Iwatani had a great first-time-ever match-up that built-up to a dramatic finishing stretch with Maika looking dominant and being able to get into the final for a second year in a row, which makes her the third woman behind Yoko Bito and Utami Hayashishita who was able to do that. The match between Kamitani and Hanan was rather fine as Hanan still appears nervous during big matches and isn’t able to bring out her A-game yet against wrestlers she doesn’t feel comfortable with and that felt to be the case against Kamitani here, who made easy work of the ‘Young Lioness’ and won with the Frankensteiner in a well-worked match that never quite reached the next level.
With that, the final was official for the main event as Maika and Saya Kamitani would collide a month after Kamitani turned on Maika to cost her the World of Stardom Championship.
Rina successfully defended the Future of Stardom Championship via submission just before the time limit, breaking Hanan’s defense record and becoming not only the longest-reigning champion but also having the most title defences with 11. The match itself was worked well and showed the growth of the twins inside the ring. Rina has been great for a long time, but Hina is stepping up as well in the big spots as she is fundamentally the better wrestler of the two. The finish was a surprise as everything screamed for a title change, and it would have been the perfect time and place for it here as the story of Hina stopping Rina from beating the defence record of her sister and winning the first gold of her career was a perfect one. No matter what happens next, the eventual moment won’t be bigger than it could’ve been here, so it’s not understandable why they didn’t pull the trigger, but rather continue the nearly 500-day run of Rina. Her reign has been a great one, but the story of the title run now has been told.
The World of Stardom Championship match was up next as Natsuko Tora made her first defence of the World of Stardom Championship against Tam Nakano in a match that has been building up since before the 5STAR when Tora and H.A.T.E. destroyed Tam Nakano’s knee, leading to the favourite to win the 5STAR not only getting eliminated after a few days, but also losing all of her matches and being last in her block with 0 points. Natsuko Tora then gifted Nakano a chance at her World of Stardom Championship after Nakano’s match against AZM with the thinking that Nakano was at her lowest and Tora would have an easy chance to embarrass the former World of Stardom Champion even more and send her to rock bottom. Throughout the tournament, Natsuko Tora has been bullying and attacking Nakano, continuing to destroy her knee at every chance, including at the contract signing that ended with Tora beating up the leader of Cosmic Angels. Everything screamed for a Tora win to send Nakano to the lowest she has ever been, which would have created an interesting storyline for the upcoming months with Nakano fighting back, overcoming Natsuko Tora and H.A.T.E. before getting her World of Stardom Championship back that she never lost, but that wasn’t quite how it panned out.
After 27 minutes, Tam Nakano won the World of Stardom Championship after hitting the Twilight Dream, ending Natsuko Tora’s 34-day title run, which is the shortest in the history of the Red Belt. With that, Tam Nakano joins Io Shirai and Mayu Iwatani as the only 2x World of Stardom Champions. The match itself was fine. It was very slow and had some good legwork, with both selling it well enough to make it work, even if it wasn’t consistently good, but the final five minutes of the match felt like overkill. Nakano hit her finish as H.A.T.E. interfered and pulled out the referee, similar to the match between Tora and Maika, where that helped Tora to win the match. This time it ended differently, however, as Saori Anou and Natsupoi came to the aid of Nakano. Still, Konami ran into the ring and wanted to use her spray can against Nakano, who ducked, so it hit Tora right into her face, which Nakano used to go for the Violent Screwdriver – the move that hurt Nakano’s knee in their match last year, but Tora countered. I expected a bit more action here before they brought it home, but Tam just countered it again and hit the Twilight Dream to win the Championship.
Giving Tam the title was the right decision as STARDOM needs a top star as champion right now, and Nakano is the right choice. Even when Maika held the title, it was always clear that sooner or later, Nakano would get the title, and here it was time. Regardless, the booking of the Red Belt has been overcomplicated during 5STAR season, and it could have been way easier. Natsuko Tora looks like a geek who couldn’t win against someone who lost her last six singles matches in the 5STAR but can beat Tora here without problems. With that, Natsuko Tora’s push will be over, and that is understandable because she is past her psychical prime and was just there to put over Nakano. Still, her run itself was unnecessary, and Maika could have played a similar role, especially considering Nakano will face her in two weeks anyway. A situation where Maika heads into the 5STAR as champion, Nakano wins the tournament and wins the belt off Maika in Osaka would have worked as well or even better, but it seems like they needed a draw for the 5STAR finals show as they don’t have a card full of tournament matches anymore.
In the main event of the show, Maika won the 5STAR Grand Prix for the first time in her career after 27 minutes with the Arm Trap Michinoku Driver II to be the first wrestler to win the 5STAR undefeated. The match was very good but lacked that certain something in places. It took a bit for it to jump over to the next level, mainly due to the heel work of Saya Kamitani, who spammed her poses a bit too often to stall for time, while Maika didn’t convey her hatred for Kamitani well in this match. The match then took a turn when Kamitani performed the crossbody off the stage, defeating the demons of the last 5STAR, where she injured herself in a similar situation. A total babyface move, but an important moment for her character. The finishing stretch was fantastic, especially the Michinoku Driver II from the top rope. It was an awesome moment that turned it around for the ‘Empress’, who ended the match shortly after.
After Nakano won the Championship, it seemed like Kamitani would win the final, but STARDOM decided against it and went with Maika, who will challenge Tam Nakano for the Red Belt on September 14th at Osaka EDION #1. The match has been teased a lot over the last 7 months and it’s incomprehensible why they are running the match so quickly after the 5STAR Grand Prix and aren’t giving the match some time to build up more. The NJPW change of not having the G1 Climax winner challenge 4 months later is great and it’s similar here in theory, but the October show in Nagoya would have been a better solution than running it just two weeks after the tournament. However, looking at the financial reports and attendance, STARDOM’s fall is always very weak, so this seems to be the solution to make the time between 5STAR and Sumo Hall more interesting for the fans, but whilst that works in theory, the implementation is rather poor.
Tam Nakano, Maika, and Saya Kamitani are the chosen ones that STARDOM have placed their faith in to lead the promotion into the future and the new era. They will be the top names that will be featured in or around the main event scene for the upcoming years until the next generation like Starlight Kid, AZM, Suzu Suzuki and more are ready to take the big spots. One thing is clear, and that is whether fans like the booking or not, STARDOM is interesting right now due to the chaotic booking of Taro Okada, where anything could happen at any time.
SareeeISM
SareeeISM Chapter V happened recently as Sareee presented another of her great produce shows, and this time it had a fantastic main event match as Mayu Iwatani and Sareee defeated Chihiro Hashimoto and VENY.
Matches often get hyped up as one of the greatest ever, but the SareeeISM Tag Team match was exactly that as Mayu Iwatani, Sareee, Chihiro Hashimoto, & VENY tore the house down. This match was 23 minutes of perfection, and it’s tough to describe it as anything else. It started well with a great mat sequence between Sareee and Hashimoto before it turned into an all-out bomb fest with absurdly great spots and bumps. The way VENY took the suplexes of Sareee and Iwatani was incredible, and her offense was fantastic as well. This match was stiff and brutal, but in the best way possible, including a sickening headbutt with a loud thud. Iwatani and Sareee were able to win the match in front of a white hot Shinjuku FACE crowd that couldn’t believe what they were witnessing in this match.
Mayu Iwatani is teasing IWGP Women’s Championship matches against VENY, Chihiro Hashimoto, and Sareee. It’s unknown how likely any of the three match-ups are as Iwatani loves to tease matches, but if she can get even just one out of the three matches, then another fantastic match will happen for the IWGP Women’s Championship.
