STARDOM
The past seven days have been some of the news worthiest week in STARDOM’s 2023. They had their annual Gold Rush show on Saturday and announced multiple big matches, news, and returns at a press conference on Monday.
The Gold Rush show has been plagued with injuries, with Tam Nakano being unable to compete and the World of Stardom Championship match between her and the 5STAR Winner Suzu Suzuki being postponed after Nakano’s knee injury during her match against Natsuko Tora, but also Mayu Iwatani and others are missing the show due to injuries. The show still featured three Championship matches, with the Main Event being a Moneyball Ladder match tournament, that ended up also being for the Artist of Stardom Championships.
Starlight Kid made her comeback match in a three-way with her rival AZM and Suzu Suzuki. This was fast-paced with creative and fun sequences between three of the best young Wrestlers STARDOM has. All three had a great performance and worked well together to make this match fun and great. AZM pulled out the Candian Destroyer into the Azumi Sushi to pin the returning Starlight Kid. She announced after the match that she will challenge Giulia for the Strong Women’s Championship
In the first Championship match of the night, Momoka Hanazono challenged the newly crowned Champion Mei Seira. The old high-speed rules, 15-minute time-limit, 10 count on the outside, were in play and helped the match to be a fast-paced affair. Many counter sequences mixed with a nice touch of comedy made this match stand out. Seira rolled up Hanazono to retain her Championship for the first time. Later in the show, Donna del Mondo’s Thekla called out Mei Seira and challenged her to a match in Nagoya.
The Wonder Of Stardom Championship match was the highlight of the show, with Saori Anou challenging the current Champion MIRAI. This was a rematch from the 5STAR Grand Prix, where Anou was able to beat MIRAI to earn herself the Championship match. The match started off slow, with MIRAI & Anou grappling for the first 10 minutes of the match. Towards the 15-minute mark, the match picked up and developed into a hot affair. The finishing sequence was great, with MIRAI & Anou giving everything they had to keep their opponent down, MIRAI kicking out of the Pottering, which led to Anou winning their first singles match, was an awesome moment that made many believe, that Anou actually won the match. After a hard-hitting fight, the 30-minute time limit draw has expired, which means that MIRAI has retained her Wonder of Stardom Championship in a great match.
The main event of this show was the Moneyball tournament, with Donna del Mondo & STARS both respectively winning their first-round match, and clashing in the main event in a special TLC match including “Power-Ups”. Giulia changed the match to be for the Artist Of Stardom Championships. The match was short, sweet, and fun, but nothing too outstanding. All six Wrestlers bumped a lot, and there was some good teamwork, good exchanges, and hilarious moments. Donna del Mondo retained the Artist Of Stardom Championship and is moving on as Champions to Queendom.
STARDOM held a Press Conference on Monday and announced that Tam Nakano is relinquishing the World Of Stardom Championship to focus on healing her knee injury, that she suffered in her Championship defense against Natsuko Tora in October. Tam Nakano vacating the Red Belt only marks the first time in the Championship’s twelve-year history that it has been vacated due to injury The only other time was when Yoshiko got stripped of the title after her match against Act in 2015.
A one-day tournament has been announced for November 28th, where the winner will face the 5STAR Winner Suzu Suzuki, who has a guaranteed Championship match, at Dream Queendom on December 29th for the vacant World Of Stardom Championship. However, Hazuki called out Suzu for December 2nd, where Suzuki puts her “Right to Challenge” on the line against the STARS Member.
From the line-up, a rematch between Suzu Suzuki and Maika seems to be on the horizon, after Suzuki beat the Empress in the final of the 5STAR Grand Prix to earn her automatic shot at the World Of Stardom Championship. It is the match with the most history, an interesting story, and potential drama with both sides deserving the victory.
The One Day World Of Stardom Contender Tournament:
Mina Shirakawa vs. Momo Watanabe
Ami Sorurei vs. Maika
In addition, the Goddess of Stardom championships also have been vacated, after Natsupoi is still healing from a cervical herniation and will be away from in-ring for the time being. Divine Kingdom, the winners of the Goddess Of Stardom Tag League, will face an unknown team on the December 2nd Nagoya show for the vacant Championships. It’s yet to be revealed who their opponents will be.
Coincidentally, Utami Hayashishita and Saya Kamitani both announced their return to in-ring action on the November 28th Korakuen Hall Show, which indicates that the former Goddess Of Stardom Tag Champions could challenge Maika & Megan Bayne on the upcoming PPV. Kamitani returned from a dislocated elbow in her match against Tam Nakano on the first night of the 5STAR Grand Prix and has been out of action since. She was originally rumored to win the 5STAR and challenge Nakano at the Queendom show until the injury changed the plans.
Pro Wrestling NOAH
At the latest Monday Magic show from NOAH, Nagisa Nozaki made a surprise return and announced her return to in-ring action on November 27th at the next Monday Magic Episode for the first time in 16 months after she tore her ACL shortly before the Catch the WAVE final in 2022. Her return match will be against her career rival Miyuki Takase. These two faced each other in Pro Wrestling WAVE & Actwres girl’Z including their battles for the Regina di WAVE Championship & the AWG Championship with Nozaki leading the head-to-head record with 5 wins and 3 losses.
This is a surprising return, since Nozaki just announced two weeks ago, that she will leave her home promotion WAVE to focus on her knee treatment. The 2x Regina di WAVE Champion was in the promotion for the past 6 years, and even was the Ace for the last few years in her promotions, and her going freelance adds another big star on the freelancer market.
