On Saturday, STARDOM’s six-week-long trios tournament, the Triangle Derby finally ended with a fantastic show with six great matches and one of the best Wonder Of Stardom Title Matches in Stardom history.
The Show kicked into the hot phase with the first Triangle Derby Semi-Final between God’s Eye and the Cosmic Angels. It was a fun and hard-hitting 10-minute match that served its purpose, considering one of the teams need to wrestle for another 15 minutes later in the name. The interactions between Natsupoi and Syuri were the best part of this match and made me interested in a potential bigger Singles Match between the two former DDM Members. The God’s Eye team advanced to the final when Syuri made Natsupoi tap out.
The other Semi-Final was between the Champions Prominence and 7Upp. In the group stage, 7Upp was able to defeat Prominence and is heading with more momentum into this match. These two teams have been the MVPs of this tournament and here they delivered another fantastic match with the focus being on Suzu and Mizumori. The two youngest Members of their trios were killing it and got the crowd fully into this match. Suzu was able to revenge their loss and pin Mizumori to advance to the final. After the match, Suzu called out their opponents in the final and made the Triangle Derby final an Artist Of Stardom Title Match with the winner not only being the Champions but also the first-ever Triangle Derby Winners.
Himeka’s retirement road continued on this show as well. She faced the Ace of Sendai Girls Chihiro Hashimoto who destroyed MIRAI in Osaka and it wasn’t much different here. The Jumbo Princess rarely fights someone in Stardom that can not match her power but outpower her. Big Hash destroyed her from the first minute on, countered most of Himeka’s big offense, and murderers her with a Powerbomb for the win in just under 9 minutes. Himeka is going out of the wrestling business on her back while Hashimoto continues to destroy everyone on her path. After the match, Syuri challenged Big Hash to a Singles Match in the Yokohama Arena.
Next up was the Wonder Of Stardom Title match between Saya Kamitani and Hazuki. The Wild Heart is trying to capture her first major singles title in her 8th try against the most dominant White Belt Champion in the history of Stardom. The build-up tags to this match have been the highlight of the last couple of shows, with both wrestlers showing a lot of intensity when they were interacting in the ring, and they topped this intensity in the title match. From the first minute on it was fantastic and got better over time. Hazuki’s performance was outstanding as she was the focal point of this match and her desire to finally win the big one after all her unsuccessful challenges before her retirement. It showed Hazuki’s growth as a wrestler. Her determination to win hooked the entire crowd into this match. The near fall with the Brainbuster got not only me at home, but the entire crowd, who couldn’t believe that the Champion kicked out. The Golden Phoenix was unbeatable on this day, but she faced her toughest challenge in her run yet. Kamitani needed three Star Crushers and the Firebird Splash to keep Hazuki down for the three count and to defend her title for the 15th time in her title run. This match didn’t disappoint and ranks as one of the best Stardom Matches of all time. A must-watch for every wrestling fan.
Saya Kamitani laid out a challenge to Mina Shirakawa after this match for the All Stard Dream Queendom show in April. Their history goes back to November when the Champion broke Mina’s face with her Phoenix Splash.
The rivalry between the High-Speed Champion AZM and Starlight Kid has delivered another great match. These two have once-in-a-lifetime chemistry that you will rarely see in wrestling. Every move and every counter was executed perfectly without any mistakes. And just like in their match last year, AZM once again was able to defeat SLK and retain her title. This may have been the final chapter of their rivalry for the High-Speed Title, with the next big match potentially having more stakes. AZM, as the next challenger of Mercedes Mone, has been fantastic as Champion and deserves to break Mayu’s defense record. Her run with the title has made the belt more special again and made it more interesting. With Saki Kashima next in line, the legendary reign might be over soon.
Nearly four years after their title bout for the IceXInfinity Championship, Maya Yukihi and Giulia are facing off again in a match for the Wonder Of Stardom Championship, and it started violently. The two rivals had a chaotic brawl on the outside, trying to kill each other at every chance possible. Maya hit an insane Tiger Driver onto the table that looked really nasty, while Giulia planted Maya with a northern lights bomb on the floor. They didn’t give each other any moment to breathe and continued to brawl until the ref ended the match with the 20 count. A rare non-finish in a World Of Stardom Title match occurred here, and while I don’t like the finish, the execution of it was well done. I hope we get another match between these two, with maybe a stipulation added to it.
Tam Nakano came out after and challenged Giulia to a Red Belt Title Match at the Yokohama Arena. These two hate each other for a long time now, and their feud over the White Belt ended with a fantastic Hair vs Hair Match which was the main event of the Nippon Budokan show in 2021. Now they might be main eventing another big venue. This is Stardom’s biggest feud of the Bushiroad era, and this shows again why.
The Triangle Derby final for the Artist Of Stardom Championship match closes the show in a great way. The match was build around MIRAI and Suzu who have been building up a rivalry over the last couple of months with their fantastic 5STAR GP Match in August. Both showed again why they are viewed so highly by the management and the fans. These two beat the crap out of each other before Suzu was able to win not only the match but also the Triangle Derby with the German Suplex hold. Prominence are officially the first winners of the new tournament and their reign as Trios Champions continues.
This tournament did one thing perfectly, and that was establishing Prominence as one of the most dominant trios in Stardom history. They came into the tournament as champions, dominated, put the title on the line because of their confidence, and won the whole thing and retained the title while being the MVPs of the Triangle Derby. Backstage they got challenged by AZM, Saya Kamitani and Utami Hayashishita from Queen’s Quest.
Updated All-Star Dream Queendom on April 23 in the Yokohama Arena card:
Himeka vs Maika – Himeka’s Retirement Match
Syuri vs Chihiro Hashimoto
Saya Kamitani (c) vs Mina Shirakawa – Wonder Of Stardom Title Match
Giulia (c) vs Tam Nakano – World Of Stardom Title Match
