STARDOM
A huge championship change happened on the STARDOM show at Korakuen Hall this past week as Momo Watanabe & Thekla won the Goddess of STARDOM Titles from Konami & Syuri after Konami turned on her tag team partner to help the Oedo Tai duo win the tag titles. It’s another swerve heel turn in STARDOM after Thekla joined the group in April, and, although still with Oedo Tai now, Momo teased returning to Queen’s Quest earlier this year.
It’s also another very short Goddess Championship reign after Crazy Star & FWC both had stints that lasted less than two months each this year. The belts now need a team to hold for an extended period of time, but it’s unclear whether Watanabe & Thekla will be the pair to do this, as recent booking shows that they could drop the belts at any point.
STARDOM presented a doubleheader in Sapporo this past weekend with the Wonder Rendezvous show on Saturday and the World Rendezvous on Sunday, and the shows featured three titles switching hands. The attendance of both shows was good for STARDOM in Sapporo, as both were the highest-attended shows ever for STARDOM in that market with a combined attendance of over 1,400 fans over the two shows.
The show on Saturday featured the debut of the company’s newest faction – NEO GENESIS – comprised of Starlight Kid, AZM, Suzu Suzuki, Mei Seira & Miyu Amasaki, who all had new entrance gear and a theme as a stable. In their first match as an official team, they won a match against STARS when AZM picked up the win over Hanan. The introduction worked well as the build-up was plentiful and made sense.
In the main event of the show, Natsupoi defeated Saori Anou to win the Wonder of STARDOM Championship. It was a good match for the White Belt in front of a dead crowd which definitely could have been more, but the most important part is that Natsupoi can finally call herself the Wonder of STARDOM champion. It’s well-deserved as she constantly stands out whenever she gets the chance, and has had some of the best White Belt matches against Tam, Kamitani, and Shirakawa. Anou will now go down as the wrestler with the shortest White Belt run in history, as her second run just was 12 days long. Also, it was the third title switch for the White Belt in the past month, so the title now needs a longer run to get established again. This is certainly possible with Natsupoi who should be elevated to the next level with this run.
On Sunday, Mei Seira defeated Saya Kamitani to win the High-Speed Championship back in a fun eight-minute match. It was nothing special, but it achieved its goal of putting Seira on top of the high-speed division again after she lost the belt during WrestleMania weekend to Saki Kashima. Kamitani’s run was fine, but nothing that will be remembered as she just isn’t a good high-speed wrestler.
Maika defended the World of STARDOM Championship match against Natsuko Tora, who revealed a new buzzcut hairstyle. The match was good and much better than fans anticipated it to be. Tora is a good wrestler when they allow her to be, and she showed up with a great heel performance against the babyface in Maika. The crowd was more into it than on Saturday, wanting Maika to overcome the villainous Tora. In the end, she was close to retaining her gold, particularly when she hit the Wristlock Michinoku Driver II, but Saya Kamitani pulled the referee out at the last moment and turned on her supposed friend. Natsuko Tora used that distraction to hit Maika with the blue mist and pin her after a Swanton Bomb to become the new World of STARDOM Champion. Post-match, she announced that Oedo Tai is dead, and that the new group, including the rest of Oedo Tai and Kamitani, is now called “H.A.T.E.”.
It is a controversial segment, and rightfully so, as STARDOM turned another popular babyface in a shock moment and added to the already stacked heel faction. It seemed that Saya Kamitani was set to become the biggest babyface in STARDOM after losing Queen’s Quest and suffering an injury in the 5STAR last year, but, instead, she’s now a member of H.A.T.E. Saya as the top face felt like an easy lay-up for STARDOM and they decided against it, which is an interesting, yet risky decision as the promotion is struggling when it comes to top faces right now and the easiest story to tell is out of the window now. The turn itself was done fine, but Kamitani’s facial expressions were bad, and, overall, it all felt anti-climatic rather than the huge moment it was supposed to be.
Natsuko Tora as World of STARDOM Champion is fine, and not many deserve it as much as she does given her journey. She has put in a lot of work since coming back from her knee injury in 2022, and had countless very good performances since returning, including on this show. She ended the run of the Empress at 212 days and six defences which had established Maika well as one of the top names on the STARDOM roster, and, with Kamitani betraying her, it seems that Maika isn’t done going for the world title yet.
Another interesting point is that, after the new “H.A.T.E” group replaced Oedo Tai, STARDOM has now officially ended two of their longest-running factions, with the history of Queen’s Quest and Oedo Tai gone forever now. It’s another step away from what Rossy Ogawa established, heading into a future with new factions. In fact, STARS is now the only group which started before Bushiroad bought STARDOM at the end of 2019.
H.A.T.E. now holds four championships with Rina being the Future of Stardom & 1/2 of the NEW BLOOD Tag Team Champions, Momo Watanabe & Thekla holding the Goddess of Stardom Titles, and Natsuko Tora being the 18th World of Stardom Champion. This is the first time in a long time that a heel stable is dominating STARDOM including holding a top singles belt, as the last time that happened was when Kagetsu held the Red Belt in 2018 nearly six years ago. It’s an interesting decision as STARDOM is still trying to regain the fan support that they have lost over the past 12 months, selling 27% fewer tickets from January to June this year in comparison to the same time frame in 2023.
With Tora as champion, the 5STAR Grand Prix gets interesting as well, since there is no clear favorite for the crown. After her title win, Natsuko Tora said that she will back out of the tournament and Ruaka will take her spot in Red Stars Block A, which features Maika & Natsupoi. The top favorites seem to be Tam Nakano, Syuri, and Maika. Tam seems to be busy going for the IWGP Women’s Championship, while Syuri & Maika are feuding with H.A.T.E right now as the two got betrayed by Konami & Kamitani just last week.
The full line-up for the STARDOM 5STAR Grand Prix is officially out as the final tournament qualifiers happened the past weekend. Yuna Mizumori defeated Waka Tsukiyama, while Miyu Amasaki defeated Lady C to advance to the main tournament. On top of that, STARDOM announced the Xs for the tournament, as Risa Sera will return to STARDOM to compete in the Blue Stars B Block, while AEW’s Anna Jay will make her STARDOM & Japan debut to take part in the Blue Stars A Block. Both are interesting additions to the tournament as Anna Jay being arrives on excursion and Sera adds star power to the Blue Stars B Block.
Full 5STAR Grand Prix Blocks:
Red Stars Block A
- Maika
- Natsupoi
- Ruaka
- Manami
- Konami
- Hazuki
- Yuna Mizumori
Red Stars Block B
- Mayu Iwatani
- Tam Nakano
- Momo Watanabe
- AZM
- Mei Seira
- Saya Iida
- Tomoka Inaba
Blue Stars Block A
- Saori Anou
- Starlight Kid
- Syuri
- Xena
- Koguma
- Anna Jay
- Miyu Amasaki
Blue Stars Block B
- Suzu Suzuki
- Saya Kamitani
- Hanan
- Ami Sohrei
- Saki Kashima
- Thekla
- Risa Sera
