OK, I fucked up.
I meant to start watching joshi puroresu around the same time I started watching not-joshi puroresu, and then twenty years went by. It is ridiculous. Names like Bull Nakano and Kairi Sane would flip me out any time spoon-fed to me by McMahon, while tapes (tapes!) of AJW’s Dream Slam shows and Megumi Kudo’s FMW matches were spoken of with as much if not more reverence than the Super J Cup tapes I chose to dive into puroresu with in the first place.
But getting started was intimidating. There was a history and hierarchy of small and even smaller companies with more political upheavals than Ancient Rome, all completely siloed off from the already complicated Japanese men’s wrestling scene I can barely keep up with anymore. There was an issue of access, one solved to an almost excessive degree over the last few years. Then there was the whole photo book side of the business, and I can barely explain to my family the wrestling I watch already.
The scene kept calling though, and as I kept an eye open one company blatantly stood out: Stardom. Or ST★RDOM. Or World Wonder Ring Stardom. Told you — intimidating!
Owned by New Japan’s parent company and regularly running shows with a big league production (as well as little bumpers on the bottom of the screen that introduce the wrestlers!), Stardom is the biggest and most accessible joshi puroresu outfit running. The roster is split into stables and they fight for championships, but considering how late I am to the party this will be less a history lesson and more… thoughts. Happy thoughts. Happy thoughts as I discover something already discovered. Maybe we’ll learn something along the way.
As a start, I watched three Stardom pay-per-views from this year: the 10th Anniversary show at Budokan Hall in March, the Tokyo Dream Cinderella tournament finals in June, and Yokohama Dream Cinderella in July. I hope to keep up with the big stuff while taking a look back at all the other stuff.
First up: the 10th Anniversary Show and Stardom’s first at Budokan Hall. Old favorites and some despised are back and by the end of the night someone is getting their god damn head shaved.
0. High Speed Title: AZM [c] vs. Natsupoi
Natsupoi has a spunky charisma to her while AZM enters with purple hair and a general disgust — that is what we call professional wrestling. They did some fast rope-running and dropkicking early that caused me to exclaim, “Goodness! What an introduction to joshi puroresu.” That soon escalated into riskier spots, like a double foot stomp to the floor or a springboard dropkick that made Natsupoi viscerally exclaim “HUGGH.” Those too were quite the introduction.
Not everything hit clean and by the end they had done so many kickouts it seemed almost funny, but this was a fine way to get right into it — such a welcome and showcase that if anything it was too much. ***
0. Goddesses of Stardom Title: Maika & Himeka [c] vs. Natsuko Tora & Saki Kashima
Tora and Kashima exude all the attitude for their entrance, informing me that yes: they are the bad guys. The bad guys attack before the bell, as bad guys sometimes do. Kashima comes off as the pretty girl corrupted by evil while Tora looks like a meaner Akitoshi Saito. She busts out some awesome fat boy offense towards the end, a cannonball and frog splash and a freaking Shouten slam.
Maika and Himeka are babyfaces but seem like babyfaces in training, a pair of meek girls who once in a while do double torture racks and deadlift vertical suplexes. I mean this thing occasionally flipped me out. For a “kickoff show” type tag match, everyone showed up. ***
1. 10th Anniversary Premium Stardom All-Star Rumble
This was basically the best and worst thing for me as a new Stardom viewer, a flood new faces and cameos that may or may not be important. From my notes I can tell you I was struck early on by the mask of Starlight Kid and the fact that Gokigen Death is just an actual clown. The babyface energy of Unagi Sayaka (who eventually wins) stood out, as did the mysterious goddess energy given off by Yuna Manase and Lady C. Momoe Nakanishi, Mima Shimoda, Kyoko Inoue, and Chigusa Nagayo brought the legend presence, as did Emi Sakura who came out with an entire army of people. Miho Wakizawa and her botched rubber band spot cracked me up, Kikutaro (yes) and his pervert spots not so much.
Once the field narrowed down the action got pretty great, with Shirakawa and Unagi throwing down for the next generation and the returning Yuzuki Aikawa still keeping up. Considering Shirakawa and Unagi went on to wrestle for the Future of Stardom Title on the July show, I can assure you they did a very good job making a first-time viewer aware of their importance. **1/2
2. 10th Anniversary Match: Nanae Takahashi vs. Momo Watanabe
Find out that Nanae Takahashi runs Seadlinnng and it connects a lot of dots. The match is pretty great, 10 minutes of kicking ass for the 10th anniversary. They immediately charge each other with slaps and kicks and when Nanae absorbs a kick to the spine she seems practically overjoyed. She responds with a German suplex and her own spine kick, then Watanabe responds with a few dropkicks and kicks. The match is really just them trading blasts of intensity then recovering, as real as wrestling gets.
Nanae kicks Momo around until Momo makes a comeback by elbowing her repeatedly in the head. When Nanae escapes a stretch plum it is game on: Meteora, Dragon suplex, lariat, falcon arrow… some kind of arm-hook Emerald Flowsion!? A wonderful bunch of establishing territory from two badasses. ***1/4
3. SWA Undisputed World Women’s Title: Syuri [c] vs. Konami
Konami is masked up and flanked by heels, while the word that comes to mind for Syuri is glamorous. They do some fun grappling to start and Konami ties Syuri up a few different ways before Syuri hits a sweet gutbuster. There were a lot of sweet moves actually, though at only 8 minutes long the match ended up “just” them trading some sweet moves but struggling to create any real wrestling drama. They closed it up with more fun grappling, fighting to apply a cross armbreaker or stretch muffler before someone got trapped. **3/4
4. 10th Anniversary Match: Mayu Iwatani vs. Yoshiko
This rules so much. Based on her picture, Yoshiko hates everybody. Based on Twitter, everybody hates her back. She (also of Seadlinnng) returns to Stardom more than five years after she legitimately ended the career of Act Yasukawa, and it has a real Kazunari Murakami kind of vibe to it. I am hesitantly enthralled, as long as everybody’s cool with it.
Akira Hokuto joins commentary for this very important match. They stare each other down pre-bell with all of the intensity — all of it — before Mayu offers a handshake and Yoshiko flips her off. Yoshiko is a menace right away, refusing an armdrag and just bullying Mayu around before Mayu is able to knock her outside and hit a massive tope onto basically Yoshiko’s friends and not Yoshiko – it’s chaotic, baby!
Yoshiko brings Mayu back down to earth with a tilt-a-whirl backbraker then locks her in holds, but Mayu is able to rip her uncooperative ass from the ropes and deliver a German suplex and Dragon suplex. Mayu tries a moonsault but Yoshiko puts her knees up, then they exchange elbows and Mayu looks amused if not in severe pain. Her selling towards the end is incredible as Yoshiko tries to finish it, exhaustion and sympathy mixed with this killer instinct about to pop off. Eventually it does and it delivers a tremendous close to this wild match. ***3/4
5. World of Stardom Title: Utami Hayashishita [c] vs. Saya Kamitani
Joke is on me for missing out on these two, these wrestling stars. They trade holds and run ropes at the beginning, splits and a handspring making the usual a lot cooler. Hayashishita spends the match trying to take control like a champion would but Kamitani just keeps bringing the crazy: tope con hilo, Canadian Destroyer, springboard hurricanrana… even her northern lights suplex hold is so good it feels like a high spot. Each slightly haphazard move feels some kind of logical though, like the right counter at the right time.
A freaking Phoenix splash and hurricanrana out of Hayashishita’s Hijack bomb were not enough to secure Kamitani the championship, but she absolutely secured my heart. New Japan championship wrestling on LSD, and it even ran just 15 minutes. Incredible. ****
6. Hair vs. Hair – Wonder of Stardom Title: Giulia [c] vs. Tam Nakano
Giulia and Tam Nakano are the cool kids, joshi puroresu distilled: colorful, charismatic, badass, and a little bit psychotic. It was them above anyone that got me thinking I need to check this out, and here they were delivering everything I could have asked for.
The arena was quiet due to pandemic restrictions but the big match feel got through thanks to serious stakes and an authentic approach. They got right to the point, jockeying for position to a piledriver through a table in mere minutes. It didn’t seem silly though, just natural — given the rivalry and stipulation any more wristlocks would’ve just been ridiculous.
Guilia kept the attitude-infused pressure on all match while Nakano had to fight and fight for every move. When they threw a slap, and they threw a lot, that slap hit. A big spot at the end is Giulia accepting her fate and just letting Nakano slap the shit out of each other, all Shakespearian and beautiful before the spin kicks and Steiner Screwdriver’s started coming. There were bruises. There were tears. Someone — I won’t tell you who — got their haircut. And I decided that yes, I will try and keep up with this. ****1/4
Happy Thoughts: I was already an easy mark, but this was great. The intensity of Iwatani/Yoshiko followed by the quality of Hayashishita/Kamitani followed by the spectacle of Giulia/Nakano was a tremendous final three, but everything kind of ruled. It not only delivered in the ring with a consistency rare for wrestling, but with big time situations and cameos it also serves as a pretty perfect introduction for anyone looking to hop on the bandwagon. 5.0 / 5.0
