Stardom ended last year on pay-per-view crowning new heroes and providing an enticing path forward: Saya Kamitani put it all together to win the Wonder of Stardom Title, Giulia returned from a year-long injury, and her tag partner Syuri continued an unexpected year of dominance right through Utami Hayashishita to become the World of Stardom Champion.
It was so good. As good as any wrestling I’ve seen lately, as far as building talents up and logically paying rivalries off in important scenarios or whatever. They exceeded expectations and more impressively did it adapting to injuries and The Puroresu Pandemic Crowds.
How to follow-up or even build on exceeded expectations is a riddle across culture and industry (especially when no one can agree on how to measure the flippin’ expectations!), but at the end of January Stardom was back on pay-per-view about to try. Maybe. Kind of. The cycle of wrestling is complicated sometimes.
Kamitani and Syuri are defending titles, Momo Watanabe has turned heel, and a small exodus from Ice Ribbon has brought some new players to the Dolphin’s Arena. First though: a 5-Way Battle.
0. 5-Way Battle: Momo Kohgo vs. Saki Kashima vs. Fukigen Death★ vs. Ruaka vs. Rina
Pros:
- Momo Kohgo seems legit.
- Comfort in familiarity
- Jokes
Cons:
- Everybody just beat up on Momo.
- Jokes
- It was a 5-Way Battle. *1/2
1. Future of Stardom Title: Hanan [c] vs. Lady C
This was for the Future of Stardom Title. They circle each other, then lock-up and exchange wristlocks. Hanan applies a headlock but Lady C is able to power out with a Russian legsweep. Lady hits a big boot but runs into a takedown from Hanan. Lady chops Hanan and Hanan responds with an elbow. Lady C hits a chop. Hanan hits an elbow. Lady hits a chop. Hanan hits an elbow. Lady hits a chop. Hanan hits an elbow. Lady hits a chop. Hanan hits an elbow. Hanan hits another elbow and Lady falls into the ropes.
Lady gets up and hits a bunch more chops, then whips Hanan into the corner only for Hanan to jump to the turnbuckle and hit a crossbody attack. They struggle for leverage and Hanan hits a northern lights suplex hold for 2. Lady gets up and chops Hanan’s head, then hits a backbreaker and applies a kind of cobra clutch submission before setting up the chokeslam… only for Hanan to roll through and try a cross armbreaker! Lady C escapes with a rollup for 2, then charges with a kick only for Hanan to slam her down.
Hanan does a bodyslam that turns into a suplex but loses the bridge and covers for 2. Lady C kicks Hanan and hits the chokeslam and gets a 2-count when Hanan grabs the bottom rope. After a slight miscommunication Hanan hits an axe kick, screams, and hits an iffy backdrop hold for the win at 5:56. **1/2
2. Utami Hayashishita & AZM vs. Momo Watanabe & Starlight Kid
I didn’t think the #TagMatch was particularly great, given how great @utami0914’s reign was last year. It’s a shame, but I had a blast watching AZM stand out among the established stars and Momo just being a whole different person. #STARDOM サイン #StarlightKid ***
3. SWA World Title: Mina Shirakawa vs. Thekla
This rocked, both as a good wrestling match and entertaining showcase for a new face — Thekla — who from before the bell to after plays the game different from everyone else: laughing, shimmying, crab-walking. I don’t know if I followed all of it but the unusual outshined any inconsistency and there’s a crabwalk into spear spot towards the end that just hits. ***1/4
4. Goddesses of Stardom Title: Hazuki & Koguma [c] vs. Maika & Himeka
The champions dance
Tower of Doom and near falls
Did not get going **3/4
5. Wonder of Stardom Title: Saya Kamitani [c] vs. Unagi Sayaka
Three years into her professional career, Saya Kamitani had seen it all. Or at least she thought she had. She’d have reason to think so, given that just three years into her career she was the Wonder of Stardom Champion and walking down the entrance ramp in a sweet-ass entrance jacket. She spent 2021 first establishing her name with dazzling high-flying then establishing her credibility by finally winning the big one — or at least the one you win before you win the big one.
She roughs Sayaka up for a while but takes a beating too, fully delivering herself into a flapjack and taking a whole Crossroads on the floor. “Taking” “heat” isn’t really the deal with Kamitani though — she’ll fly and throw down but mostly she’s going to freestyle for a while until the near falls come and hopefully it’s all spectacular enough to overcome the suspension of disbelief that arrives a little more than is ideal. Saya Kamitani continues. ***3/4
6. World of Stardom Title #1 Contender’s Match: Mayu Iwatani vs. Giulia
I liked that this wasn’t a Triple Threat Match as initially advertised, but I didn’t like that this went a full 30 minutes. ***3/4
7. World of Stardom Title: Syuri [c] vs. MIRAI
Good match, good kicks, needed more to make MIRAI stand out. Really good kicks though. A summary by Captain Lou can be found below. ***1/2
Happy Thoughts: Very possibly better top-to-bottom than some of Stardom’s PPV’s last year but this was lacking the high-end match(es) that most of those PPV’s did, and thus I ended up kind of unimpressed with this very solid wrestling show. 3.5 / 5.0
