Saya Kamitani is many things, and in the last year she became a main eventer. The Wonder of Stardom Champion defended her title against two Stardom greats at Sumo Hall a little over a month ago, and to kickoff May she was headlining a pay-per-view less than a week after a different pay-per-view. Business? It was either booming or in need of a boost.
The last pay-per-view ended with MIRAI winning the Cinderella Tournament and Syuri defending the World of Stardom Title, which was another Syuri main event that ticked all the boxes but was missing the thing that seemed to be missing from Syuri matches ever since she went from challenger to champion.
This pay-per-view — the Goddess Festival — took place in Fukuoka and Jushin Thunder Liger was on commentary for some of it.
1. Hina vs. Waka Tsukiyama
As in her match with Hanan a few days ago, Hina continued to specialize in punishing an opponent… crab hold here, nasty strike there. Waka continued to specialize in the fiery comeback… if not victory. **
2. Hanan, Saya Iida & Momo Kohgo vs. Saki Kashima, Ruaka & Rina
Hanan and friends represent the STARS stable while Kashima repped STARS a couple years ago, but now runs with those low-down dirty punks in Oedo Tai. Everyone’s entrances and wrestling attire drew a pretty stark contrast on face/heel, so not much work had to be done there – they just got to the good solid basic wrestling. ***
3. Tam Nakano, Unagi Sayaka & Mina Shirakawa vs. Utami Hayashishita, AZM & Lady C
The Stardom roster is an expansive one, and as they emphasize a newer cast the undercard occasionally embraces the spoils with a match like this that’s — while still pretty meaningless — absurdly stacked with good talent and good wrestling exchanges: AZM’s a sweet double foot stomp or kick to the head; Shirakawa’s killer backfist; even the giant swing and chop gimmick from Lady C. Like in the last match, a clear contrast of face/heel too: the trio of bright and bubbly idols versus the trio of gals cut from a different cloth, that cloth primarily being dark hair. ***1/2
4. SWA World Title: Thekla [c] vs. Mayu Iwatani
Really respect how Mayu Iwatani’s sash just says her name: Mayu Iwatani.
Thekla controlled the pace for a while here, first with her weirdness then an assortment of leglocks and kicks to the head plus a freakin’ spider superplex. Iwatani eventually fired back with a slap, then really fired back with a tombstone on the floor and crazy lady tope. She missed a moonsault, but escaped a Thekla rollup right before 3 and caught her with a kick, which led to a Dragon Suplex hold for 2 and finally that moonsualt for 3. Fun match, nice finish. ***1/2
5. Elimination Match: Syuri, Konami, MIRAI & Ami Sorei vs. Giulia, Himeka, Natsupoi & Mai Sakurai
Syuri split from Giulia and DDM pretty recently to run God’s Eye, which is a pretty badass name for a faction. This match… it lasted. DDM got the first elimination 10 minutes in when Sakurai threw Sorei over the top, then Konami submitted Natsupoi a few minutes later. Syuri and Himeka were both eliminated via over-the-top rule together, as were Giulia and Konami. By the time Sakurai and the Cinderella Winner MIRAI were killing it for the finish, 25-minutes had passed and anything that could or would have been was overwhelmed by what were mostly goofy eliminations. ***1/4
6. Goddesses of Stardom Title: Momo Watanabe & Starlight Kid [c] vs. Hazuki & Koguma
Days after squaring off in the Cinderella Tournament Semi-Finals, Hazuki and Koguma were reunited and looking to win back these Tag Team Titles. The Champs – Oedo Tai’s Momo Watanabe and Starlight Kid – are basically the ideal short-term heel tag team, like when Eddie and Jericho teamed up a few times on Nitro to mess around and sync their assholery.
After a quick early beatdown the match ended up being all-action for 20+ minutes with very few tags, though everything seemed to be working for only maybe half of it. Starlight Kid dropped a rapid-fire quebrada (cool) and smashed a chair over Hazuki’s head (not cool), then Hazuki went hard on the rally before pulling out the surprise win. Not great, but some good stuff. ***1/4
7. Wonder of Stardom Title: Saya Kamitani [c] vs. Maika
Saya Kamitani beat Maika in the Finals of last year’s Cinderella Tournament, and here they were in an even bigger match about to have a better match. At the time I thought Kamitani delivered (sorry for quoting myself): “main event quality matches mixed with the aura of modern day Sabu … the right amount of engaging limb work and epic moments down The Stretch, and every so often she will throw out a maneuver or bump that practically moves time and space.” Here she delivered that in a true main event context, which also served as a pretty stark contrast from Syuri’s Red Belt defenses – less serious, but more fun and just as credible.
After some opening holds, The Champ turned to ranas while Maika turned to suplexes and slams and eventually a violent powerbomb in the apron. I gasped! She followed it up with a straight-up vertical suplex on the apron. Back inside, Kamitani was able to keep up on an elbow exchange, kicked out after a superplex, hit a spin kick… but ran into a lariat, then nearly got killed with a sort of suplex off the top I won’t try to identify.
The move Saya Kamitani went with to turn the tide? A headbutt to the face. She keeps us guessing. Maika managed another lariat after, but that tide was turned: a ridiculous Phoenix Splash from Kamitani led to a successfully fifth defense. ****1/4
Happy Thoughts: Much like the Cinderella PPV in late-April, this felt like a low-end Stardom PPV but still featured a really great match (this time it was the main event). Combine the two shows together and you’d really be cooking. 3.25 / 5.0
