This past July Stardom presented Vol. 1 of Stardom in Showcase, an experimental show taglined “Anything can happen.” It delivered, featuring babyface Fukigen Death★ followed by swimsuits and super soakers followed by an I Quit Match followed by a brawl inside a big blue inflatable elephant followed by a Hardcore Match followed by a Coffin Match. It was like a better, hornier Extreme Rules.
Vol. 2 came in September, at the end of the 19-show tour that was the 5-Star GP 2022 tournament and right before next week’s finals. Before things got weird, there were two more GP matches.
1. 5★STAR GP – Blue Stars: Hanan vs. Saya Iida
Two of Stardom’s young guns were young-gunning, with Iida’s tight headlock transitions and Hanan’s bump on a shoulderblock standing out early. They kind of lost each other in the middle for a minute before Iida brought it back with her cool diving shoulderblock. Short match, solid wrestling. **1/2
2. 5★STAR GP – Blue Stars: Starlight Kid vs. Suzu Suzuki
Starlight Kid and Suzu Suzuki can hit some really cool moves, but even after Kid’s Asai moonsault, Suzu’s bridge to avoid a crossbody, Kid’s standing moonsault, Suzu’s blockbuster suplex hold, Kid’s stretch muffler, Suzu’s spider German suplex and a few other really cool things, the match never got going. **3/4
3. Anywhere Fall 4-Way Battle: Mayu Iwatani vs. AZM vs. Maika vs. Ram Kaicho
Ram Kaicho is making her third Stardom appearance after impressing on their summer “New Blood” shows, while the other three have been working tournament singles matches the last couple months. Anyways, this match was crazy.
In the first few minutes Maika did the Terry Funk spinning ladder spot, AZM rode a bicycle down the aisle, and they all brawled inside the blue bounce house mouse setup by the entrance and filled with multicolored balloons that were themselves filled with powder. Maika emerged a changed person, popping balloons in faces as an offensive maneuver. AZM and Mayu exchanged rolling cradles all the way to the backstage area, where the camera followed and the match continued.
Maika (deranged!) tossed Kaicho at people and taped her to a cart, then AZM and Mayu fought up an escalator before Mayu took a bump (bumps) down like three flights of concrete stairs. Maika then rolled everyone back to the ring on the Kaicho cart where ladders were waiting. AZM dropped a double footstomp off one. Maika threw the bike at everyone, then everyone pinned her so they all won and she lost.
Wrestling runs on a system of formulas but is nothing without its ability to just Try Stuff Out Sometimes. This was a match of trying stuff out, and whatever it lacked in cohesion or sense it made up for in FUN!! ***1/2
4. Cosmic Rules Match II 3-Way ~The End of Summer~: Tam Nakano & Natsupoi vs. Mina Shirakawa & Sayaka Unagi vs. SAKI & Hikari Shimizu
As established at Stardom in Showcase Vol. 1, “Cosmic Rules” is mostly about boobs. Everyone began the match in white dress shirts over swimsuits, then wrestled each other / tried to take off each other’s shirts. After getting hit with a Super Soaker, Shirakawa seductively stared into the camera and took off her own shirt. Unagi used a triple headscissors to tear everyone’s buttons, then they all brawled to the back over copyrighted music before returning in white towels. Amid the confusion the referee just DQ’d Shirakawa and Unagi. Stay for Shirakawa’s reaction to the result and perfectly timed air horn to complement it, and if you’re into them the boobs. **3/4
5. Hardcore Rules Match: Giulia & Rina Yamashita vs. Momo Watanabe & Ruaka
Like the 4-Way Falls Count Anywhere match, they were trying so many things here and most of them were fun. I think it was Rina Yamashita’s first match in Stardom, though not her first hardcore match — a mid-match bump into a board of aluminum cans emphasized that, though she also seemed comfortable just doing double-team moves with Giulia.
Momo embraced the environment right away; she choked Giulia with a chain, kicked her with a trash can over her head, tried to drop a cement block on her. Yamashita stepped in and smashed everyone with chairs before Momo chucked a ladder at her, then dropkicked it into her for a 2-count. A great beat followed when after all that Momo made a tag out to Ruaka.
Giulia hit a missile dropkick off a ladder then Ruaka smashed a seemingly non-gimmicked guitar over her head – then did it again, but Yamashita (who had recovered from the aluminum cans) helped Giulia rally and get the win. ***1/2
6. Rossy Ogawa Bodyguard Army vs. Reaper Army Captain’s Fall Match: Syuri, Utami Hayashishita & Lady C (c) vs. Reaper #3 (Nanae Takahashi) (c), Yuu & Reaper #2 (Yuna Manase)
Team Rossy are Stardom regulars, while Nanae and Yuna were at one point. They removed the Reaper gear and revealed themselves before the match, probably for the best even if it resulted in a pretty normal 6-man tag that felt lacking following the last few bouts of insanity. ***1/4
Happy Thoughts: We love it when wrestling tries something different, though I’m not confident many other companies could try this many things in one show and pull it off. Stardom in Showcase did, and is 2 for 2. 3.5 / 5.0
