‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through Korakuen Hall… wrestlers were playing jokes and dress-up. I dunno. At Stardom’s Year End Climax Mayu Iwatani was a reindeer and Utami Hayashishita rode in on a fake freaking horse; the show did close with two strong matches though – Saya Kamitani & AZM vs. Starlight Kid & Haruka Umesaki and a DDM vs. God’s Eye 10-woman Elimination Match – if not ones strong enough to seek out (or dedicate a post to).
Five days later was Dream Queendom at Sumo Hall, a bigger year-end show started last year to account for the fact that Stardom was Killing It. Last year continued wrestling’s tradition of big year-end cards, and tonight was stacked as well with five titles on the line, KAIRI in action, and a main event over a year in the making.
0. Stardom Rumble
The order of entry was Lady C, Waka Tsukiyama, Rina, Hina, SAKI, Tomoka Inaba, Yuna Mizumori, Gokigen Death★, Miyu Amasaki, Kikutaro, Ram Kaichow, Super Strong Stardom Machine and Super Strong Stardom Giant Machine. Fukigen Death played a babyface, Kikutaro was creepy, and eliminations came relatively often. I know it was just a pre-show Rumble but someone should probably be prosecuted for how short Inaba was in, too. The final four were Miyu, Ram and both Machines, the latter of whom lobbied the referee for a co-win until he… agreed? **
1. High Speed Title: AZM [c] vs. Hikari Shimizu
AZM has been wrestling mind-bending high-speed title defenses for over a year now and opened Dream Queendom in another one. She brings a lot to a match: rapid rope-running and jockeying for position using the corner turnbuckles; an offensive slate that includes cool stuff like an armdrag off the top or double foot stomp; a penchant to wreck an opponent’s arm in the middle of all this. Shimizu wrestled her first match against Tam Nakano in Actwres girl’Z six years ago; today she spends most of her time in Pro Wrestling WAVE and Ice Ribbon. I liked when she just shoved AZM off the top rope early on, and she mostly kept up (most impressively on an exchange of cradles late in the match) before AZM bent her arm back and she had to tap. ***1/4
2. Pre-Triangle Derby: Mayu Iwatani, Hanan & Momo Kohgo vs. Hazuki, Koguma & Saya Iida
Stardom’s new round-robin trios tournament began in January, so here was a preview with two of the teams entering. It was OK. Hazuki really kicked poor Momo’s ass. ***
3. Mina Shirakawa & Sayaka Unagi vs. Thekla & Mai Sakurai
Mina was accompanied by Xia Brookside and Mariah May, who will team with her in the Derby. This was also Mina’s return to the ring after a gnarly injury from early November, and the match was (successfully) worked around that: Mina got it moving early before her face got it, Thekla kept contorting the face during the beatdown, then Mina caught Thekla in her own face with a backfist and put her down with the Glamorous Driver. It was fun, but it made sense too. ***1/4
4. Goddesses of Stardom Title 3-Way #1 Contender’s Match: Maika & Himeka vs. MIRAI & Ami Sohrei vs. Natsuko Tora & Ruaka
Three wrestled at a time with the other three in the corners, which delivered on action but not cohesion — and cohesion is important! If you’re wondering if there was a Tower of Doom spot, there was. Occasional one-on-one clashes between any of these six bruisers were fun though. ***1/4
5. KAIRI vs. Utami Hayashishita
Two good wrestlers wrestled for a while. They grappled for a while. KAIRI controlled for a while. Utami managed the Hijack Bomb and KAIRI managed the Insane Elbow and they were building to a pretty cool finish, too, before the time ran out at 15 minutes. ***1/2
6. Hardcore Match – Artist of Stardom Title: Momo Watanabe, Starlight Kid & Saki Kashima [c] vs. Risa Sera, Suzu Suzuki & Kurumi Hiragi
Starlight Kid ran over her opponents with a motorbike in the first minute, so this was a different kind of wrestling match but still one I enjoyed. Chair shots and kendo stick fights and barbed wire baseball bats were supplemented with some fast-paced wrestling and excellent near falls. Towards the end Risa put the Kid through a pile of chairs (which the camera missed, a rare Stardom production L), then Suzu dropped Kashima with a Chaos Theory German suplex hold to win the titles. ***1/2
7. Goddesses of Stardom Title: Tam Nakano & Natsupoi [c] vs. Nanae Takahashi & Yuu
This was tremendous. Everyone had a role that was well-defined before the match and played up to great effect during the match: Natsupoi’s the up-and-comer, Tam’s her mentor, Nanae’s the legend, Yuu’s her enforcer. Nanae & Yuu went after Nat at the bell, and Nat can deliver a beating but is excellent at just looking wrecked taking one. Tam tried to walk tall but was eventually overwhelmed by Nanae & Yuu too, gritting her teeth through kicks and eventually unable to help Nat much at all. Yuu straight-up caught a plancha from Nat later on, and though a follow-up from Tam brought her down there wasn’t much left in the champions after. Nanae & Yuu dropped Nat with a double Razor’s Edge fro 2, then Yuu dropped Nat with a Last Ride for 3. ****
8. Wonder of Stardom Title: Saya Kamitani [c] vs. Haruka Umesaki
Umesaki entered wearing pink, with a friendly demeanor and frills on her jacket sleeves. Kamitani entered as someone trying to leave a full calendar year with the Wonder of Stardom Title. Holds and headlocks gave way to Kamitani lighting up Umesaki with stirkes. Umesaki kicked out after a spin kick, but Saya quickly struck with a double foot stomp and hit Star Crusher for 2. Saya missed the 450 splash follow-up and Umesaki struck with a la magistral for 2, but ran into a hurricanrana for 3. Nobody believed Umesaki was winning but she pushed Kamitani into something new for the finish and it made for good wrestling. ****
9. World of Stardom Title: Syuri [c] vs. Giulia
While building towards an obvious year-end matchup between Syuri and Giulia for the World of Stardom Championship all through 2022, Stardom impressively balanced keeping both of them interesting while fleshing out the rest of their growing roster. The eventual year-end matchup was great and kept its’ juice all 30 minutes through vibes, strikes, and some of the wildest takes on suplexes you’ll ever see in a main event wrestling match. They got by for a good while too just by exchanging stares or fighting for control — of holds, of the match, of Stardom!
Syuri tried a cross armbreaker and heel hook early, then they got stuck together upside down in the ropes and traded slaps. They fought to the floor floor, where Giulia suplexed Syuri onto chairs and Syuri gave Giulia a piledirver through a table. Eventually something unlocked in Giulia and she really started laying her shit in, which prompted Syuri to do the same and almost win by KO off a kick. Syuri lifted Giulia in an electric chair for the Syuri World, but Giulia reversed it with a jackknife cradle. Giulia reversed a fireman’s carry with a DDT and dropped Syuri on her head twice for a pair of near falls, then threw a headbutt on the top rope that caused the crowd to gasp before bringing Syuri down with a Butterfly suplex.
Both a Fire Thunder Drivers and rollup were kicked out of then Syuri went for Syuri World off the top but Giulia blocked it and brought her down with a powerbomb. A Giulia running powerbomb and package piledriver both got 2, then Syuri chucked her into the turnbuckle and straitjacket suplexed her for 2. She went for Syuri World once again but Giulia blocked it once again, then blocked a kick, then hit what I’m going to call a pumphandle backdrop suplex. They traded slaps until Giulia threw a particularly nasty one, then dropped Syuri with the Glorious Northern Lights bomb for 3. ****1/2
Happy Thoughts: The undercard was good and the last three matches were all home runs. Excellent show. 4.0 / 5.0
