STARDOM “All Star Grand Queendom” 2026

Date: April 26th, 2026
Location: Yokohama Arena, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan
Company Announced Attendance: 8,015
Watch On: Stagecrowd / MySTARDOM / STARDOMWorld

Review by Chris Whitehead, with live notes from Eric Addy

“With Light And With Love”

STARDOM’s “All Star Grand Queendom” 2026 will live long in the memory, thanks to a main event that achieved a rare trifecta of being built upon years of intricately interwoven stories, of delivering an instant classic match, and by making a star in one night.

The years-long story and character study between Saya Kamitani and Tam Nakano, born of mentorship, rivalry and betrayal, was carried forward from 2025’s “All Star Grand Queendom” and then seemingly laid to rest. Nakano’s final student, Sayaka Kurara, acted as her avenging (cosmic) angel, representing Tam’s legacy and doctrine, while doing what she could not do and defeating Kamitani to become the World of STARDOM Champion.

Not only was this a payoff from last year’s show, it was one of the bravest crownings of a new top champion in who knows how long. Kurara, 25, is not even two and a half years into her career, having debuted on Christmas Day 2023, against the very woman she toppled in Yokohama Arena. This was quite apt, as it was later revealed in Kamitani’s autobiography that Kurara had told Kamitani that she was her inspiration for becoming a wrestler in the first place. Kurara’s first career win would not come until September of 2024, almost a year after her debut – and saw her pin Kamitani in a six-person tag. She had been tied to Kamitani from the start, even before becoming Nakano’s pet project, and Kurara being the one to end Kamitani’s long red belt reign – 483 days, 9 defenses – was not some thrown together idea, despite her relative inexperience. Clearly, it had been plotted over a long timeline, with the additional story hook of Kamitani having defeated Nakano for the belt, retired her, and then defeated two of Kurara’s senior unit-mates (Natsupoi and Saori Anou) during the course of her reign.

Kurara had put the very existence of that unit, Cosmic Angels (Kozuen), on the line in this match. This was more than just Kurara providing a stipulation that Kamitani deemed worthy of a red belt challenge. This was more than Kurara seeking vengeance by trying to settle the score of Kamitani retiring Nakano, a year ago in the same building. This was Kurara enacting that vengeance, not just by defeating Kamitani but by using Cosmic Angels – Nakano’s legacy, a unit built in her image – as a beacon of hope.

Kurara showed Kamitani that light and purity can defeat darkness and deceit, and that love can defeat hate. Outside of the story, in the meta-textual analysis, “TamRoadIsm” – the lore-filled, slow-burn storytelling style that defined Nakano’s career – has become Nakano’s true legacy. This story arc and this match cemented that The Tam Road is the beating heart of STARDOM’s creative engine – lest there were still any doubts.

© STARDOM

Beyond love defeating hate in the main event, the combined power of STARDOM’s babyface units were able to defeat the (aptly-named) heel unit H.A.T.E., and reclaim all the top titles from them, with the black clad unit also losing the Wonder of STARDOM Title to STARS’ Hanan, and the Goddesses of STARDOM (tag) titles to NeoGenesis’ AZM and Miyu Amasaki (02Line). Notably, at the end of the last STARDOM show before “All Star Grand Queendom”, Kurara had called Hanan and 02Line to the ring in Korakuen Hall in a show of strength and confidence, a confidence that later played into both the character of Kurara and Kurara the performer in the main event.

In another notable development on the card, the core stage was ignited and the rocket push that is the Great Fuwa-Chan Experiment will soon be leaving Earth’s atmosphere, with Fuwa defeating Saori Anou in another match that defied what should be possible for a former celebrity only twenty-something matches into a career that has begun in earnest in her early 30s. So impressive, and un-rookie-like, is her work that upon watching the match and being impressed by Fuwa, our very own Trish Speirs was unaware of her inexperience and was surprised to learn of it.

Elsewhere on the card Syuri and Megan Bayne put on a smash-mouth classic for the IWGP Women’s Title; Ranna Yagami successfully defended the future title against Ema Maishima; Mi Vida Loca and ExV finally, finally (?) ended their feud in a blood-filled hardcore match; FWC (Hazuki & Koguma) earned the first shot at the new tag champs by winning a tag gauntlet match; and Maki Itoh continued to make herself one of the most over people on the roster, not only defeating Natsupoi in the show opener but having the crowd strongly behind her while doing so. There was also a pre-show with three matches: Xena earned a High Speed Championship title shot in a six way match, Kiyoka Kotatsu and Matoi Hamabe defeated fellow rookies Akira Kurogane and Anne Kanaya and, most meaningfully, Aya Sakura defeated Kikyo Furusawa in the first match of the day, and became the only Cosmic Angel to win on the show – that is, until her tag partner Kurara won in the main event.

The show featured notably higher production values than the average STARDOM PPV show, from drone and boom camera shots, to impressive pyrotechnics, lasers and lighting.

The only nitpick I have was that the main show clocked in at 6 hours, stretching my personal limit of what it is possible to sit through while remaining engaged, even on a show that delivered across the card and especially in its final four matches.

© STARDOM

“Our Work Fills The Pews”

Beating the expectations of most observers (while undershooting Taro Okada’s stretch goal of 10,000), the show drew a new company record for attendance – 8,015 – beating their attendance record for the second year in a row. Working on the same assumption from last year that a handful of joshi shows with larger announced attendance in the 2000s all had inflated numbers, this once again means we saw the biggest all women’s show since the AJW days of the 1990s. In terms of the biggest crowds in post-Covid Japan, this appears to be the sixth biggest attendance for a non-Dome show.

While the increase was “only” 512 from last year (a 6% uplift), in the full context of both shows it is perhaps more impressive than it seems. 2025’s edition saw perhaps the biggest match the company could offer: its top title vs the career of its biggest draw (Nakano), with a packed undercard, including what also turned out to be the last match of its most enduring star (Mayu Iwatani) and, in the eyes of most observers, a stronger undercard than this year’s show. More so, while the main event of this show once again featured Kamitani, the most prominent wrestling star of any gender in Japan in 2025, fresh from being all over television for a year, her co-star here was an unproven, junior wrestler with no drawing record appearing in her first PPV main event.

Beyond that, the semi-main event also featured Hanan, a babyface still on the ascent with no drawing record to speak of. Perhaps the number two star in the company, Starlight Kid, was found second on the card order, tagging with Mei Seira in the least interesting match on the show. No special attractions were booked, unlike previous years which have seen Chihiro Hashimoto, Sareee, Aja Kong and Mercedes Moné added to the card. As my colleague Tim Hunter noted on Social Suplex Network podcast Joshi’ing Around, it seems clear that putting Cosmic Angels on the line in the main event was a drawing stipulation (perhaps akin to an apuestas match in Mexico). This is, after all, a unit that has won multiple ‘most popular’ awards in the Japanese media.

In general, it appears that Okada’s multi-layered approach to attracting (and retaining) new fans is continuing to work. As I noted in our review of “Dream Queendom” in December, and was pointed out to me by multiple people in the building at this show, the demographics of the STARDOM audience has very clearly changed from years past, with more women and families. As discussed in previous issues, Kamitani’s media appearances have drawn new fans, especially women and children. The addition of Fuwa-chan is now also drawing new fans, especially young women. With plenty of big matches still in the bank, and an absolutely relentless focus from Okada on creating new stars, the growth momentum of STARDOM’s attendance, now in its third year, shows no signs of slowing.

Speaking of Taro Okada – or perhaps more accurately of the team that works alongside him within the creative braintrust of STARDOM, of which he is head and the public face – the decision to pull the trigger with Sayaka Kurara is one of the most remarkable booking decisions I have seen in as long a time as I can remember. The most obvious comparison is to Kazuchika Okada’s “Rainmaker Shock”, and while Okada was a similar age to Kurara, he had many more years experience when he defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win his first IWGP title. For two years now, Taro Okada has been both showing and telling us that tradition can be a burden, that you don’t need to wait years to move wrestlers into the main event, and generally signalling this kind of future-forward booking. Despite that, while many fans hoped he would pull the trigger on Kurara on this night, very few believed he would, even with the build to this match actually showing us the whole time. Sayaka pinned Kamitani clean twice during the build, first with a Violet Screwdriver to “earn” the title match. This victory, which left her high on emotion and adrenaline, was what led to her hasty decision to put Cosmic Angels on the line. The opportunity to kill the last vestige of Nakano was too appealing, hence Saya accepting. Sayaka’s confidence grew further throughout the build, leading to her pinning Saya the second time, and in turn her supreme confidence on this night. It was a confident, brave booking journey the whole way.

Perhaps coincidentally, or perhaps not, Kurara’s debut match was weeks after Taro Okada became the President of STARDOM. Perhaps coincidentally, or perhaps not, Kurara was his ‘stand-in’ who defeated Thekla (who had been attacking Okada for months), banishing her from STARDOM forever at last year’s “All Star Grand Queendom.” As much as Kurara is considered to be Nakano’s final student, she is also the first top star made exclusively during Okada’s tenure.

© STARDOM

“To The End”

Io Shirai had more defenses. Shirai and Nanae Takahashi had longer reigns. But you can make a case that Saya Kamitani had the most consequential reign ever as the World of STARDOM champion, if only by her exposure across a variety of Japanese media outlets in 2025 and leveraging those appearances into having the first joshi puroresu match on Japanese broadcast television in 23 years. She elevated herself into a mainstream star, not for dreams of leaving wrestling behind for the Japanese equivalent of “Hollywood”, but to spread her gospel of wrestling. She changed the demographics and size of STARDOM crowds, she drew the three biggest houses in company history and she was ego-less enough to lose to a star on the rise at the perfect time. That’s the brief business analysis of the reign. I’m sure someone, maybe even me, will cover this remarkable title run in more detail in the future, but frankly what is much more interesting to me at this time is where the stories go from here.

Saya has been trapped in her fatal attraction with Tam, and Tam’s disciples, for the last two years (but really her whole career). It’s been a swirling descent that ultimately led her to the dark path of hate (and H.A.T.E.). This loss signals the potential end of that arc and the start of a new one. Logic suggests that redemption and a return to the golden light of her past is the ultimate destination of her journey, but will it really be that straightforward? TamRoadIsm says yes, but not without many stops on the way first. While surely now Saya will move on from Tam being the center of her universe, it seems clear her journey with Sayaka is just beginning. The post match of last year’s “All Star Grand Queendom” main event made it clear that Saya loved Tam, but realized it too late. In the weeks and months that followed, she seemed to reject that realization, holding onto the hate in her heart. Where we find her, and her emotional state, in the months to come will be the best indication of the journey we’re going on.

How will Saya define herself now, without her world title and defeated at last by the Cosmic Angels? Will she remain consumed by hate, and seek revenge? Will she finally embrace her love of Tam and over time also come to love Sayaka, realizing they have a shared love of their mentor? Love and hate can become so tangled that they can become indistinguishable, and so consuming, that they can strip away a sense of self. Consider Wuthering Heights, the tragic tale of Catherine and Heathcliff. Ultimately, Catherine cannot separate her identity from Heathcliff’s, famously stating, “He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” Has Saya become so consumed by Tam that she has eroded her identity? What, or who, will be the trigger that drives her back to the light? Will it be Sayaka? Will the Golden Phoenix be reborn? Can she break the cycle and find her identity?

The same week I watched this match, I read the poem ‘since feeling is first’ by e e cummings for the first time. Both pieces of art were rolling around inside my brain at once, leading to the inevitable thing brains do of using one as an analysis for the other. This is how I have come to the conclusion that Sayaka Kurara can be read as the narrator of the poem: She embodies feeling over analysis; she understands that authenticity is what matters in life. Her authenticity and her commitment to feeling first is how she has won an unprecedented amount of crowd support for a wrestler who has been performing for less than three years. The poem ends with a reminder that death abounds – “life is not a paragraph / And death i think is no parenthesis” — of which she is keenly aware, having lost Tam Nakano to ‘death’. Her knowing this, and her knowing that “feeling is first,” gave her the sense of urgency and the confidence she needed to roll the dice and risk everything, to being present and alive in her big moment, to not give up, and to do what her elders could not and finally defeat Saya Kamitani.

Sayaka is on top of the world right now, but her mentor Tam never lasted long on top and often let her emotions cloud her judgement. Will Sayaka fall into the same traps? Will her ‘feeling is first’ mentality overpower her? Will she become consumed by Saya, like Tam was? Will she become a second Heathcliff for Saya’s Catherine? Or can she carve out her own identity and also break the cycle?

© @ikeojimu

World of STARDOM Championship Match: Saya Kamitani (c) vs. Sayaka Kurara

Chris: When Kurara entered, it appeared briefly that she was doing Tam cosplay, then as she kept walking I realized, no, no, this is Tam-inspired but not a copy. Yes, she had a polearm, but it was not a halberd. It was one half a (Tokimeki) spear and one half a paintbrush. As she walked out, I immediately wrote down that she appeared to be an avenging angel and wondered if, in this building, where Tam ‘died’ and became a celestial being, if the celestial spirit of Tam had entered her body. The most notable thing, more so than the spear or the new gear, was the confidence radiating from every fibre of her being. As I watched this entrance, I realized this is the moment. They have to belt her up. There’s no other option. Right at the bell, there was immediately a BIG “Kurara” chant, and this crowd was bought in from the get-go.

One theme that emerged early was that Sayaka – who is still an unpolished diamond – drew more on her feelings, crowd connection and emotions, while Saya – being the more technically gifted and more mature wrestler – relied more on her skills and experience, as well as the shenanigans of her H.A.T.E. teammates.

As the match progressed, there were callbacks to the matches Saya had with Tam and the other members of Cosmic Angels. It felt at times like there were Russian nesting dolls levels of detail in here, which is to say you can watch this match cold and think it is a classic, or you can watch it as the most long-tenured, STARDOM-pilled fan and find scores of references. One of those was the interference of H.A.T.E. and the counter-interference by Kozuen. H.A.T.E. were more desperate than ever (as they should be, due to their losses in their previous two matches) and Kozuen were more focused and active in countering the interference than in previous matches (as they should have been, with their very existence on the line). The most notable moments here were: a) the decision to break up a Twilight Dream attempt by Kamitani, to protect the move down the line for Kamitani (and potentially Kurara too?); b) Momo Watanabe helping Kamitani initially, and then ultimately having her interference backfire, calling back to their dynamic from last year and further back still, to their to the Queen’s Quest days; and c) Aya Sakura having the decisive moment of counter-interference – despite subtle teases suggesting she might turn against Kurara in her ShuPro blog and in backstage comments – when she, showing a tremendous amount of babyface fire, took out Watanabe with a series of high kicks and then with a big plancha putting down all of H.A.T.E.

The finishing stretch saw every notable move either wrestler has (except interestingly the spinning Star Crusher that has won Kamitani every other match during this reign). Kurara hit multiple spears, a Violet Screwdriver-style Falcon Arrow and an actual Violet Screwdriver. Kamitani unloaded an avalanche Star Crusher, the Kamigoye and the aforementioned Twilight Dream. Ultimately, in a turn of events that surely no living human expected, the move that won the match, and the title, was Kurara perfectly executing a Firebird Splash (450 splash), a move that Kamitani used in the past and moved away from as part of her heel persona. The 450 was executed so perfectly that it defied belief. The noise the crowd made when she landed it reinforced that. Even though by this stage of the match – with the interference rebuffed and with the defeat of H.A.T.E teams further down the card – it felt clear to me that Kurara should win, I still couldn’t believe she would win, so when the third count of the fall hit, I jumped out of my seat and yelled “RAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” This was a perfect pro wrestling moment.

Eric’s Live Notes: I was sitting in the second row for this match. My section had been relatively quiet all night. They were reserved, maybe joining in on the polite claps during submission holds and nothing more. They were not rabid, dyed-in-the-wool STARDOM ultras. They were more reminiscent of the polite Japanese “clap crowds” during the pandemic. Throughout this match, I noticed my neighbours slowly getting into the match, not in a crazy way, just “oohs” and “aahs” as Sayaka snowballed her already strong support throughout the match into fervent, almost fanatical support within Yokohama Arena. Key spots such as the Twilight Dream pin break-up, the Momo Watanabe misfire and the Aya Sakura clean-up came and went, with still no audible sound from my neighbours.

But when Sayaka Kurara climbed the ropes, you could feel a tension emerging in the crowd. There was a quiet, but not out of disinterest; in fact, quite the opposite, people were leaning forward with pure anticipation at what Sayaka was attempting to do. She doesn’t go to the top rope often, the last time she had done so in a major match was on 15th March at the Cinderella Tournament finals in a tag match against Saya Kamitani, when she slipped on the ropes and had to improvise to connect with a running spear instead, so it was totally unknown what she would do from the top rope almost 30 minutes into the biggest match of her career. Then, she rotated through the air. Already, after the first 360 degree rotation, my neighbours exploded. The fan to my right almost fell out of his chair. I turned and looked at him, shock on my face, and we exchanged a look of pure excitement and happiness. I don’t speak Japanese, and, presumably, they didn’t speak English, but we both spoke the same language in that moment while Sayaka landed that 450: “What the fuck is happening?” I was too excited to even notice that Sayaka had actually pinned Saya following the move. The finish had sent me into the outer orbits. The reaction for that move was the loudest, most unique reaction I have heard ever in my life, only comparable to the reaction Aaron Wolf got as he destroyed members of House of Torture at the Tokyo Dome. It is a finish that will remain with me for the rest of my life. That is the sort of magic that only professional wrestling can conjure.

The best thing about the finish, is that it wasn’t just for a cheap pop before the finish. It elevated Sayaka into a new tier of, mind the pun, STARDOM. It changed how the fans view Sayaka. Sayaka isn’t an athlete; she started wrestling late. She prides herself on executing simple moves, such as the sleeper hold, well. Her perfectly executing the 450 shed the image of Sayaka as a rookie. She was someone who now had limitless potential with the ability to learn new moves at will. Some wrestlers will never, ever be able to do a 450. A wrestler with less than three years of experience, known for executing simple moves flawlessly, executed one for the first time ever in her biggest ever match. The crowd realised this in real time, and Sayaka was a total superstar in her post-match promo, eliciting extremely loud and in unison “Sayaka” chants as she closed out the show. I was pretty close to shedding a tear, but toxic masculinity got the best of me and I repressed it since I was in public and had to get back to Tokyo. There’s just something magical about “All Star Grand Queendom” main events that STARDOM has set an impossible bar to keep reaching, but for the second year in a row, they did it.

Wonder of STARDOM Championship Match: Konami (c) vs. Hanan

Chris: The most logically booked title run in some time culminated as it was expected to, and as it should have, with Hanan, 21, getting the biggest singles win of her career and capturing the white belt for the first time. I thought this match was everything it should have been, with Hanan overcoming all of Konami’s tricks, while also out-wrestling her in the closing stretch, showing she had been preparing herself for every eventuality, so as to not get caught out by Konami again as she had during the build. Konami’s heel antics during her reign had helped her win matches against Hanan’s friend Saya Iida and both of Hanan’s sisters (Rina and Hina), presumably people Hanan was able to talk strategy with as part of her preparations, in addition to studying tape – further paying off this build.

While this match felt unshowy – especially when sandwiched between a main event for the ages and a ‘go-go-go’ tag title match – for me it delivered exactly what I wanted, with the crowd firmly behind Hanan when she won the match. My hat is off to Konami, who entirely turned me around on the value of her white belt run, from extreme cynicism at the start to unadulterated praise by the end. My only complaint with this match was the post match angle which – and I am deeply compromised as Bea Priestly is my anti-SLG – was the wrong person, at the wrong time. While it gives Hanan a hill to climb, having finally declared herself the leader of STARS after refusing to do so for a year, and it leaves her with a Tetsuya Naito-esque opportunity to better celebrate a big win down the road, I found myself rolling my eyes with bemusement moments after the payoff to such a well plotted story.

Eric’s Live Notes: Despite all the hesitation surrounding Hanan’s eventual crowning of a major singles title, the Japanese crowd did not feel the same way and Hanan was roundly loved. Being in the middle of that support for Hanan elevated the match and made it an amazing experience as Hanan overcame all the obstacles Konami threw at her. I have no doubt that this is a match I may love more than a lot of observers from home, and that’s true for a large majority of the undercard. It is very easy to get swept up in the live environment and ignore all the analysis and how some moves were and weren’t pulled off and just enjoy the moment, and this was one of those matches. It was everything it needed to be.

IWGP Women’s Championship: Syuri (c) vs. Megan Bayne

Chris: The closest this show came to a ‘special attraction’ booking was Megan Bayne’s latest STARDOM cameo. In general, I have found Megan’s appearances in STARDOM to be a welcome treat. She shows up, works hard, loses when it matters and by the nature of her size and look makes whoever beats her look like a killer. That was the formula again here, but without ever feeling formulaic. Early in the bout Syuri, the former shooter, engaged in a classic attempt to overcome her opponent’s size and strength advantage but not always getting one. One great spot saw her get tossed Spike Dudley-style from the ring onto her God’s Eye seconds on the floor. This match really picked up around the two-thirds mark, when Syuri somehow got Bayne up for the Syu-Sekai, only for Bayne to quite surprisingly kick out at two. From there they went to a great finishing stretch of more big moves and kick outs, before Syuri ultimately got Bayne to tap to with a hold that included a trap of both Megan’s arms and her neck. This ruled.

Eric’s Live Notes: We all know that Japanese fans love their big guys and big gals. If you’re above average height in the west and you go and wrestle in Japan, you will be treated like a special attraction. Megan Bayne is, without a doubt, the definition of a special attraction. She is not a random throw away gaijin thrown out there for name value. As soon as Bayne started getting going in the ring, I heard audible gasps from surrounding fans at how impressive her offence looked. When Bayne lifted Syuri up and threw her out of the ring in a gorilla press, the crowd went crazy. When Bayne caught Syuri’s buzzsaw kick and lifted her up into a rotating powerbomb into a Bow Down, the crowd couldn’t believe what they were seeing. For the final stretch of the match that Chris mentioned, Bayne and Syuri totally and utterly had the entire crowd in the palm of their hands, living and dying on every nearfall. Bayne is one of the best workers America has to offer, man or woman, and it’s time she started getting that recognition after having one of the best performances on the card at STARDOM’s biggest show of the year.

Goddesses of STARDOM Championship Match: BMI2000 (c) vs 02Line

Chris: This was the Miyu Amasaki show. She was the sun around which this match rotated, with her opponents doing everything in their power to make her look as good as possible and her tag partner giving her almost every moment of shine in the match. It was an expertly constructed, very well wrestled, state-of-the-art tag match, one in which you can see that everyone involved had been studying their Young Bucks tapes (complimentary). But here’s the rub…I found myself not caring at all. Most likely that’s a me issue. I’ve never cared about Miyu, and nothing in this match changed that for me. I’ve been burned out on BMI2000 since “Dream Queendom”, primarily due to Ruaka. They were also following a match that was very much my shit. I guess I would have preferred to see AZM in there running wild? Overall, I feel unable to properly deconstruct this one, but I know that’s a “me” issue and not a “them” issue.

Eric’s Live Notes: The live crowd did not share Chris’s apathy for Miyu Amasaki as they roared into “Miyu” chants regularly throughout this match and she fought through all of the tricks that BMI2000 threw at her. The match’s chaos could not be exemplified any better than BMI2000 throwing 02Line into the barricades, with the barricades being flung so far that they struck the leg of a fan in the front row. He was complaining to the person seated next to him for the next few minutes but seemed jovial enough, but that was a moment that could have turned far more sour (see RevPro’s incident at “Epic Encounter” in the Jay Joshua vs. Will Kroos match). In perhaps a prophetic moment during the match, a single silver ribbon dropped from the roof and landed near my feet. Of course, it could have signified the celebrations for either team. But somehow, I knew, I felt it was for an 02Line win. Sure enough, Miyu Amasaki scored the biggest win of her career to unanimous adoration from the crowd. This was yet another feel good moment for the Yokohama crowd in a long list of them. Exactly what a big show of the year should do.

Tag Gauntlet: Neo Genesis vs. Rian & Waka Tsukiyama vs. H.A.T.E. vs. God’s Eye vs. STARS vs. FWC

Chris: The first challengers for 02Line will be FWC, who won this number one contenders’ match earlier in the show. This was somewhat of a shock to me, as I assumed the only reason SLK was slumming it in this match was to pick up a win, but FWC getting the first challenge makes sense. There wasn’t much to this match, with each individual match lasting anywhere from 2ish to 10ish minutes, it was really just a different twist on a match designed to get people on the card. There was some nice symmetry to the final pairing being FWC vs STARS (Iida and Bea), one year after FWC lost to Iida and Hanan and were kicked out of STARS as a result.

“Drunkers Clash” Hardcore Match: Mi Vida Loca vs. High Hai Mate

Chris: First, the name of this match rules. We had essentially been promised the annual STARDOM bloodbath with the name, and the second I saw HANAKO with a freshly bleached head of hair, I knew she would be paying tribute to Ric Flair and Akira Hokuto* and leaving the match with blood filled pink hair. This was further confirmed for me when I saw referee Barb Sasaki with his deathmatch gloves on when the bell rang. My only complaint was that in a bloodbath brawl they were still making tags, but that’s a minor nitpick. My main surprise was not that HANAKO and Maika were gushing blood within minutes, but that neither of the death match veterans, Suzu and Rina, bled a drop. HANAKO made a run at the Toni Storm Scale (instead of Great Muta, I now use the ‘Toni Storm’ as the scale for bleeding women, in honor of the “Hollywood Ending” match). HANAKO was really gushing when she was re-busted open late in the match following a wild chair shot. In fact, the goal of this match appeared to highlight HANAKO as a fighting babyface, which was a good decision as she shined in that role. When all was said and done, these four maniacs – who have been feuding seemingly forever – bonded together in blood and booze. Where Maika goes from here is, for me, one of the most pressing questions in the company in the coming weeks.

*(Editor’s Note: …and Hangman Adam Page!)

Eric’s Live Notes: I will never forget this match for one reason and one reason only: HANAKO’s bloody performance. It was the sort of thing you only see once in your life. Of course, you can go down to Shin-Kiba 1st RING or Korakuen Hall to a FREEDOMS or BJW show and see Violento Jack or Abdullah Kobayashi bleeding for free. The blood isn’t the point. It’s who is doing it, and what it means. HANAKO is a wrestler that has struggled being consistent. She will have incredible performances against her classmate Aya Sakura but struggle to transfer that to other matches. Luckily, one of the people HANAKO has great chemistry with is Rina Yamashita, and Yamashita was there to guide HANAKO with her first ever gusher, and boy, what a gusher it was. I have two incredibly vivid memories. One, of HANAKO’s full crimson mask, glistening in the light, absolutely no skin visible on her face, as she goes for a tag. At that moment, I did not care that she was reaching for a tag and it didn’t even occur to me until I read comments online. One of the beauties of being there live is you zone out your analytical brain. The second was when Rina Yamashita drank the blood of HANAKO and then spat it out, à la Hangman Adam Page in his famous Texas Death Match against Swerve Strickland in November 2023. I haven’t seen it back, but apparently Yamashita’s fountain of blood did not get picked up on by those at home as I haven’t seen anyone discuss it, but it was real, it was disgusting, and I will never forget it.*

*(Editor’s Note: As someone new and casual to watching STARDOM, I have been slowly building up my list of Special Little Guys – and potential SLGs – for the past few months, and HANAKO was one I was heavily considering. The Hangman-coded nature of her performance here sealed the deal for me personally.)

Saori Anou vs. Fuwa-Chan

Chris: The production first hit a noticeably high level (with the drone cams) for Fuwa’s entrance, making her look like a huge star. Of course, this was followed by Saori Anou, the undefeated champion of ‘best ring gear haver’ coming out in yet another set of incredible new gear. (Saori also came to the venue having already wrestled on an Oz Academy show earlier in the day. Truly, she is wrestling’s most dedicated sicko.) You’d never have known she wrestled already, as this match went almost twenty minutes and was worked more in a main event style than in the style of a ten year veteran wrestling a twenty-something match rookie in the fourth match on the card. This was clearly a ‘pilot’ for future Fuwa matches higher up the card and she passed with flying colors, being able to keep up with Saori as a bumper, keep the crowd engaged as a seller and adding new moves to her arsenal, including a moonsault that later went viral on social media (as is presumably the goal with anything involving Fuwa-chan). As I noted earlier, this victory for Fuwa clearly seemed to be the start of rocketing her up the card, as there are no logical reasons to delay that, other than the one we know this STARDOM office doesn’t care about, “tradition.”

Eric’s Live Notes: There was a noticeable sect of fans there for Fuwa-chan as they were dressed like her and would scream out to Fuwa-chan when she was doing trainee duties such as cleaning the ring during intermission. Funnily enough, a similar anticipation that we felt during Sayaka climbing the ropes was also felt here when Fuwa-chan climbed to the ropes for the moonsault, which ended up being one of the great moments of the night as well. The crowd went apeshit.

Natsupoi vs Maki Itoh

Chris: The most remarkable thing about this match, which was the very definition of a ‘three star special’, was that Maki Itoh, who did not wrestle for this company four months ago, had the crowd solidly behind herself against Natsupoi, who has been one of the most popular wrestlers in the company for years. Say what you will about Itoh’s creative instincts and workrate level, but it’s undeniable that she has gotten very over, very quickly since joining STARDOM. It says a lot about the match that my favorite part was after the match was over, watching Poi attempt to figure out how to give the middle finger, checking she had the right fingers in the right place, like she had never done it before. With Itoh later declaring herself the first challenger for Kurara, and having been terrorizing Cosmic Angels since she arrived, her winning here made sense. What’s next for Poi remains an open question, with a post-marriage retirement looking as likely as anything else.

Eric’s Live Notes: Maki Itoh is probably one of the most over wrestlers on the roster. There was a lot of laughter in the building during the video package that played before the match running down the events that led to the bout. There were legitimately people near me singing her theme song. The match was marked by people screaming “Ito-chan” and “Kaese, kaese!” which is what Japanese people say to their wrestlers to encourage them to kick out.

Future of STARDOM Championship: Ranna Yagami (c) vs. Ema Maishima

Chris: If the value statement for the Future of STARDOM Title is to give rookie and junior wrestlers the chance to refine their match style in singles matches, then this is the perfect place for Ranna to be right now. A medium-to-long run with this title, working a variety of opponents, should benefit her greatly in putting all the pieces together and fine-tuning her game, which is good but in need of some refinement. Here, she led Ema to an acceptably good match in what was Ema’s first singles match of real note, having come off a run in the rookies tournament to qualify for this match and who will surely have better singles matches in her future.

Eric’s Live Notes: This could just be projection given my own feelings on Ranna Yagami, but the crowd felt like they deflated slightly on the finish, as I heard a few people go “ehhh,” the Japanese way of expressing confusion.

Saki Kashima’s Retirement Ceremony

Chris: Last, but absolutely not least, Saki Kashima said goodbye to all the members of her KMOT Club in a ceremony that could not have been more perfectly her own. She claimed was too physically exhausted from her career to walk to the ring and was wheeled down the ramp by a staff member on the most basic looking dolly (rather than something fancier looking, like Tanahashi’s PopeMobile). She said her eyesight was too poor to see any of the fans (which retroactively explains a lot about her career). She received a video message from comedian Teppei Arita, before – in what was perhaps a surprise based on Saki’s reaction – Tomohoro Ishii’s music hit and he walked to the ring. Ishii, her favorite wrestler apparently, gave her a bouquet of flowers, and, seemingly concerned for her lack of vision, also gave her his glasses. Ishii’s appearance was a lovely moment, both due to Kashima’s obvious emotions and that a wrestler as serious and tough as Ishii would honor a wrestler his exact opposite in every way. We were then treated to a ‘high speed ten bell salute’ – a final perfect Saki moment – before a message was displayed on screen, ending with what Kashima said before the ten bell salute: “Please keep loving pro wrestling forever!”

After seeing this show, and especially its main event, who could possibly argue with that request?