World Wonder Ring STARDOM has been on the rise these last couple of years, and 2023 could be their biggest year ever. So please join me as I give you 5 reasons to be excited for the new campaign!
New year, new me, new people to fight with.
With every new year that the calendar page brings us, there are always many new stories and journeys that we encounter in life, and the world of professional wrestling is no different to this, because every year we see new stories, new paths, new rivalries and new possibilities that we couldn't have even thought about previously.
STARDOM has had not only some incredible growth these last couple of years but they keep pushing their own in-ring quality bar to new limits, so it is not a surprise that the promotion has many new eyes following it, from fans to wrestlers as well.
So, if you're either a new fan looking for a way into the promotion, someone unmotivated about the company that might need a boost to keep up or you simply want to become more excited about what they're doing, please keep reading as I give you 5 reasons to watch STARDOM this year. Let's get started!
Syuri and Chihiro Hashimoto’s collide once again
AZM’s legendary High speed championship reign
Mercedes Moné takes her talents to Japan
Saya Kamitani and Momo Watanabe’s fight for the crown
It’s all about Giulia on STARDOM
1. Eternal fire:
For the first entry on this list we jump straight into a meaty subject, because after Syuri lost the World of Stardom championship this past month, she decided to not waste any time and called out Chihiro Hashimotoimmediately after. These two had a brief reunion last year on the Joshi festival held on Koruaken Hall’s 60th anniversary after Team 200kg defeated Maika Ozaki and MIRAI on a tag team bout. Both Hashimoto and Syuri were the top champions at the promotion at the time so the confrontation didn’t lead to anything at the moment, but since both of them are now free to go, we are about to witness a battle for the ages.
For those of you that haven’t had the pleasure to see Chihiro Hashimot wrestle yet, here’s something to feast your eyes with!
Syuri and Hashimoto might be interested in each other now, but for those that do not know, the history between both of them goes all the way back to 2016, way before ‘The world class woman on a different level’ was signed to STARDOM and way before Hashimoto turned herself into the face of Sendai Girls’ . Syuri took the win home on their first encounter, hence leading to Hashimoto wanting a second shot and thus wrestling each other again 4 years later in 2020, much had changed within themselves but the result stayed the same, Syuri beat Chihiro but this time ‘Big Hash’ was the top champion of Sendai Girls’ and thus the current God’s Eye leader earned a shot at the title, which lead us to the third match of the trilogy. With this new installment in the series, Hashimoto had het another chance to defeat Syuri, but now the stakes were higher than ever because not only her own pride as a wrestler was on the line, but the Sendai Girls’ World Title as well. So at last, Chihiro finally beat Syuri to showcase the amazing growth that she had endured throughout all of these years.
Chihiro Hashimoto had finally done it, she had beaten Syuri and was off to continue her 5th reign as the top champion on Sendai Girls’ but sometimes in life, it might not be a good idea to relit the candles of the past(it benefits us as fans though, violence is based) because some of them might turn into a whole bonfire, and this is what’s happening at the moment right before our eyes. Syuri was focused on her Red Belt reign and thus had let her past aside to stay at the top of her abilites in her present, but Hashimoto went out of her way to search for the vermilion-wearing wrestler. So here we go, the end destination, the dish that has been brewing for years, the long-term rivals are going to go one-on-one yet again after Hashimoto accepted Syuri’s challenge, these 2 freight trains are about to collide, and you do not want to miss it.
2. The future is now:
Coming up next, we jump straight into one of the two wrestlers with a potential history-making title reign because the ‘High Speed bomb girl’ is just about to break the record for most successful high speed title defenses previously held by Mayu Iwatani with 9, and shall AZM defend the title successfully one more time, she would become the wrestler that has defended the high speed championshipthe most!
AZM had a tough end of 2021 and beginning of 2022 due to her former best friend’s betrayal but the high speed sensation used all of those feelings to push herself forward and becomethe best version of herself, because not only did AZM win the title for a second time, but she did it in incredible fashion as well after putting on what many consider to be the best high speed title match ever after she defeated Starlight Kid to become the new champion. And after she became the new champion, she has not looked back ever since because AZM also went on to claim revenge on Momo Watanabe after knocking her out of the 2022 Cinderella Tournament, as well as going on to have the potentially best high speed reign ever, because she has defeated high speed established talent like Koguma, Natsupoi, Thekla, Fukigen Death and Hazuki, as well as wrestlers that weren’t necessarily known for that style of wrestling but also stepped up like Momo Kohgo, Rina, Momoka Hanazono and most recently Hikari Shimizu and even outsiders like the incredible ‘Big apple girl’Mei Suruga.
So it is safe to say that AZM has pretty much defeated everyone within her reach, so now we venture into a territory that I have not visited much on this substack page, and those are predictions! STARDOM has a Naniwa Roulette Singles Tournament/mini-tournament match on February 4th with the winner of said bout receiving a title match, and since last year we got Mei Suruga winning and challenging for the highspeed belt, I think that someone that has unfinished business with AZM will show up and follow in the steps of Mei Suruga, and that is Mei Hoshizuki! Chigusa Nagayo has recently said that a former Marvelous’ wrestler is about to make a return to professional wrestling through another promotion, and what better chance for Hoshizuki than this one! Mei Hoshizuki challenged AZM on her first high speed reign and I think that this is the perfect chance for her to try and claim the upper hand over the High speed bomb girl. The possibilities are endless so we shall wait and see how the situation develops!
For those of you that have just found out about STARDOM, this might be the reason that you have started watching the promotion, because on January 4th, on the biggest stage in the entire japanese wrestling landscape, the formerly known as Sasha Banks shocked the whole wrestling scene by not only appearing but also making a statement to the IWGP Women’s championKAIRI f.k.a. Kairi Sane, and it is safe to say that these 2 are far from being strangers to each other.
Both of them came to blows in arguably, the rivalry that defined the pandemic era for WWE, when the Kabuki Warriors entered a feud with Bayley and Sasha that went from tag matches, title defenses, championships changing hands and even Sasha’s best friend Bayley, being the one that sent Kairi Sane home after a brutal backstage attack and not only that, but since Asuka was having a title match at the same time against Banks and the stipulation allowed it, the ‘Empress of Tomorrow’ lost the title via countout to ‘the Boss’ . Fast forward to 2023 and KAIRI must not just be motivated, but I am certain that she has all of her blood flowing after seeing that the ghost of her past, has become the threat of the present. The now known as Mercedes Moné did not waste any time and immediately challenged KAIRI to a match for the IWGP Women’s championship at Battle in the Valley and let me tell you, this is now personal between them.
4. You should see me in a crown:
Io Shirai, Momo Watanabe, Saya Kamitani. If Kamitani can avoid defeat on February 4th, she will be the third consecutive Queen’s Quest wrestler to hold the record for most Wonder of Stardom title defenses, from Shirai’s 10 to Watanabe’s 13 and hypothetically Kamitani’s 14 or more. The White Belt is the championship of emotions, and the statistics dictate that no one dominates emotions more than the Queens’ .
History is always due to repeat itself and records are meant to be broken, and just like Watanabe took the Queen’s Quest crown by beating Io Shirai, Kamitani could do the same if she manages to defeat the ‘Black Peach’ . The history between these 2 goes all the way back to 2019 because, who was the first full-time STARDOM wrestler that Kamitani ever faced? That’s right, Momo Watanabe, the same wrestler that was also the faction leader at the time. Watanabe defeated Kamitani on their first encounter but ever since, Saya’s rise to the top has been absolutely remarkable, especially alongside the rise of Utami Hayashishita, and to rub more salt on the wound, AphroditE (Utami & Saya) were able to win the tag team championships, a thing that MOMOAZ (Momo W. & AZM) never managed to accomplish.
Things kept escalating between Queen’s Quest and Momo Watanabe, the formerly known as STARDOM’s ‘True Heart’ felt that she was being held down by being a leader, and deep inside, she also knew about the obvious growth of Utami Hayashishita and Saya Kamitani, so after being lured into Oedo Tai, Momo snapped and betrayed the very same faction that she co-founded and eventually became the leader of. Despite this blow, Kamitani followed the same upwards trajectory that AZM enjoyed, because just a couple of days after the betrayal, she managed to defeat Tam Nakano for the Wonder of Stardom championship.
Watanabe stopped caring about the Wonder of Stardom belt as soon as she lost it, because her ambition has always been to become a world champion but you know what they say, you don’t care about something until someone else has it. So the stakes could not be higher, on February 4th both of these superstars that have a shared v13 White Belt defense record, will face off for the right of not only being the Wonder of Stardom champion, but being the flagship face of the title’s history as well. Brace yourselves, we’re about to witness history.
5. A title covered in blood:
And last but absolutely not least, we have a rivalry that could define the next couple of years of STARDOM, because if you thought that the previous point was a heated rivalry, the hatred that these 2 share for each other would make the sun seem cold. Giulia fulfilled her destiny and beat her former tag team partner turned rival Syuri, to become the World of Stardom champion on December 29th, and as soon as she became the champion, there was someone that was ready to strike.
You could call her the ghost of Giulia’s past Christmas, some call her a wrestling prodigy and others call her ‘not normal in the head’ due to her passionate love for deathmatches. No matter how you’d prefer to call her, as soon as Suzu Suzuki saw that Giulia had become the Red Belt champion, she was not going to let her enjoy even a single second as a champion, so she immediately challenged her to a match for Giulia’s most prized possession and of course, Giulia was not going to back down from a challenge.
The story between Suzu Suzuki and Giulia is steep, goes way back and is worthy of a telenovela, so I will not cover it fully here but long story short, Giulia decided to leave Ice Ribbon on very short notice without telling her junior Suzu Suzuki and thus catching everyone by surprise when she joined STARDOM straight after, Suzuki felt betrayed and thus their relationship turned stone cold. A couple of years later, Suzu became a freelancer alongside her faction ‘PROMINENCE’ and yet again, she wasted no time and showed up to STARDOM to go straight after Giulia, the factions had matches on both days of World Climax, then Suzu and Risa Sera wrestled on the 5 star GP and on the final match of their block, both Suzuki and Giulia had a chance to go to the final. It’s funny how life turns out sometimes, because the bitter enemies had to wrestle each other on the final match for that spot. Giulia managed to escape the fury of Suzu after the bell rang, thus meaning that since there was no winner, the 1 point that Giulia scored lead her to not only reach the finals, but winning them as well and eventually becoming the champion.
I wrote about Suzu Suzuki’s story previously on this substack page, so click on the button below if you would like to learn more!
So heading into February 4th we have ahead of us, not only a title match, not only a great lineup in paper but we have what could turn out to be, one of the best matches of all-time between 2 of the very best wrestlers in the world with former friends turned mortal enemies and if I were you, I would keep my eyes glued on these two, because what is about to go down, is something that we will tell the future generations about.
So there you have it, 5 reasons as to why you should be excited for STARDOM in the new year, from many paths crossing once again, former friendships clashing right before our eyes and even if you're just new, you can enjoy what's about to happen through the top tier in-ring quality that all of these performers are going to push themselves towards.
I decided to just showcase 5 stories, but there are many more like the former ICExInfinity champion Maya Yukihi finally wrestling for STARDOM and potentially going after any of her former Ice Ribbon colleagues on the Red Belt main event, Waka Tsukiyama's time ticking down and her need for victories, the Giulia-mirroring type of downfall of Tam Nakano, Mina Shirakawa's journey towards the Wonder of Stardom championship or Starlight Kid going after Mayu Iwatani once again to try and finally get a singles win over The Icon.
No matter who you support or what you enjoy, if you are excited for STARDOM this year, follow along and enjoy the ride!
