Champions
World of Stardom Champion: Kagetsu
Wonder of Stardom Champion: Momo Watanabe
Goddess of Stardom Champions: Momo Watanabe and Utami Hayashishita
Artist of Stardom Champions: Mayu Iwatani, Saki Kashima, and Tam Nakano
High Speed Champion: Mari Apache
SWA Undisputed World Women’s Championship: Viper
Future of Stardom Champion: Starlight Kid
Beginners Guide
If you’ve been following Kairi Sane and Io Shirai in the Mae Young Classics and NXT you’ve probably heard the name Stardom in reference to their careers in Japan. Stardom was founded in 2011 by Rossy Ogawa, Nanae Takahashi, and Fuka, and remains one of the larger women’s promotions in Japan. The roster is currently split up into four factions: Queen’s Quest (who began life as a heel faction but became tweeners because people couldn’t boo Io Shirai), Oedo Tai (who are cool heels), Stars (who are faces and the most idol-y faction), and Jungle Assault Nation (aka JAN, who are faces but split off from Stars earlier this year). Queen’s Quest was led by Io Shirai before she left Stardom, and is now run by her protégé AZM; Oedo Tai is led by Kagetsu; Stars by Mayu Iwatani; and JAN by Jungle Kyona. The top belt in Stardom is the World of Stardom title, commonly referred to as the red belt, followed by the Wonder of Stardom title, referred to as the white belt. The Goddess of Stardom tag titles and Artist of Stardom trios titles are also regularly defended at bigger shows. The High Speed title and the SWA title haven’t made much of an appearance this year, but the Future of Stardom title is defended quite regularly by wrestlers who are either under the age of twenty or with less than two years’ experience. There are two major tournaments held annually – the Cinderella Tournament, which is a knock-out tournament that takes place on one day in April, and the 5 Star Grand Prix, which is a round-robin, two block tournament that takes place in late summer. You can watch Stardom by signing up to their streaming site at http://www.stardom-world.com for less than £10 a month.
Year in Review
2018 ended up being quite the year for Stardom, with some major upheaval and new names in the main event scene. 2017 closed with one of Stardom’s veterans Yoko Bito retiring, the World of Stardom title belt in the hands of Toni Storm who, for various reasons, wasn’t in Japan that much, and question marks surrounding the future of their Ace Io Shirai. In March of 2018 another veteran retired in Hiromi Mimura, the head trainer of Stardom Fuka retired to start a family, and longtime stalwart Kris Wolf departed after issues surrounding her visa. Clarity emerged regarding Io Shirai’s future around June, when she announced that she would be leaving Stardom and following Kairi Sane to WWE. Toni Storm also dropped the World of Stardom belt to Kagetsu in June, and joined the summer exodus to WWE. Despite these apparent setbacks, Stardom is going into 2019 riding a wave of optimism regarding the future. This is largely down to the elevation of new talent into the vacuum left by Io, Kairi, and to some extent Toni.
Leading the list of Stardom wrestlers that have had a strong 2018 is the current Wonder of Stardom and Goddess of Stardom champion, Momo Watanabe. Momo is a member of Io’s former faction Queen’s Quest, and had previously held the trios title in 2017. However, she burst into the spotlight in May when she defeated Io to win the Wonder of Stardom title, and she has been positioned as the new Ace of Stardom following her mentor leaving. Momo has put on absolutely fantastic matches throughout the year, and is thoroughly deserving of her place as a future pillar of the company. Along with winning the Wonder of Stardom title, she also added a victory in the Cinderella Tournament and the Tag League, and won the tag team titles in November. It’s hard to think of any woman who’s had as strong a year, either in kayfabe or in match quality, as Momo.
However, her former Queen’s Quest stablemate Hazuki hasgiven Momo a run for her money in terms of personal development and elevation up the card this year. Stardom held a faction draft in April, which resulted in Hazuki being drafted from Queen’sQuest into Oedo Tai, and this has done wonders for her. Being in Oedo Tai has allowed Hazuki’s no-fucks-given personality to come to the fore, and positioned her as a perfect foil for Momo. Their match for theWonder of Stardom belt in July was one of the best matches I saw live this entire year, and the seeds have been planted throughout this year for a rivalry that should be able to sustain the promotion for years to come. Learning from her faction leader Kagetsu has also done wonders for Hazuki’s in-ring skills, and she has emerged as a fantastic wrestler who combines the best parts of Io and Kagetsu into her own exciting style.
The third, but no less important, new addition to the upper card is the “big rookie” Utami Hayashishita. Utami debuted in August of this year, and from her very first match with Jungle Kyona blew everyone away with how good she was for a rookie. Her judo background undoubtedly helped, but she has clearly adjusted to wrestling very quickly, and Stardom have fully committed to pushing her. She had a strong showing in the 5 Star Grand Prix tournament, and recently won the Goddess of Stardom tag titles with Momo and joined Queen’s Quest, and going forwards she will clearly play a major role in the company. People might have been able to predict that Momo and Hazuki would rise up the card this year, but no one saw Utami coming, and Stardom have really been very lucky to find such a talented rookie.
There have also been two notable returns to Stardom by wrestlers who were with the company in its infancy but then left for various personal reasons. Saki Kashima returned in March, and spent much of the year teaming with Mayu Iwatani, including winning the tag titles and the trios titles. Arisa Hoshiki returned to the ring in November, and also joined up with Mayu in Stars, reforming their team AMA from 2012. There have also been some notable foreign wrestlers in Stardom this year, primarily Session Moth Martina who was drafted into Oedo Tai and has seamlessly fit in to the faction as a comedy heel. Bea Priestley and Chardonnay have been featured prominently as members of Queen’s Quest, and Nicole Savoy and Jamie Hayter both impressed in their runs in the 5 Star Grand Prix tournament.
The loss of Io and Toni in some ways was a blessing in disguise, as it has given new wrestlers the chance to move up the card. Io remains a fantastic talent, but while she was in Stardom she was unquestionably going to be at the top of the card. Her absence has not only benefitted younger wrestlers like Momo and Hazuki, but also some of the veterans including Jungle Kyona, Kagetsu and Mayu Iwatani. Kyona has been consistently excellent this year, whilst going slightly under the radar because she doesn’t hold a singles title. She was Utami’s debut opponent, and their ongoing feud has definitely contributed to Utami’s success as a rookie. Kagetsu celebrated her ten year anniversary in wrestling this year, and her World of Stardom title win over Toni Storm was her first major singles belt in her wrestling career. Behind the scenes Kagetsu has also played an important role, taking over as head trainer after Fuka retired. Mayu endured a tough 2017, when she won the World of Stardom title, but dropped it very quickly to Toni due to an injury. However, she came back strongly this year, culminating with her first ever victory in the 5 Star Grand Prix. She has yet to cash in her title match against Kagetsu, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see her have another, more substantial championship run in 2019.
That is not to say that there weren’t good matches in the first half of the year. Some of the stand-out matches were the Queen’s Quest versus Oedo Tai loser-leaves-the-faction elimination tag team match, which led to a painful departure from Oedo Tai for Tam Nakano. It also led to the first exploding bat deathmatch in Stardom, pitting Tam and Io against Kagetsu and Natsu Sumire. Momo’s victory in the Cinderella Tournament, as well as her defeat of Io for the white belt capped off some of the stronger parts of the first half of the year.
Stardom has also done a good job at weaving together long-term storytelling this year (something that was talked about on the excellent Wrestling Omakase joshi year in review episode recently). Stories like Momo and Hazuki’s rivalry have kept bubbling away just below the surface, coming to the fore for their big matches, but never being forgotten about. It hasn’t just been the top of the card that’s benefitted from this either, there have been feuds all across the card such as Utami and Jungle Kyona, Tam Nakano and Natsuko Tora, and Natsu Sumire and AZM. Kagetsu even went as far as invading the Sendai Girls’ promotion to challenge her former trainer, Meiko Satomura, to a match, which will hopefully play out in 2019 (she and Hazuki had a fantastic match against DASH Chisako and Chihiro Hashimoto, which is well worth seeking out).
So that this doesn’t just end up sounding like a hagiography of Stardom, there have been some developments this year that have been less encouraging. A lot of the undercard matches can get quite repetitive, especially since Stardom run a lot of smaller shows in between their monthly Korakuen Hall shows. While praising the storytelling in Stardom on the one hand, a lot of that storytelling comes through outside of the booking of the big shows, which at times can be very stop-start. Stardom is particularly guilty of booking matches at the wrong time, or rushing a lot of stories that could be played out over time, and this was particularly noticeable in the feud between Kagetsu and Hana Kimura. Hana left Stardom to go to Mexico for several months this summer, and when she returned she swiftly turned on Kagetsu and left Oedo Tai. This was a feud that had a lot of personal feeling behind it, since it was Hana’s mother Kyoko Kimura who had recruited Kagetsu into Oedo Tai in the first place. Instead of letting it play out over a number of months however, Stardom ran a match between the two of them within a month, which ended with Kagetsu defeating Hana in a no DQ match. The result has been that the story has largely died and Hana has ended up floating around the lower-mid card ever since. This is an unfortunate trend in Stardom booking, but this felt like a particularly egregious waste of a feud with a lot of potential.
Kagetsu’s reign as World of Stardom champion has also been booked poorly – which is a real shame in my opinion because she is one of my favourites – with the result that she feels like a long transitional champion. I appreciate that they have been using the time to build up new stars (and done a very good job of it), but Kagetsu has had five title defences so far and none of them have really risen above good. Her last defence was in October and since she doesn’t have one booked for the December Korakuen Hall show, the earliest her next title defence could be is in January. Not to belabour the point, but the current state of the red belt leaves a lot to be desired.
Overall, looking back at 2018 Stardom became my favourite wrestling promotion that I watch regularly. This was due to a combination of good quality ring-work, which at its best can be world class, and compelling characters. Most of the wrestlers in Stardom have an interesting and relatively unique character, and they do a great job of conveying that in the pre-match interviews on Stardom World and through their various Twitter interactions and blog posts. Even the undercard tag matches often help to develop storylines and flesh out characters. At this point in 2018 I am much more optimistic about the coming year than I was in 2017, and with Momo, Hazuki, Kyona, and Utami carrying the future of the company on their shoulders it feels like the future is bright for Stardom.
Year End Awards
Favourite Wrestler: Kagetsu
Favourite Faction: Oedo Tai
Favourite Breakout Star of 2018: Momo Watanabe
Favourite Rookie: Utami Hayashishita
Favourite Foreign Wrestler: Jamie Hayter
Favourite Tag Team: Kagetsu and Hazuki
Favourite Promo: Natsu Sumire
Favourite Feud: Momo Watanabe and Hazuki
Favourite Match: Mayu Iwatani vs. Utami Hayashishita
Favourite Live Show: Io Shirai’s send-off show, Korakuen Hall 17/6/18
