GDT: New Japan/Stardom Thread - Life Post-Okada

[Clint Eastwood]

Mayu is on a heater with the IWGP belt

I haven't watched much Stardom at all but from what I've heard, Mayu is not only one of the best women's wrestlers in the world, but one of the best wrestlers in the world and has been for some time.

 

[GKJ]

I haven't watched much Stardom at all but from what I've heard, Mayu is not only one of the best women's wrestlers in the world, but one of the best wrestlers in the world and has been for some time.

This is accurate. She can do basically anything. She has A+ personality, comedy, sadness (as long as you can read the subtitles), and definitely puts her game face on for big matches. She’s watched everyone come and ago the whole time.

New Japan wants her to have the IWGP belt for good reason, but they haven’t given her as much to do with it. It’s strange how they book it, they still haven’t done as many matches on New Japan shows, but on the Stardom shows, it’s not usually the show closer even if it’s the biggest match. The Sareee match was third from the top.

 

[Jussi]

I have seen Mayu Iwatani vs. Sareee and I’m fairly certain it’s the best women’s match of the year. At least so far.

There should be an international investigation into Sareee’s NXT booking. People should be arrested.

Injury killed her momentum. When she came back the fans didn't seem to be that much interested in her. May also have been around the time the new talent began emerging. The likes of Roxanne, Tiffany Stratton, Cora Jade, Nikkita Lyons, Sol Ruca, Kay Lee Ray etc.

 

[GKJ]

Injury killed her momentum. When she came back the fans didn't seem to be that much interested in her. May also have been around the time the new talent began emerging. The likes of Roxanne, Tiffany Stratton, Cora Jade, Nikkita Lyons, Sol Ruca, Kay Lee Ray etc.

She was in the middle of when NXT 2.0 turned everyone into cartoon characters overnight.

 

[GKJ]

Stardom starting to post some of the angles done from All-Star Grand Queendom. I think this is important on the joshi scene, big picture-wise.

Things of note I mentioned before, was Thekla joining Oedo Tai (wants to fight Mina Shirakawa), and later not only Starlight Kid getting kicked out, but being saved by Tam Nakano (who was in a tag match against Aja Kong of this show).





Mayu vs. Sareee was the next match and has surfaced in full



There are things that happened later in the week on the Golden Week tour, like Starlight Kid learning the Cosmic Angels dance (but not feeling like she is ready to join), doing a tag team with Natsupoi for a cross-multipromotion show and teaming with Tam and Mayu Iwatani in a trios match and then Mayu acting weird backstage, as there’s a complicated history. When Kid chose to stay in Oedo Tai, Mayu said she would be waiting for her, and it was believed that she would need to fight back to the light, but it seems like things are moving faster than that. Would’ve liked to have seen Thekla play a role in kicking her out and get her over.

I think it’s going to make people wonder about certain futures as Bushiroad really needs to figure out what some prices are to make important players stop thinking about jumping to Marigold. Seems like Thekla is on board as she had previously been attached to Giulia’s hip. This is a big reason why Kairi came back to WWE, she did not want to be stuck in the middle as she was freelancing.

 

[CDJ]

I missed Alex Coughlin retiring, that sucks

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

Bucks showed up at Resurgence last night with Perry to attack Eddie Kingston (who also lost the Strong openweight title to Gabe Kidd).

 

[GKJ]

Stardom has their Flashing Champions show coming up on Saturday, which as we know is actually important in that one of the matches will be shown live on AEW Collision, but given the name of the show, the world champion, IWGP champion, tag team champion nor trios champion are defending their championships.

We do have the Wonder of Stardom championship, High Speed championship, and TBS championship, which again, is bigger than any other match was ever going to be. More people will see Willow vs. Tam Nakano, live, than any other match in their history I would guess.

Seems Taro Okada wanted to wait until after the show to do that match, but Tony convinced him to do it now. I think that works out better because Stardom will get the attention ahead of the Marigold show on Monday/Sunday night. Okada made comments at the press conference about how Stardom and AEW wanted to make the wrestlers’ dreams come true, which I took as an implicit appeal to his own talent and a direct shot at Rossy Ogawa.

The joshi wrestling wars are here.

 

[GKJ]

Looks like Mayu Iwatani is taking the IWGP women’s title to Ice Ribbon vs. Tsukasa Fujimoto and then possibly to SEAdLINNNG against Arisa Nakajima (they are a long time tag team called Best Friends), who is on a retirement tour. They did a tag match with Mayu’s latest protege, Hanan, and they beat the absolute god damn shit out of each other. Tam and Willow had to follow this.





Also interesting that Stardom has worked this out with these two promotions. Mayu said she has a lot of unfinished business in Stardom, so hopefully she that means she’s not bolting whenever she can.

 

[GKJ]

Shingo showed up at today’s Stardom show



Stardom is having a show called ‘the Conversion’ next month that takes place a few days before Stardom becomes fully owned by Bushiroad. I think some fans are worried that the two brands are going to merge under one banner, but I’m thinking/hoping it’s just setting up to do more combined shows like Historic X-Over. NJPW hasn’t been utilizing the fact they created an IWGP women’s belt that hadn’t been seen on a NJPW show in over a year.

 

[GKJ]

 

[SnS]

I don’t watch nJpw much at all anymore. Just some matches here and there.

Is EVIL really a threat here?

 

[GKJ]

I don’t watch nJpw much at all anymore. Just some matches here and there.

Is EVIL really a threat here?

I don’t watch enough of it but I don’t think so

 

[GKJ]

 

[GKJ]

Ok, I’m ready to outlet some thoughts about Stardom. I don’t care who sees or doesn’t see this.

STARDOM THE CONVERSION on June 22 may become a very sad affair I am fearing. After Saya Kamitani tried to get Momo Watanabe to leave Oedo Tai to return to Queen’s Quest (to the dismay of AZM), and Oedo Tai subsequently lost a Artist of Stardom title match after Natsuko Tora accidentally misted Momo, blaming it on Momo’s head being f***ed with, Tora has challenged Kamitani to a ‘final battle’ and told her to name the stipulation, whether it be a loser leaves unit match or loser disbands unit.




The two units had a feud last year that ended in one of Stardom’s most well-regarded stories and matches, when QQ won a loser leaves unit cage match that ended with Saya refusing to turn on Utami after the behest of Momo, and left Saki Kashima as the collateral damage. The subtext being that Saya and Utami didn’t trust each other after Utami became the leader and QQ members kept losing matches.

Some of this could under context of wonder if someone(s) is leaving the company. Saya, AZM, Natsuko Tora, or Momo.

Queen’s Quest and Oedo Tai are very much a legacies within Stardom and I think a lot of Stardom fans would be very angry, on the preface of NJPW taking full control, if either one were to disappear. So I hope it’s a loser or leader leaves unit, because I don’t think there’s any way Oedo Tai is disbanded as they’re the only heel faction, but there’s some belief that the unit has gone a bit soft even though they kicked out Starlight Kid and added Thekla.

Oedo Tai is the oldest faction in Stardom, started in 2015 and headed up by Kyoko Kimura (Hana’s mother who later joined), later Kagetsu, then Tora, and has boasted a number of gaijin’s we know now: Thunder Rosa, Jamie Hayter, the now-Blair Davenport and Piper Niven. If the Stardom show I went to is any indication, they move a lot of merch. It would be stupid to disband them, but Stardom fans think there’s been a lot of stupid things going on after Rossy was fired.

QQ was created by Io Shirai after she turned on Mayu Iwatani in 2016, and was led by Momo when Io left, then Utami Hayashishita when Momo turned on QQ to join Oedo Tai (during a leader leaves unit match), Utami led the unit until she left, while Saya Kamitani (current high speed champion) has now declared herself the leader. All the time AZM has been wanting to lead the unit. In a match, Momo once kicked AZM in the face with a wrench hidden in her boot. But AZM has been vocal in her support now, while Kamitani has, in my view, booked to be completely incompetent as a leader, if she isn’t, then she’s been booked terribly. Her last tweet has her looking weak and scared that she’s going to screw anything up, but AZM sounds confident.

It doesn’t make sense to me that Oedo Tai would disband, they just added Thekla, and I think she’s getting pushed, and they are quite a large unit, so I hope it’s only a loser leaves unit match, but I’m fearing that it’s not. What I want is for AZM to turn on Saya, or Saya just get herself ousted because she’s an idiot. Both have talked about trying to add people, and there are people sitting out there with no unit. It would just be an awful shame to see QQ disappear, especially since another one would just pop up in its place, which they also just did with EXV starting after Giulia disbanded her unit. QQ only has 5, which is not a lot, but also, who else is leaving the company?

This is to say nothing of Starlight Kid having not yet joined a new unit, and talking about removing her mask.

 

[GKJ]

Big news out of Dominion: Ishii did a frankensteiner



Hikuleo also took a pin and walked out, fueling speculation.

 

[GKJ]

Mayu Iwatani defending the IWGP women’s championship at Ice Ribbon’s Korakuen Hall show on June 23 against Tsukasa Fujimoto, which was set up at the Stardom Flashing Champions show last month. Would expect a title match with Arisa Nakajima to follow that.

 

[GKJ]

The Bloodline may be beckoning