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 Odeo 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 Odeo 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.