I love the Cinderella Tournament. The over the top rope nature of its rules makes it such a wonderfully unpredictable event, and while I’m a little disappointed that Stardom has chosen to split it over two days this year, it’s still a highlight of the calendar. I’ve been dipping in and out of the company over the last few months, watching big shows and stuff that sounds interesting, but this was one I was never going to skip.
Wow, March was a packed month for wrestling. We got Stardom in Budokan, Assemble Volume 3, ChocoPro 100 and more, which has made for a varied and all over the place list. Not that I’m complaining. The more great wrestling that is going on, the better, and I had plenty to get my teeth into.
Assemble is back! It’s the third show for the joshi collective, although I’ve also seen it being billed as volume 4 because volume 3 was cancelled, which was confusing, so I decided to stick with three. Sorry, none of that is important. What’s important is that we have a whole load of wonderful companies in the same venue, all going out of their way to make me happy. Isn’t that nice of them?
It might be happening in the bizarre world of COVID restrictions and quiet crowds, but Stardom in Budokan is Stardom in Budokan. That’s a special thing, and even as someone who has fallen slightly out of love with the company in recent times, I got those big show tingles as we built up to this. How would Stardom look in one of Japan’s most iconic venues? Well, I guess it’s time to find out.
It’s time to move into 2012 in our run through Stardom’s history, and while the shows on Stardom World are a bit sparse for around this time, I’m determined to try and get my hands on as many of them as possible. Thankfully, the first few shows are already there, so that’s a future Stuart problem, and we can look at how Stardom kicked off their year.
Yuzopon’s legs aren’t quite long enough. Credit: Stardom
It’s been a fair while since I did one of these, so let’s head back to 2011 and the end of Stardom’s first full year as a company. We’re unfortunately in a period where Stardom World is missing quite a few shows, but I’ll fill you in on the big stuff that we’ve missed. First up, there was a couple of title challenges, Io Shirai falling short against Yuzopon for the Wonder of Stardom belt and Taiyo failing to beat Nanae for the World of Stardom title. Stardom also ran their first ever tag league with Yuzopon and Yuko Bito beating Taiyo and Yoshiko in the final, making them the first ever Goddesses champions. Finally, they held a Rookie of The Year tournament, which saw Yoshiko beat Arisa to take that particular crown. So, all in all, it was a busy period for Stardom and hopefully those shows turn up someday so we can fill in the gaps. Now, though, it’s time to ramble about Stardom’s penultimate show of 2011, enjoy!
The match of the year lists continue with part two of my best of the rest. Honestly, any one of these (or the ten from part one) could be my top pick, and in a different year, they probably would be. As it is, though, they’ll have to be happy with the somewhat crowded runner-up spot.
I never know who to pick for the main picture in these things, so I went with the person most likely to murder me. Credit: Gake No Fuchi
Picking a wrestler of the year is dumb. How can anyone sit down and compare two people who work in different companies doing a different style with any degree of accuracy? A champion that puts on great matches every week is important, but so is the comedy wrestler who opens up the card, working their arse off to earn those giggles. Of course, in the best companies, those can be the same people, but that’s a different topic. And, despite it being dumb, I’m still going to do it because it’s also fun. However, for all that 2020 has sucked, there has still been a shitload of good wrestling, so I couldn’t pick just one. So, here’s my list of ten wrestlers who could have been wrestler of the year, but for whatever reason weren’t. Except, it’s not really because there are another twenty or thirty people that could also be on this list. Let’s stick with it being ten brilliant wrestlers. That work for everyone? Good.
The year may be coming to a close, but November has proven a hell of a month for wrestling, giving me a tough time as I tried to trim my favourite matches down to a mere ten. I succeeded, so you can all be proud of me and hopefully enjoy my monthly round-up of all the action that’s been keeping me entertained over the last thirty days.
Stardom may have been at Korakuen Hall the day before this show, but there has been a change, and that was no longer the star attraction. They sent the big guns to Sendai, and while my love of Stardom has wavered a bit this year, when they send the big guns, they rarely miss.
