With Trapped in the Cagematch, Kim Wong combs through the highest-rated matches according to Cagematch’s voters in preparation for the annual FSM 50 and the year-end Match of the Year extravaganza.
Tam Nakano vs. Saori Anou
Stardom Nighter in Korakuen
April 2, 2025
Cagematch ranking as of 10/23/25: 111
Near the end of Tam Nakano’s disastrous Loser Leaves Stardom match against Saya Kamitani, when all order in the match had broken down, Saori Anou tried to clear the ring of Kamitani’s fellow H.A.T.E. members and lead her fellow Cosmic Angels in Nakano’s defense. Unfortunately, that didn’t work at all, and Nakano succumbed to H.A.T.E. Though Kamitani granted Nakano a reprieve from leaving Stardom, Nakano seemed to treat her time as if she were retiring. She kept the feud with H.A.T.E. going, teaming with Starlight Kid to Kamitani’s team and summoning the Cosmic Angels to face H.A.T.E. in various matches. She faced her old protege turned rival, Mina Shirakawa, in a tag team match. She wrestled freelancer Misa Kagura in a match in Stardom New Blood, Stardom’s developmental affiliate. She wrestled with and against Aja Kong at the T-HEARTS 5th Anniversary Show. And, she wrestled her first ever opponent and fellow Actwres girl’Z alumna, Saori Anou, because they hadn’t wrestled in a singles match since 2017, hadn’t ever faced each other in Stardom, and were running out of time in Nakano’s career.
We have returned to Korakuen Hall, the site of Nakano’s loss to Kamitani. Nakano once again wore her magical girl-inspired white costume, while Anou dressed in a white costume with blue trim that corresponded with her blue eyes and her overall cool demeanor. I have to give a special shoutout to the fan in the front row behind Nakano’s corner who was determined to keep the clapping at the start of the match going, even when he became the only person clapping.
Anou and Nakano started off with nothing fancy, but they got to show off how well each of them could bridge their backs to escape pinning attempts. They moved on to throw kicks at each other, and it’s all fun and games until Nakano laid on her stomach to taunt Anou after a missed kick. Anou did the only logical thing in that moment: run at Nakano and hit her with a low dropkick to the face.
Later, we saw some familiar sights, like Nakano diving from the turnbuckle to the floor.
Then, Nakano and Anou did their best to blast each other in the neck with forearm strikes.
Now, this? This I like. The (non-existent) reptilian cortex in me was activated by watching two absolute meatheads try to prove to the other that they’re tougher by loading up and hitting each other as hard as they could. It made me chuckle and point with a satisfied smile on my very pleased face.
Nakano then sat down criss-cross-apple-sauce in the middle of the ring and challenged Anou to kick her as hard as she could. Naturally, they proceeded to kick each other as hard as they could. Visually, I preferred their trading forearm strikes because their standing exchanges looked less awkward than their sitting kicking exchanges. That said, the kicking looked much pettier.
And Anou got to show off a fun boot to the face, while Nakano showed that she was too single-minded to worry about the damage Anou was inflicting on her.
This resolute intent to do as much damage to each other continued as they traded German suplexes without pausing to show how they’re hurting each other. Some might call this self-indulgent, empty calorie no-selling, but I disagree. If we work under the assumption that this is Nakano’s tune-up match so that she’s properly prepared to face Kamitani, it’s easy to overlook the expectation that Anou and Nakano should groan and wince and gesticulate to convince us that they’re hurting each other. We know that they’re doing damage to each other; they wince and groan and moan and gesticulate enough to get the point across. They instead focused on hurting each other as much as they could without the sense of malice and desperation that Kamitani and Nakano had in their match. It’s brutal, but it’s sporting brutality, not existential brutality.
At last, Nakano showed a sense of self-preservation when she clung to the ropes to prevent Anou from dropping her on the ring apron. That sense lasted seconds at best as Nakano then ran at Anou along the ring apron right into Anou’s raised boot.
It worked out for Nakano, however, since she’s able to kick Anou and drop her on the apron and to the floor with the tiger suplex that she had teased earlier in the match.
Back inside the ring, Anou tried to return the match to civility by dropping Nakano with a dragon suplex and a fisherman suplex that felt a little anticlimactic after everything else, but Nakano brought us back to the spirit of things by slapping Anou in the face as hard as she could. Rather than slapping back, Anou dared Nakano to keep slapping her by holding her arms behind her back. The crowd gasped in appreciation, and so did I.
Once Nakano ran out of steam, Anou retaliated with slaps and kicks and made the same mistake that Nakano did on the apron earlier: she ran from Nakano to create momentum so she could hit a big running move only to run right into a kick from her opponent. Nakano capped this burst off with a tiger suplex that gets a two count.
Just like in her match against Kamitani, Nakano’s Violet Driver was not enough to finish her opponent, which raised the question of what Nakano would have to do to beat Kamitani in their rematch. Nakano finally finished Anou with an arm capture tiger suplex, the Twilight Dream, but that would require time and setup that H.A.T.E.’s interference probably won’t allow her to have in her rematch with Kamitani.
This will be my vanity pick for my match of the year ballot. It’s pure meathead, toxic mentality, no quarter given professional wrestling. The match and the show can be watched on Stardom World.
Next time: “It’s always been about love and hate, now let me say I’m the biggest hater
I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress”
– Kendrick Lamar, “euphoria”
Forget that the World of Stardom Championship is on the line. It’s Career vs. Career, and the loser must retire. It’s time for Saya Kamitani and Tam Nakano to have their final confrontation.
