WORLD WONDER RING STARDOM
STARDOM TO THE WORLD
SEPTEMBER 12, 2026
YOKOHAMA BUDOKAN
STARDOM To The World comes shortly after the 5STAR Grand Prix final, giving them time to reload and freshen up after the tournament brought momentum to a halt. With the Future, Artist, Goddess, Wonder, and World titles all on the line there’s sure to be something that delivers to a high level and stands out even if the undercards looks a bit lax.
HANAKO, WAKA TSUKIYAMA & UTAMI HAYASHISHITA DEF. HATE (KONAMI, RUAKA & FUKIGEN DEATH) & SAORI ANOU, RINA YAMASHITA, ITSUKI AOKI
Totally fine opener; there wasn’t really any particular focus or story to go off of here. It was just an all-bodies-in-motion opener to get things started with energy. HANAKO got the win instead of Utami so I’m interested to see if she challenges for one of the belts later in the show. **3/4
FUWA-CHAN, HAZUKI & KOGUMA DEF. ITOH RESPECT GUNDAM (MAKI ITOH, RIAN & KIKYO FURUSAWA)
Near trios match, it’s fun to see FWC get to pair up with Fuwa given Hazuki/Fuwa’s history. That trio carried things a little as the Itoh group are mostly good if you give them a high level to work to. My guess is the FuWC group will be the next artist challengers and that the U.S tour was something of a levelling-up point for Fuwa-Chan as she got the win at Korakuen upon her return. ***1/4
BEA PRIESTLEY DEF. ANNE KANAYA
A very real injury caused by Anne Kanaya sidelined Bea Priestley for the 5STAR Grand Prix, and in response Priestley came back and promised to injure Anne in return. This was an awesome performance from both women, Priestley was just relentless, she laid in all of her offense and looked unbothered at the idea of beating down a rookie. Kanaya sold for her really well and had some great hope spots but the real power was in her selling and letting herself get absolutely destroyed to gain sympathy. Sometimes wrestling 101 works and that’s what this was, the heel had simple motivation, they worked snug and smudged the line between real and fake, and both wrestlers benefited as a result. ***3/4
GOD’S EYE (SYURI & HINA) DEF. HATE (RINA & AZUSA INABA)
A pretty good match, as you’d expect given the talent involved. The start was easily the best part with Rina and her sister starting strong before a brief Syuri/Rina tease. The post-match interaction is interesting as Rina went head-to-head with Syuri but I assume that’s a red herring and the 5STAR winner won’t use her title opportunity on the IWGP belt of all things. ***1/2
FUTURE OF STARDOM CHAMPIONSHIP
RANNA YAGAMI (C) DEF. AKIRA KUROGANE
Not at all the match or result I expected; I fully thought this was the time for Kurogane to win, as Yagami has blasted through basically the entire division by now. Instead we got a heavily one-sided match with Yagami dominating from almost start to finsh, just being too talented for Kurogane to keep up with. There was a bit of focus on Kurogane’s never say die attitude as she keot fighting through a lot of punishment but the story of te day was ultimately that she isn’t good enough or anywhere close to good enough to beat Yagami. ***1/2
ARTIST OF STARDOM CHAMPIONSHIP
TRIANGLE OF MADNESS (SKYE BLUE, JULIA HART & THEKLA) (C) DEF. COSMIC CARNIVAL (NATSUPOI, YUNA MIZOMORI & AYA SAKURA)
The TOM won the titles in a fairly lackluster switch, but they looked a lot more up to speed here; Skye Blue wouldn’t look out of place in Japan at all as a regular, and Thekla turned up ready to prove the old Thekla is still in there somewhere. The Cosmic crew always work hard and that was the case here. I was right in my guess earlier as Fuwa-Chan and FWC came out demanding to get the titles back to set up a potentially strong face vs heel title match with Fuwa-Chan at the heart. ***1/2
GODDESS OF STARDOM CHAMPIONSHIP
2LINE (AZM & MIYU AMASAKI) (C) DEF. HATE (MOMO WATANABE & SAYA KAMITANI)
The roots of Queen’s Quest reared their heads again for this tag title match that continued whatever is going on between the former QQ members since Utami Hayashishita reappeared. There was some standard heel work from Saya and Kamitani, but the real strength of the match was 02Line and, particularly, AZM getting to show her chemistry with her former tag team partner Momo Watanabe. AZM and Momo is one of those pairings you can run again and again without diminishing the returns thanks to their fantastic chemistry.
02Line winning was my expected result, but they didn’t tease much of any tension between Watanabe and Kamitani as I expected. The clear end to all of this is some form of Utami/Saya match or reunion, I’m just not sure how we get there. Watanabe did almost hit Kamitani with her bat but they got past it and used it to cheat together instead of being at odds. It’s a good win for 02Line and AZM in particular who have been able to keep the tag straps away from HATE, it might even be time for AZM to challenge for a singles title again.
The big question that won’t be answered for a while is what this means for HATE, I don’t know what Kamitani’s current aim is or how she’ll react to this defeat. ****1/4
WONDER OF STARDOM CHAMPIONSHIP
HANAN (C) DEF. AMI SOREI
Good match from these two, but not good enough for what they can do. They’ve been nominally tied together for some time as dual overachievers who have faced off at various points of their tenures, from Future title defenses to tournament matches, to now competing for the Wonder title. This is a feud that should feel a lot more important than it does but their matches largely never quite hit the ceiling that you’d expect given their history.
I will praise Ami’s performance, as she was hard-hitting and had some great chops throughout; her lariats also looked sick. Hanan’s comebacks struggled to really get the crowd, and me, interested as we’ve seen happen to her anytime she’s not paired with a heel. Her next challenger is Ruaka from HATE so I have hopes that the heel/face dynamic can get us another great Hanan match. ***1/2
WORLD OF STARDOM CHAMPIONSHIP – NO DQ
SUZU SUZUKI (C) DEF. NATSUKO TORA
I was initially skeptical when this was changed to a No DQ match on the day of the show, but they used it to its fullest. Instead of letting this labor into usual plunder, they used the weapons to enhance what they wanted to do. It was still a brawler vs a monster but it became a brawler who could throw chairs at the monster at velocity and a monster who could splash through tables. It’s one of the best uses of weapons I’ve seen in a women’s match in a while, as it was a very seamless integration.
Suzu Suzuki is such a great champion to me; she carries herself with such a distinct swagger, and her matches have a very distinct flow that your world champions SHOULD have. She and Tora went to war here; the match was so different to what Kamitani and Sayaka Kurara offered as top champions. ****1/4
FINAL THOUGHTS
STARDOM To The World lacked big-picture stories, but it more than made up for it with match quality; it let different styles flourish, and I can see most people coming away with a different favorite. I liked Bea vs Kanaya and would love to see more one-sided heel beatdowns, but I also loved Tora and Suzuki having a proper fight in the main event that had none of the usual trappings of a world title match in Japan. Others may come away with more affinity for Hanan vs Ami or the tag title/artist title matches, but that’s one of the strengths of a loaded STARDOM show and one of the reasons I tend to enjoy the shows with more effort and more title matches on them.
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