With the news that STARDOM Wrestling has been acquired by Bushiroad (a games company and the owners of New Japan Pro Wrestling), there’s a small chance we could see some female talent from that promotion on New Japan’s shows.
But who should you keep an eye out for? There is a wealth of talent, both domestic and international that ply their trade in STARDOM and with the likes of Io Shirai and Kairi Sane being alumni of the promotion, you know the standard set there is pretty high.
Here are five wrestlers to watch out for in STARDOM.
5. Bea Preistley
Stardom have always looked to bring over Western talents to boost the roster and in 2017 they brought in Bea Priestley. She has gone from strength to strength since, going as far to move to Japan in 2019 to sign a full deal with Stardom (whilst also being under contract with AEW).
Best known to Western fans for her stints with World Of Sport, Defiant, and Progress Wrestling, Priestley has shown a dedication to her work and to improving and it is in no doubt that she’s a perfect fit for Stardom.
In 2017 she entered the Goddess of Stardom Tag League tournament with Kelly Klein and took the tournament victory. The following year she went all the way to the finals of the 2018 Cinderella Tournament, falling at the final hurdle to Momo Watanabe.
At the time of writing Bea stands atop of Stardom by virtue of her reign as the World of Stardom holder, following in the footsteps of the likes of Toni Storm, Io Shirai and Kairi Hojo/Sane, having unseated Kagetsu in May of this year at Golden Week Stars 2019. The wrestling world truly is her oyster.
4. Hana Kimura
Trained at Wrestle 1’s Professional Wrestling University, the daughter of Kyoko Kimura caused a stir right from the start of her career, which started in Wrestle-1 in 2016 as an 18-year-old. Teaming with her mother and Kagetsu she won the Artist of Stardom Championship shortly after her 19th birthday, also holding the JWP Junior Championship at the same time.
In 2017 she defeated her mother in the latter’s last ever singles match before retirement and she spent most of the year splitting her time between Stardom, Wrestle-1 and Sendai Girls.
The following year saw her concentrate on Wrestle-1 domestically but also make international appearances for the likes of Ring of Honor (losing to Sumie Sakai in the first round of the Women of Honor title tournament) and Pro-Wrestling: Eve before rejoining Stardom “exclusively” in 2019.
One of the most improved women’s wrestlers in Japan over the past twelve months or so, the already good Kimura has added layers to her in-ring performances and psychology that made it no surprise that she won the 2019 5 Star GP. A recent unsuccessful attempt to win the World Of Stardom Championship was no set-back, just another step on the journey to super (ahem) stardom that surely awaits a woman who is arguably already the most popular Joshi with Western fans in the know.
3. Konami
Trained under Minoru Tanaka and Kana (WWE’s Asuka), Konami had early experience in Kanapromania, Pro Wrestling Wave and JWP in 2015-16 before having to take a leave of absence from all competition due to health problems.
She first appeared in Stardom in December 2016 and although her win-loss record was not the most impressive she was able to have competitive matches with the likes of Toni Storm, which marked her out as one to watch. A feud with Kairi Hojo turned into an alliance and Konami struck gold when the two joined forces with Hiromi Mimura and won the Wonder of Stardom Championship in May 2017.
She’s perhaps been the “nearly woman” of Stardom since. Those titles were lost less than a month later and she only got one victory, over Mandy Leon, in the 2015 5 Star GP. After joining the full-time Stardom roster in 2018 more title chances came and went, including a shot at Nicole Savoy’s Shimmer Championship. Although she did improve on her early 5 Star GP showing in 2018, finishing outside the finals spots but picking up six points along the way. In 2019 she was the losing finalist in the Cinderella Tournament and the Tokyo Cyber Squad of her, Hana Kimura and Jungle Kyona won the Artist of Stardom Championship but again it was a relatively short reign.
Her submission and striking skill are reminiscent of her trainer Kana and with her still being only four years into her career there are clear signs that there is more to come.
2. Mayu Iwatani
The “Icon of Stardom” is probably the most well known of the native wrestlers currently plying their trade in Stardom. Indelibly linked with current WWE stars Kairi Sane and Io Shirai after their years of dominance in the promotion, Mayu’s forays into Western promotions may have been limited to a small number of Ring of Honor appearances (where she is a one time Women of Honor World Champion) and a brief shot in Lucha Underground but she is every bit as talented as her more well-known contemporaries who now ply their trade overseas.
Still only 26 but an 8 year veteran Iwatani went through the traditional rookie journey in Stardom (where she was a part of the first class of trainees for the company) and remained winless for almost a year. It was obvious from the start however that she was a talent to watch, which was confirmed with her Artist of Stardom title win in 2013 and her first singles title win in 2014, winning the Wonder of Stardom Championship.
Iwatani has won it all in Stardom, adding the Goddess of Stardom and World of Stardom Championships to the above, as well as winning the first two Cinderella tournaments and being part of the Best Match awards in Stardom in 2016 and 2018.
She may not yet have the worldwide name recognition of those that have moved on from Stardom but she is every bit the talent and the raised profile of Stardom under their new owners should give her more opportunity to show that to the world.
1. Tam Nakano
At the age of 31, Tam Nakano is positively ancient in Joshi terms considering that she only made her debut in 2016, having previously forged a career as a dancer which included a spot as an “Idol Dancer” in the Actwres Girl’z promotion. Making the switch to training as a wrestler there she worked there for a year until declaring herself a freelancer, taking spots with Frontier Martial Arts Wrestling before officially signing full-time with Stardom in November 2017 on the back of a stint in the 2017 5 Star GP tournament.
She only had one win there, and was therefore unable to advance to the finals, but it was enough to secure her spot. Even after injury kept her out of the ring her heel turn to join the evil Oedo Tai faction was a boost to her career as she temporarily continued as a manager for the group.
A two time Artist of Stardom title holder (with Mayu Iwatni and Saki Kashima) she has the technical skills to shine, but also makes use of her Kung Fu training (which her ring attire often pays tribute to). It’s worth noting as well that one of her most famous Stardom matches came at Stardom Deam Slam 2018 where she teamed with Io Shirai to defeat Kagetsu and Sumire Natsu in a Current Blast Exploding Bat Deathmatch. Tam certainly isn’t one to be pigeonholed into one style of wrestling.
If you liked this article, please check out more of our stuff on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
You can find me on Twitter @IWFICON. Thanks for reading!