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NJPW x STARDOM Historic X-Over Review – 11.21.22

1 year ago

NJPW x STARDOM Historic X-Over Review – 11.21.22

NJPW x STARDOM Historic X-Over Review – 11.21.22

By: Trent Breward

History was always going to be made in many ways at Ariake Arena.

As the men of New Japan Pro Wrestling and the women of STARDOM came together for their first ever joint show, all eyes were on the two biggest promotions in Japan. At the head of it all was the crowning of the first ever IWGP Women’s Championship, bringing together two of the three Daughters of STARDOM on their biggest ever stage.

It seemed early on that KAIRI’s hunger might have cost her. 24 hours before this big match with Mayu, she had challenged Saya Kamitani for the Wonder of Stardom Championship. After a thirty minute war the night before, she seemed to struggle with the onslaught from the Icon of Stardom. Like their previous battles, Mayu targeted her arm, which was already damaged from the previous match. With a weakened arm she would have to hurt herself in order to try and put away her opponent with any number of her signature moves.

She hadn’t come all this way back to Japan be shown up however. She fought back, trying to knock her former tag partner out with a flurry of backfists. It worked, but taking down the Icon of Stardom is easier said than done. She had spoken of ‘Zombie Mayu’ at the press conference, how her opponent can seemingly never be kept down, but even she wasn’t prepared for Mayu to kick out of the Insane Elbow.

It nearly broke KAIRI, seeing the move that had brought her gold all over the world not bring her IWGP gold.

Mayu’s one mistake was hitting the Two Stage Dragon too close to the ropes. In her desperation she lost sight of her ring awareness, and it cost her. That was her final gasp. When KAIRI rocked her with the last of many Cutlass backfists, not even Mayu could keep going. A final Insane Elbow drove deep into her heart, and kept her down. The international star, back after five years chasing her dreams across the world, had returned home and won the IWGP Women’s Championship.

Now the target is on the back of the Pirate Princess. Tam Nakano put forth her name to challenge for the title at Wrestle Kingdom, and then backstage Utami Hayashishita asked for a match at Dream Queendom on December 29. The rest of the roster is already hungry to hand KAIRI her first loss since coming back, knowing just how big a deal that will be.

The other title on the line was the IWGP U.S Championship. The returning Shota Umino against an on fire Will Ospreay who put on a Match of the Year candidate earlier in the month against Tetsuya Naito.

Ospreay came in with a mission to make things uncomfortable for Red Shoes Umino, who was put in charge of refereeing his son’s first match back in Japan. Just like at Royal Quest he pummelled Shota with the intent of forcing a referee stoppage. When Shota crawled to the ropes, he snuck in a short range punt to the skull. As a father, Red Shoes wanted to call it for the safety of his son, but as Shota clung to his leg, defying him from making that final call, Red Shoes detached himself enough to keep it going.

It’s a good thing he did, because Shota needed to prove he had the fight inside of him. Even though he came up short (nothing to be ashamed about given Ospreay is one of the best in the world) it was clear that Umino had grown from his years on excursion. He has developed the fire inside that will be necessary for him to contend with kind of talent at the top of the world.

The Stormbreaker put Shota away, ending a valiant effort from someone with an incredibly bright future in the company. Before Ospreay could get too comfortable however, his next challenger announced himself. The former foreign star of New Japan Pro Wrestling: Kenny Omega Wrestle Kingdom 17. After all of the talk they finally face off one on one.

Beyond the championship matches was the unique draw of this show: the three mixed tag matches featuring stars from both promotions. There was a lot of curiosity surrounding the nature of these battles. It had been announced that only the guys could fight the guys and likewise the women would only fight among themselves. However pretty much every participant expressed their desire to ignore this rule heading into the show.

While officially it remained this way, every match featured more than your fair share of Stardom talent taking their shots at the NJPW wrestlers, and even a few return strikes. Most notably Hiroshi Tanahashi slapping Maika to the ground before getting back suplexed, and Desperado went after Natsupoi to limited success. We even got a brief reunion of ALK as Giulia and Syuri teamed up to teach Filthy Tom Lawlor a lesson. He dared to get in the way of their striking exchange and paid the price – though he could hardly hide his smile – there is no bigger STARDOM fan than Lawlor.

None of these matches set to break the five star rating scale, but what they were was a lot of fun, and a celebration of two great promotions. Starlight Kid and El Desperado came out with special combination masks. Hiroshi Tanahashi added red streaks in his hair to match Utami. The final image of those two  playing dueling air guitars was the perfect sendoff. One Ace with another standing together in a sign of the future.

It was a successful first combination show, potentially the first of many. The packed Ariake Arena, with the attendance exceeding 7000, had to be an encouraging sign, outselling both Dominion and the G1 Final for the year. As STARDOM continue to grow and NJPW continue to reassert their dominance as the leader of the Japanese scene, it is exciting to think what could come from future collaboration efforts between the two.

Full Match Results

  • Clark Connors, Alex Coughlin, Gabriel Kidd & Kevin Knight def. Oskar Leube, Yuto Nakashima, Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita
  • MIRAI won the 15 person STARDOM Rambo
  • Lio Rush, YOH, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI def. EVIL, SHO, Yujiro Takahashi & Dick Togo
  • Queen’s Quest (Saya Kamitani, AZM & Lady C) def. Donna del Mondo (Thekla, Himeka & Mai Sakurai)
  • Giulia & Zack Sabre Jr. def. Syuri & Tom Lawlor
  • Tam Nakano, Natsupoi, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. Starlight Kid, Momo Watanabe, El Desperado & DOUKI
  • Utami Hayashishita & Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Maika & Hirooki Goto
  • Kyle Fletcher, Mark Davis, TJP, Francesco Akira & Gideon Grey def. Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI
  • Kazuchika Okada, The Great Muta & Toru Yano def. Jeff Cobb, Aaron Henare & Great-O-Khan
  • IWGP United States Championship: Will Ospreay (c) def. Shota Umino
  • IWGP Women’s Championship: KAIRI def. Mayu Iwatani

Rapid Fire Takeaways

  • A special touch from the semi main event was Will Ospreay coming out in special Hayabusa inspired gear. Not only did it look great, but the special attire will be auctioned off to raise money for the legendary wrestler’s family.
  • Lio Rush’s first match in Japan got off to a good start, and a message was sent by him and his partner Yoh. The match was won with the 3K team finisher, the same move Yoh and his former partner Sho used to great success before the latter defected to the House of Torture.
  • She might have only been on the pre-show match, but MIRAI still got a chance to shine in the STARDOM Rambo. She was the first out and the last standing, surviving the surprise reappearance of Super Strong Starlight Machine.
  • Kevin Kelly did his best to inform guest commentator Waka Tsukiyama that Gideon Grey is the absolute worst, but she is just too kind hearted, and seemed hesitant to write off the money mark that brought together the United Empire. He earned his paycheck at least, having to announce three entrances as well as being Los Ingobernable De Japon’s favourite plaything.
  • It’s hard to know who had the most fun in their mixed team pairings, but a special shout out has to go to Natsupoi learning from Yoshinobu Kanemaru. She was in trouble in the latter stages of her eight person tag match, but remembered their training session and nailed a picture perfect whiskey spit to gain some space. It certainly wasn’t to her taste though, even if there wasn’t an Oedo Tai face to hit she might not have been able to hold down her liquor.
  • The Great Muta had his final match inside a New Japan ring, teaming with Okada and Yano to put down the United Empire. The Great O-Khan had tried to prepare himself for the inevitable green mist, but what we wasn’t ready for was the more dangerous red mist. Even in his final months in wrestling Muta continues to prove himself as dangerous as ever.

Date:

November 20, 2022

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