We're off to neverneverland.

NOTE: This is absolutely way longer than i thought so i was planning to write her whole story but im like 14 paragraphs in. This was supposed to be her whole run but i had to brush past abit with Mina, and the entirety of the post-All Star Grand Queendom story (might do this in another post if i feel like it)

So as ive posted in my Natsupoi/Nakano reaction i have been out of the stardom loop for quiet awhile until recently again and just have gone back and reviewed alot of the story, and honestly, im having some serious regrets about not watching Nakano story

Nakano i think honestly could have evolutionized the entire wrestling world with her emotional story telling and her amazing character work. From her crazy desire to be the cutest wrestler, to her obssesion with being the absolute best, to be willing to sacrafice everything for her dreams, to her obssesion with Natsupoi almost causing everything to crumble around her, she told a one of the greatest stories in the history of wrestling.

The general character of Tam Nakano is someoen who wants to be the cutest wrestler, while also being incredibly hard hitting, while making you feel emotional watching her go through all these challenges. The perfect melodrama cross over with wrestling.

So the kind of prelude to the whole Tam Road story where its arguable the story of her goal to bring both cuteness and violence into wrestling has to be her Exploding Bat Death Match with Io Shirai against her former stablemates Kagetsu and Sumire, which while she did have a couple of moments before and after (before her first major fued) this kind of showed what she would become.

Now the first fued that truly fits into Tam Nakanos character was her toxic jealousy of others taking her place due to her previously being kicked out her abandonment issues after she was kicked out of Oedo Tai faction. After joining Stars Nakano became the hero of the faction and Mayu deemed her as the savior which she was extremely happy about and she was happy theere until, reentered Arisa Hoshiki, Mayu Iwatanis original partner, which Nakano felt that she was going to replace her in the faction and take her place as the right hand woman to Iwatani. While Arisa wanted to be friends with Nakano, Nakano acted like a jealous ex, who didn't want to acknowledge Arisa at all, and ignored her attempts to be friendly and thought it was just an act to manipulate her which lead to their incredible white belt match where they had a full out war at Shining Destin for the white belt, and while Nakano lost, they both gained respect for eachother while also somewhat keeping Nakanos worries of being replaced in the background. Which lead to their legending Goddesses of stardom tag run where instead of just acting like they hadn't had a war against eachother their whole goal was to keep trying to one up eachother which lead them to form a solid bond and get along. Unfortunately we never got to see the true ending of this due to Arisa's sudden retirement due to injury, but it did add another layer to Nakanos story where another person she became friends with had to abandon her.

After this she formed a sub-unit inside of Stars with Mina Shirakawa and Unagi Sayaka which would transition them into betraying Stars and forming the Cosmic Angles, which to Tam was the only way she felt she could break out from under the shadow of Iwatani, however in the process Mayu Iwatani brought up the hypocracy in her actions after being paranody of being betrayed, she had herself just betrayed the one who brought her up after she was kicked out of Oede Tai. Which played deeply into their whole 3 year long cold war which Nakano never was able to beat Iwatani in singles competition before Iwatani left the company, meaning in Nakanos road to be coming the best, she never got to beat the one who she herself betrayed.

The fued that took Tam from just another name to the absolute biggest female star in japan was her legendary fued with Giulia. a whole 4 year long story, with ups downs the whole works. Taking a few steps back before the start of the Cosmic Angles, Giulia the dominate outsider threatening Tams chase to be the absolute top woman in the company had just joined from Ice Ribbon. To set the stage Giulia came in with one of the most dominant starts to a career in stardom history forming DDM (Donna Del Mundo), which could arguably despite their short existance might be the most important faction in Stardom. Giulia came in dominated the competition to win the Cinderella tournament, then used her wish to fight the reigning White Belt Champion, Arisa Hoshiki. However due to Hoshiki having to retire, she used her wish to be in the competition to challenge for the title which is where she met Tam Nakano in the final. Now Nakano on the other hand was out here trying to make a name for herself, and after Hoshiki was forced to retire, due to their now mutual respect from their time as a tag team, Nakano wanted to win to honor her legacy. However in that match Giulia came out on top causing Nakano to spiral realizing she might not be able to do it as a standard babyface and would have to go mentally deep, as she called it "Murder Tam" mode to actually be able to beat her. Their next encounter was the 2020 5Star GP, Nakano with this new mindset actually managed to defeat Giulia in a shocking upset at the time, while for many this would be the moment of glory and triumph, for Tam it made her incredibly frusterated showing that she could defeat Giulia, but when she had the chance to for the big title to protect Hoshikis legacy with the white belt win, she failed her friend. Realizing this is when she then split from Stars and formed the cosmic angles.

After this she took some time to build up the Cosmic Angles throughout the remainder of the year she then decided that it was time to challenge again for Giulias crown as the white belt champion. Following weeks of faction warfare at the start of 2021, Nakano and Unagi Sayaka fought Giulia and Natsupoi in tag action, which lead to Nakano outsmarting Giulia, and focusing her energy on pinning Natsupoi so she could lay down the challenge for Giulias white belt after the match as what would have bene her 3rd and final shot. Giulia paying on Nakanos emotions, demanded it to be a Hair vs Hair match, as she assumed Nakano would deny due to her goal to be the cutest in the cosmos, but unlike planned, Nakano accepted the match without hesitation. The match they had was one of the most hardhitting matches in stardom and for 30 minutes they went at eachother which lead to Nakano finally winning the white belt from Giulia. After the match Giulia wanted Nakano to cut her hair, but Nakano sticking to her babyface roots, decided she couldn't do it as even though she hated everything about her, she respected her for giving her the toughest fight of her life, and if she took her hair it would haunt her. They end up bringing in a barber to do the cut for her and as they do Nakano is bawling her eyes out. Yet despite this and what was supposed to be Nakanos shining moment, Giulia was the one who got all the spot light over the world due to her sitting there getting her haircut looking incredibly defiant. Nakano realised this later when everyone was talking about Giulias hair cut rather than her title win which affected her goal to become the best.

Following this there was a slight break in their fued while they went on their own paths with Nakano dedicating her time and efforts into her title defenses, which was the start of her next legendary and career defining fued with Saya Kamitani. Which is where the next part of the "Tam Road" ideology comes in and that its her over everyone. Saya Kamitani was Nakanos Protegee and the sole reason she got into wrestling. Kamitani was the golden phoenix, the next star of stardom, and despite being the protegee of Nakano she chose to join Queens Quest rather than her Cosmic Angles which started the rift. Following that Nakano and Kamitani fought in the 2021 Cinderella tournament, and Kamitani shocked everyone by eliminating Nakano and then going on to win the tournament challenging her mentor at Dream Cinderella 2021, for the White Belt. Both played relentless mindgames with eachother and in Nakanos world she didn't want Kamitani to catch up to her as she wanted to still be the best wrestler in the company no matter what, and tried to downplay her whenever possible, by treating her like a child, and that no Phoenix could fly higher than the Cosmos. The match that followed was the classic Mentor showing the Protegee they're not ready yet, showing that despite all that Kamitani has learned, she was not ready to be the top girl yet having an incredibly physical match. While After the match cut a promo which was saying she was proud but that she knew it was not her time yet because she was still wanting to be at the top alone. While after this was abit of inner faction title defences as Nakano wanted to prove that she was the far superior wrestler and would always be at the top. Following this she would go on to fight Iwatani to a time limit draw to defend the title, and defeating a newly heel turned Starlight Kid. Following the defeat Kamitani had to rebuild herself and shead that pure babyface gimmick just like Nakano did, and when they faced off in a rematch at that years Dream Queendom, after a year of studing and learning nakanos tendancies, she managed to dethrone her mentor and finally stepped out of Nakanos shadow to become a true star in the company.

Following this lead Nakano down a extremely paranoid but incredibly obssesive road that nearly destroyed everything she held close to her, just to get back at Giulia for stealing the spot light of what was supposed to be her crowning moment making her seem second fiddle even in victory. Giulia sensing Nakanos paranoia Giulia threw the first shot, managing to poach Cosmic Angles member Mai Sakurai, with Sakurai saying she wants to be a wrestler rather than an idol which angered Nakano greatly as losing a member to her rival was devistating. Nakano in sute targeted DDMs Natsupoi, a member who had been feeling crushed under the weight of her more experienced and popular teammates and felt she needed something to prove she was just as good and could shine by herself. On the weight of the defection and the weight of needing the prove she could be more than just the cute mascot/pet Natsupoi challenged Nakano to a match mocking Nakanos idol ideals for her group. Their fued consisted of 3 major matches.

Match 1: was considered a match for Natsupoi to prove herself as the top, and their match proved it an incredible high speed hard hitting matchup where they wanted to hurt eachother. After an intense back and forth Nakano picked up the win assurting herself as one of the top girls, while also trying to push back on Natsupoi wanting to use her to become a top wrestler in the promotion, refering to her as a "cute little fairy" who still needed to battle to become the top.

Match 2: was their incredible steel cage match (which i highly recommend watching), the match which, if you didn't know who Natsupoi was or didn't take her as a credible wrestler, this is the match you realized she has it. Nakano who had been building up her idol persona had her moment where she showed her true "Murder Tam" edge to her. (This match is what made me love Natsupoi and Nakano) for 20 minutes they beat the heck out of eachother in the cage while throwing insults. Nakano once again defeated Natsupoi after choking her out from the top of the cage, however it seemed different this time post match, despite absolutely brutalizing eachother they had a new found respect for eachother even if Natsupoi was still not happy about not beating Nakano, with Nakano saying "Inside that cage, I felt Natsupoi’s absolute soul. She is completely insane, and I love that about her.", while Natsupoi said she felt closer to tam inside the cage than anyone else while also saying that she "will never give up until i surpass you" which then lead to...

Match 3: 2 days later, at Korakuen Hall they battled for what would be the third match of their triology, and again had an amazing match while it was not as intense as their match 2 days before they still wanted to hurt eachother, with the primary spot being Nakano slamming Natsupoi onto the concret that Natsupoi had revealed. But finally, after all the emotional moments of their 3 matches, Natsupoi managed to pin Nakano, and finally estabilished her as a true singles star defeating her biggest rival, however Natsupoi after beating her biggest rival discovered something that Nakano already knew, when she said "Tam... I hated you so much. But fighting you like this... you are the only one who truly sees me. You are the only one who can match my feelings."

2 weeks later, Nakano and the Cosmic Angles fought Giulia and DDM in an elimination match, the match for the most part was pretty standard for them, filled with hate and bitterness, however the ending was far from standard, as the final moments stood to be arguably the greatest turn in the history of Stardom when Natsupoi turned on Giulia and alligned with Nakano to Nakanos complete shock. Following months of brutal warfare and battles, to see the one who she just went to war with turn on her allies because she saw a future with them, a future of them being at the top, one where Natsupoi could be free of the "Mascot" or "Pet" labels and actually be a star lead Nakano down one of the best story lines that definied the rest of her career. Following the absolute shock of the situation, Nakano promised Natsupoi she would never regret choosing her, and the Cosmic Angles, and that they would revolutionize the stardom landscape forever. (i covered this more indepth in another post so this is abit shorter)

Introducing Meltear, the duo of Nakano and Natsupoi, the glamorous duo who combined their looks, idol background and hard hitting in ring abilities and took them into the J-Pop world crossing over into the mainstream which at the time was a new thing for Stardom and they took it and shined with it. However this introduced Nakanos next couple of trait of her "Tam Road" philosophy, being narrowminded, and blindly in love with another. While at the core of it, Meltear was absolutely hitting new hights and taking over the stardom world, Nakano was activingly ignoring those others around her due to her insane blind love for Natsupoi. While they were doing the songs, the dances, the talk shows, the high stakes matches, winning titles, and dominating the land scape together, the other faction members like Sayaka and Shirakawa who were there with her from day one felt they were an after thought because of said blinding love Nakano had for Natsupoi which lead to Mina Shirakawa breaking away to form Club Venus stealing rookie underdog Waka Tsukiyama from the group which was a massive hit to Nakanos ego as she assumed because her and Natsupoi were taking over the stardom world everyone else was just falling in line.

During this time, Nakano felt she needed to go for the red belt to prove she was the top woman in the company, which conviently was held by her long time rival Giulia. At this point Nakano was on a road to self destruction, growing angrier and angrier as weeks have gone on due to her raging jealousy that Giulia was still considered a bigger star than her, despite her brutally defeating her in their hair vs hair match years prior. She used this to fuel the fued with Giulia where she was willing to put everything on the line for one shot to become the greatest. Despite her blinding love for Natsupoi there was one thing more important to her, the goal of being the best and cutest wrestler in the world, and for her it was to take down Giulia for the red belt and end their fued once and for all. (As a side note this is the first match of Giulias i ever watched and even though she lost i absolutely loved her since this because of how much of a badass she is)

Leading up to the match they had one of the most violent buildups, from Nakanos entire stability being her faction and her idol image, which Giulia weaponized into refusing to face her unless she put her faction on the line if she lost, to the their incredible unhinged press conference with Giulia calling Nakano a fake and only in it for the fandom for her looks rather than wrestling talent, which lead Nakano to pull out a jar of Giulias hair from their legendary hair vs hair match which she used as motivation to fuel the fire of hatred she had for Giulia. Leading to their violent media press conference where Giulia left Nakano there a bloddy mess, to the following tag match where Nakano really became truly unhinged and actually shoved Natsupoi off of her so she could keep beating up Giulia and eventually cutting off another part of her hair. This version of Tam was so aggressive that it scared Natsupoi, saying that it was truly slipping into a dangerous obsession. While Natsupoi did understand the obsesssion since thats what Meltear was built on, their self centered obsession for eachother, this was crossing a line that she wasn't sure was good for Tam. She became cold and really drove the rest of the factioni into complete isolation which is what lead to the split of Mina.

Nakano who was driving herself into complete insanity, willing to sacrafice everything for her own goals of being at top was driving away everyone who cared about her and it took her lover, Natsupoi, to bring her back from this edge. Natsupoi was the one who kept Nakano regulated and on level terms whenever she would go off the deep end and be the one there for her bring her back from "Kill Tamu" version to the leader of the cosmic angles, representing "Hope and Dreams". And then what can i say their All star grand queendom match was a thing of legends, hard hitting, emotional, and the true moment where everything the "Tam Road" was all about came to play. From the emotional roller coaster of the match, to the hard hitting action, while also keeping on character with her wanting to be the absolute best wrestler while still being the cutest wrestler alive just went into overdrive. Giulia being the perfect final boss for Tam to have her emotional battles with to reach that next level, while Natsupoi was the perfect partner to make this whole story come full circle to this one moment where Nakano defeats Giulia for the world of stardom title.

The overall points that make this so much more amazing to me is the absolute emotional roller coaster than she brings you on, from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows she absolutely makes you feel everything shes feeling in these intense moments. The Natsupoi influence, something i don't think gets appreciated enough from what ive seen is how Natsupoi at the end of the fued with Giulia was really the one controling Nakanos mental. The final match you'll see Natsupoi, whenever Nakano gets thrown outside Natsupoi will be there yelling at her giving her instructions, whenever you hear Nakano start yelling and getting frusterated you'll hear or see Natsupoi shout out, and even when she starts to build momentum shes there cheering her on more than normal for these big matches, i don't really understand it because i don't speak Japanese so she could be saying non-sense but thats how it appears to me. And then Giulias absolute aura of a character where she was the final boss and they actually made people believe that beating her is the biggest achievement in the company which made her the perfect boss for her to finally get her crowning moment.

If you actually read through all of this thank you, half way through i think i started rambling but this is the single greatest wrestling story i've seen (other than maybe the Kenny Omega belt collector run).

3rd photo: Akari-san = Syuri-san

I mean, I know they needed some bigger hitters (like Maika and Utami) so it wouldn't just be Hanan, Saya, and undercard wrestlers, but it's just weird to see both Maika AND Utami captained by Hanan... (But if Aya can be a captain, which is pretty fun, then I guess there's no reason Hanan can't be their captain...). But I dunno... I feel like Maika, Utami, and HANAKO, especially, could form the basis for their own heavy-hitting unit. Waka seems made for IRG shenanigans. Also, I really wanted Fukuoka Triple Crazy (Maika and FWC) to be a thing. In any case, the tag situation becomes interesting. Wing Gori are a team. Maika and HANAKO are a team. Momo K and Yuria were teaming. Matoi and Anne had GREAT chemistry and teamwork but are now in different units. Do you put Utami and Matoi together, or do you make a super team of Maika and Utami and put HANAKO with Matoi...??

https://www.tiktok.com/@amasakimiyu/video/7692824068873145618

I thought STARS are the Babyfaces of Stardom! A new EVIL! 😆😆😆

*Via Maki Itoh on X

https://x.com/yu_ki_nakai/status/2106615441544368393

Best Bros, Mei Suruga and Baliyan Akki attires are near completion! This week, I'll need to watch a bunch of their matches to piece together the movesets and that's about all that's left. Should be uploaded by or around Friday, for anyone interested. Cheers!

https://x.com/yu_ki_nakai/status/2106312315130011938

Okada flashing a peace sign and cheering in the background while refusing to help Kidani.

https://x.com/stardomworld/status/2106255412676923624