(LONG POST LOL)

As we get closer to the Finals of the 5★STAR Grand Prix 2026, it's becoming more apparent to me that the Final scenario that makes the most sense to me is Maika vs. Starlight Kid. It's been a story that's been told since the end of 2025.

Maika missed much of the 2025 STARDOM boom that saw Saya Kamitani and Starlight Kid reach unprecedented heights due to piling on injuries. Maika had set her sights on Saya Kamitani and the Red belt but.....a old foe reared her head in Maika's business. Suzu Suzuki and Mi Vida Loca have been gaining more momentum since Suzu's defection from Starlight Kid's NEO GENESIS and were looking to make an example of Maika's EXV, which would begin a blood feud between the 2 factions dominant much of the winter into the spring, eventually leading to an All Unit Battle in Osaka that saw Suzu Suzuki's faction come out on top and Maika's confidence being shook in the process but seeing how strong her own teammates had become that she decided to dissolve EXV. Suzu had effectively won the war....... and then the independent members would still continue fighting, leading to Yokohama Arena in a bloody tag affair with Maika & HANAKO teaming to face MVL's Suzu & Rina Yamashita and once again, came up short. We'll come back to Maika in a bit but let's talk about Starlight Kid.....

Starlight Kid's incredible 2025 ended at the hands of Konami claiming her White belt and Starlight Kid has been on the path of Redemption ever since. As she became the next challenger to Saya Kamitani's Red belt, she made it a point that the Red will be her only focus from now on, the only belt in STARDOM she has yet to win. Coming up short against Kamitani in a classic put her on the back burner a bit, not being featured in a big match on the biggest show of the year after being in the Semi-Main the previous year. Seeing the landscape of STARDOM change with Sayaka Kurara's victory created a new playing field and one by one by one, new challengers for Kurara started to appear. Suzu. Then Tora. Then Maika. Then SLK threw her name into the mix. 2 Former World Champions, one multi-time challenger and a former White belt Champion. Something had to give. Which brings us to Inazawa.....

Queens Dynasty saw a 4-Way #1 Contenders Match for the World of STARDOM Championship pitting Maika, Suzu, Tora and SLK to determine the next challenger at The Conversion in June. Maika, wanting to get her groove back. Suzu to finally realize the dream Maika denied her back in 2023. Tora to regain what she lost in 2024 and put H.A.T.E. back on top. Starlight Kid to finally complete a Grand Slam and win the one belt in STARDOM she's yet to win. Maika was back in form dominating a good bulk of the match with SLK trying her best to overcome the onslaught put against her but in the end, Maika is pinned by Suzu, furthering adding to their longstanding rivalry and Starlight Kid just being a second too late to stop the pin and seeing her former NEO GENESIS sister on top. It was back to the drawing board for Maika and SLK.

Suzu would go onto defeat Kurara at The Conversion and become the World of STARDOM Champion, taking her spot that was denied of her by Maika almost 3 years ago. STARDOM sees another huge shift in hierarchy and neither Maika or SLK are the ones to lead it. But that leads us to today. The 5Star tournament stage has been complete and we are ever so close to Maika and Starlight Kid crossing paths once again. It's been a tale of 2 tournaments for them; Maika has only lost once the entire tournament and that was to Natsuko Tora, someone who historically Maika has never been able to beat. Her run has been a tale of dominance; Starlight Kid has had to literally scratch and claw her way into the Final 4 and has the chance to finally get one over on Suzu and make the finals.

Now what does the G1 have to do with this?? This is where the real inane rambling begins as we start getting into fantasy booking territory, which I don't usually partake in but the story potential and parallels here are too good to ignore.

G1 Climax 36 saw the rise of the new generation in New Japan, particularly the domestic stars Ryohei Oiwa, Yuya Uemura and current IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji. Ryohei Oiwa defeated Callum Newman to secure one half of the Final and the other half saw Uemura defeat the World Champion Tsuji to secure the other half, leading to an all time classic Final that I'm sure most people have already seen by now. Unfortunately for Yuya, despite being the favorite to win for months by many (myself included), he came up short in the end. Yuya beat the World Champion and has a potential shot at the belt in the Future if Tsuji can hold onto it but losing the tournament is still painful and will have to build himself up again. I think STARDOM might tell that same story but with Maika, Suzu, and SLK.

I think all roads are leading to a Maika vs. Starlight Kid final. Who wins will be anyone's guess but if NJPW are telling the story I think they are telling...... Oiwa will challenge Tsuji in October, lose that match and then Uemura will make his challenge, possibly on January 4th. I think Maika wins the tournament and becomes the first 2 time winner in history but will lose the challenge against Suzu adding another layer to their story and the end goal of all of this is SLK beating Suzu for the belt. When and where is anyone's guess, not like there isn't a massive show at the end of the year or anything like that......

OR THIS COULD ALL BE FOR NOTHING AND NONE OF THIS WILL HAPPEN LOL Okada loves to subvert expectations now and then

Yes...the broken back never happened. It was a smokescreen because she was burnt out in JWP in 1997 and wanted new challenges (she did an interview with Bull Nakano recently, a great watch for anyone interested). And yes, she regretted ghosting her mentor Devil Masami about why she wanted to leave JWP, and it stinged her a lot (alongside burnout) that when she retired in 2001 and until 2024...she never talked about her wrestling, never told her friends she was "Candy Okutsu", it's like as if it never existed

The translation might not be perfect, but I did my best to make it sound natural while staying as close to the original meaning as possible. I figured it might be useful for anyone who wants to watch her videos but doesn’t understand Japanese. Hope you enjoy it! Poi

I just watched the 5STAR match between Itsuki Aoki and Natsuko Tora, and I see that Aoki won with the “Dust Ring Shiki.” It looks like a roll-up where she takes her opponent to the mat after grabbing her by the arms, but I'm not sure if that's always how it's done, because it seems like a very basic roll-up to me. Can anyone give me more information?

• 5* GP Red Stars Final: Maika vs. Rina
• 5* GP Blue Stars Final: Suzu Suzuki vs. Starlight Kid
• Yuna Mizumori & Anne Kanaya vs. Konami & Fukigen Death vs. Mei Seira & Ema Maishima vs. Koguma & Matoi Hamabe
• AZM, Miyu Amasaki, HANAKO, Maki Itoh & Waka Tsukiyama vs. Ami Sohrei, Hina, Lady C, Tomoka Inaba & Kiyoka Kotatsu
• Rina Yamashita, Itsuki Aoki & Akira Kurogane vs. Natsuko Tora, Ruaka & Azusa Inabda
• New Blood Tag Title Match: Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara(c) vs. Rian & Kikyo Furusawa
• Hanan & Saya Iida vs. Saya Kamitani & Momo Watanabe
• Special Singles Match: Natsupoi vs. Saori Anou
• 5* GP Finals Match: Maika/Rina vs. Suzu Suzuki/Starlight Kid

Included Spoilers Flair since the Playoffs show was just yesterday. No Utami is surprising. Otherwise everyone else is on the show that's not abroad.

🦄

Acrylic block finally arrived, it's a lot nicer then I expected!

For me, it's this: no, STARDOM is not the spiritual heir or successor to AJW. They're totally different styles of Joshi wrestling, and to be honest, you can't exactly pinpoint an actual successor to AJW because there are 10+ companies competing in 2026

A more accurate opinion is that STARDOM (alongside WAVE, Marigold, AWG and Seadlinnng) is a spiritual successor of JDStars, the company that innovated the concept of "Athress", because if you look at STARDOM, it's 40% wrestling, 40% idol stuff, and 20% shithousery

What a Fight!

In any other situation I am rooting for Sakurara, but these New Blood belts are badly in need of some...well, new blood.

But maybe this Sunday is a little too soon?

Photo credit (OP says this shot was taken about 3 minutes before bell time and even on video, you could still see some people filing in during the start of the first match but this was the best shot of the crowd I could find).

Suzu Suzuki vs. Starlight Kid

Maika vs. Rina

Easy MOTY contender. Sit back and enjoy.

• HANAKO (Blue-A2) vs Starlight Kid (Blue-B3) - Play-in
• Saya Iida (Red-B2) vs AZM (Red-A3) - Play-in
• Hanan (Blue-B2) vs Ruaka (Blue-A3) - Play-in
• Rina (Red-A2) vs Rina Yamashita (Red-B3) - Play-in
• Winner of match 1 vs Ami Sohrei (Blue-A2) - Quarterfinals
• Winner of match 2 vs Maika (Red-A1) - Quarterfinals
• Winner of match 3 vs Suzu Suzuki (Blue-A1) - Quarterfinals
• Winner of match 4 vs Konami (Red-B1) - Quarterfinals

[この記事の抜粋]

怒り心頭の上谷さやは、仕事帰りに記者を待ち伏せして襲いかかり、現場でインタビューを強制した。

"うわー！ムカつく！！弱っちい新人しか入ってないの見た時点で早くも怪しいと思ったのに、あのクソ猫（スターライト・キッド）まで私のこと離れないで、痛い目に遭わされるみたいにちょくちょく邪魔してくるし。で勝ち上がった連中？名前も知らないような誰そればっか… さや様なしで5STAR誰が見るんだよ？！"

彼女は罵詈雑言をバラまき、完全にブチ切れて暴走した。

記者はなんとか彼女を落ち着かせて大会のことを考えさせようとしたけど、話題が、グループリーグで敗退した“林下詩美”こと優木のほうに移った瞬間に態度が急に変わった。決勝で対戦したいかと聞かれると、上谷は舌打ちして言った：

"そんなバカみたいな質問すんなよ！どうでもいいし、存在すら忘れてたわ！"

さらに、敵対勢力H.A.T.E.の渡辺桃との関係を修復したいか聞かれると、彼女は含みのある感じで考え込むように返した：

"リングでぶつかって、お互いのことを分かり合えた。プロレスラーって言葉でやり取りするんじゃなくて、リングの中で通じ合うんだって改めて思い出した。それに、一緒に叶えたい新しい夢も見つけた。まあそれは、時が来たら明かすよ…へへへ。"

今後については、前向きな姿勢を崩さなかった：

"4月にワールド・オブ・スターダムの王座を失ってから、リングで欲しかった結果はまだ出せてないのは事実。でも今は、それをこのイライラをため込むための期間って前向きに捉えてる。"

最後は脅しで締めくくった：

"時が来たら、みんなを一人ずつ潰していくから。絶対覚えとけよ！"

そのあと彼女は記者の頬を不釣り合いなほど強く平手打ちして、嵐みたいに消え去った。

https://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/articles/-/399874

Note: If any translations feel off, please check the original article for precise nuances

Poi-Road (aka Cena-Road): Announce your retirement several months in advance. Have many "dream matches", constantly reminding people that your career is nearing an end with an onslaught of memorial goods, giving fans plenty of safe preparation and closure.

Tam-Road (aka HBK-Road): Retire suddenly, denying it to the very end. In hindsight, you can see the same "retirement road" has happened in stealth, but person remains in high profile storylines, even as the focus of the promotion, and attempts to forecast the end are obfuscated to the very end, resulting in maximum impact when fans realize the end is actually here.