RISE Wrestlers Make Their Stardom Debut This Weekend
By Harmony Cox
This weekend will see four wrestlers from the RISE roster debut in Stardom, the wildly-popular Japanese women’s wrestling promotion.
RISE has had a huge summer so far thanks to their partnership with IMPACT Wrestling. RISE of the Knockouts took place last weekend, bringing the best of IMPACT’s women’s talent head to head with the RISE roster. Shotzi Blackheart also received the opportunity to appear on IMPACT’s weekly show. Strategic partnerships are a huge strength for the promotion, and their spirit of collaboration is about to pay off for even more members of their roster as four of their own make their debut at Stardom this summer.
Stardom is a joshi (Japanese women’s wrestling) promotion that is growing in popularity with American audiences thanks to their knack for recruiting amazing talent and the big personalities that flourish on their roster. Wrestlers like Io Shirai, Kris Wolf, and Kairi Sane are among their most popular alumni, and current Stardom talents like Kagetsu and Mayu Iwatani continue to make Stardom proud.
The promotion also recruits excellent international talent, with wrestlers like Viper and Toni Storm boasting fan-favorite runs with the company. RISE has had a talent-sharing partnership with Stardom for some time, and RISE wrestlers like Zoe Lucas have popped up in Stardom before, but this particular effort represents a significant branded collaboration to highlight the strengths of both companies.
RISE has chosen four of their most promising talents to represent the brand in Japan this summer. Britt Baker is known for her hard-hitting RISE matches and her ongoing feud with Tessa Blanchard. Kikyo is a powerhouse brawler who featured as a stable member in Bull Nakano’s RISE faction Gokuako-to. Dust is a former Phoenix of RISE champion and a current tag team champion for Guardians of Rise. Kylie Rae is a fun-loving flyer who shines in amazing singles matches as well as her current tag team, the Wylie Smilies.
The women of RISE has arrived in Japan, and you can check it out on Stardom World! https://t.co/q8dHnF58vW pic.twitter.com/NDiiPxBUCy
— We Are Stardom (@we_are_stardom) July 12, 2018
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(As a sad footnote, two of the original wrestlers who were slated to go to Stardom — Shotzi Blackheart and Delilah Doom — were unable to join the tour due to injuries. We wish them a speedy recovery!)
All four of these women will be facing some of the biggest challenges of their careers when they wrestle for Stardom.
Announced singles matches include AZM vs Dust, Shiki Shobusawa vs Kylie Rae, Natsuko Tora vs Britt Baker, and Tam Nakano vs Kikyo. Kikyo, Baker, and Dust will also be teaming up to take on Jungle Kyona and her crew in a later event.
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More matches are being announced on We Are Stardom’s twitter account, so keep an eye out! The action starts July 14th. Will RISE triumph? Will Stardom’s superstars come out on top? Will we get the Tam/Kikyo Exploding Bat Death Match I didn’t know I wanted to see until this very moment? Stay tuned.