Stardom Review And Analysis: January 6 in Osaka

High Speed Title: Hazuki (c) vs Starlight Kid

The High Speed Title had been held by Mary Apache for nearly 500 days with just three defenses of the championship in that time – one of which being the loss to Hazuki in December. Hazuki now makes her first defense against Starlight Kid who is fresh off of losing her Future of Stardom Title to Utami on January 3.

Before the match, Hazuki copped a certain tranquilo vibe by claiming that she didn’t actually care about the High Speed Title but that whoever holds it needs to elevate it to a higher level and that she looks forward to seeing what her challengers will bring her. She has quite the task ahead of her as Starlight Kid has nowhere to go but up after seeing the end of her near 300-day reign as the inaugural Future of Stardom champion.

Wasting no time, Kid started this off with a running dropkick catching Hazuki off-guard in the corner. There was no turning back as both champion and challenger kept the intensity turned up to 11 for the length of the match.

Hazuki was able to slow Kid briefly early on with a stiff running boot to the head in the ropes but even this wasn’t enough to stop the challenger completely. Kid would fight back and begin to dominate Hazuki for the majority of the match, hitting huge move after huge move in hopes of taking home a championship just 3 days removed from losing her own.

Despite connecting with an absolute eruption of offense including a Code Red, rotating splash from the top rope, and a massive crossbody from the top rope to the arena floor, Hazuki was able show her champion’s grit by kicking out of every last pin attempt.

Kid pushed her way out of a pin attempt following a Michinoku Driver, but Hazuki pulled herself up to deliver another one before capping it all off with a bit of a scary-looking shooting star press from the top rope to retain her championship. The landing was messy and gave me some real Hayabusa vibes which is both a wonderful and frightening comparison all at once.

Thoughts: This match was fast, hard-hitting, and exactly what the High Speed Title needed as it gets a bit of a reboot here in 2019. With Hazuki at the helm, we’re guaranteed to see the absolute best in strength, speed, and high-flying that Stardom has to offer. While the landscape of Stardom may seem over-saturated with belts (5 singles titles, tag team titles, and six-woman tag team titles), the purpose of this particular belt is to bring a more dynamic style of wrestling to each show.

I didn’t expect Kid to win here with Hazuki fresh off of dethroning Mary Apache, but this showed a bit of a different side of the former Future of Stardom champion. Not only did she bring out a bit of a vicious side with a late-match onslaught of slaps to the head and face of Hazuki, but she proved just how hard she’s willing to fight, and fight back, to stay in a match. Fantastic performance from both wrestlers in a match I’d love to see again (and again, and again, and again…).

Next Up

Stardom is back on January 14 with their 8th Anniversary Show featuring Kagetsu defending the World of Stardom Title against Jungle Kyona, Momo Watanabe defending the Wonder of Stardom Title against Tam Nakano, and Viper defending the SWA Title and Pro Wrestling Eve International Title against Utami Hayashishita amongst others. We’ll be back right here to cover the event as the matches begin pouring into Stardom World!