As expected, former ARSION and JD Star owner Rossy Ogawa announced today that his new joshi puroresu company STARDOM will debut in January 2011. It looks like the company has been heavily influenced by Ice Ribbon with it's mix of idol wrestlers and preteen girls. A total of eleven wrestlers are on the roster but only three have pro wrestling experience. Fuuka was named as general manager and it looks like she will provide the newcomers. She has opened her own dojo for children. They have also hired 14 year pro wrestling veteran Nanae Takahashi. And coming with her is her Passion Red associate Natsuki*Taiyo. Takahashi said that Passion Red will close at the end of the year and she will work full time for STARDOM. And though Ogawa hasn't given her a title, there's no doubt that she will be in charge of the in ring product. So Fuuka may be the GM in name but Takahashi may turn out to be the real GM. The only other girl with any kind of pro wrestling experience is JEWELS MMA fighter Mika Nagano. Mika worked briefly for Ice Ribbon last year and appeared on a Fuuka Matsuri show. You may recall that Ogawa declared bikini model/actress Yuzuki Aigawa is getting the Fuuka Matsuri treatment beginning in October. At least she'll have some experience by January. And Takahashi has been named Aizawa's opponent in her joshi debut. They're bringing in another bikini model named Mami Houyjou. She works for the same talent agency as Aizawa. The others include 23 year old former handball player Yoko Bito, 17 year old YOSHIKO who is bigger than the others, 17 year old Eri Susa who at 50kg seems a little small to be a pro wrestler, 17 year old Mayu Iwatani who also weighs 50kg, 14 year old junior high school student ARISA. It seems she has done some kick boxing in school. Finally we have 8 year old second grader HARUKA. It's no secret that I hate seeing little girls in joshi. It's interesting that they all expressed that they want to be like Fuuka. I wonder if they have watched her stink out the joint in a big match. At least Eri Susa said she likes Azumi Hyuga. Obviously some but not all have idol potential. The problem with using mostly greenhorns is they don't know if any of them will stick it out and remain in wrestling. And of course there's always injuries. I see a lot of experienced freelance wrestlers filling in the blanks. I also want to see what kind of schedule STARDOM will run. Will it be weekly, monthly or less than that? The inexperience of most of these girls is the biggest question mark about STARDOM. It has train wreck potential.
I think, inexperience is not the problem.You remember the Gatou Kuniyan day of Ice Ribbon. It's just only 3 experience wrestlers ( Emi Sakura, Natsuki Head ( Taiyou ), and Rei. Other girls was inexperience wrestlers, 12 yo girl, Rika Takahashi debuted. I think, Stardom should go well coz the potential is better. The promotion has Fuuka and Takahashi for supporting while there has some former famous Idols and MMA fighter as Mika Nagano.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it's not as surprised as in GTKN or Ice Ribbon days. I think, The big match of Ice Ribbon might be runned with Stardom due to Takahashi and Emi Sakura relation .
The big difference is that GTKN was never intended to be anything more than an after school diversion. It wasn't pro wrestling. It was playtime and became pro wrestling by accident. After yesterday's press conference, Ogawa said STARDOM will run twice monthly at Shin-kiba 1st Ring and Fuuka said she wants it to be as popular as Fuuka Matsuri. But no Fuuka in the ring. It's going to be tough for them to draw immediately with a roster of greenhorns. There has to be more than Takahashi vs Sakura Emi or whoever. It's not enough.
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