10 Times Women's Wrestling SERIOUSLY Kicked Ass
1. Utami Hayashishita Vs. Syuri
Reflective of a creative and commercial peak for STARDOM, the Tokyo Dream Cinderella match pitting World of Stardom Champion Utami Hayashishita against Syuri was an electrifying near-45 minute epic that put over both women and the promotion itself as the undisputed hottest spot for all women's wrestling.
Against increasingly laboured and depressing scenes in North America, Japan has stepped forward and stepped up with countless cards and matches from Stardom and Tokyo Joshi Pro in particular generating the sort of buzz that's typically been impossible for supposedly niche promotions to capture. Not so here; the pair penetrated the bubble, aided by the insistence and positive press from Dave Meltzer, who gave the contest five and a half stars out of five and frankly could have crept even higher.
What Meltzer and/or The Wrestling Observer says may or may not carry weight with your own subjective tastes, but the match makes itself undeniable within the first 5 minutes. The caginess is tighter and stiffer than several Okada main events, the escalation so hot that it briefly lifts the clap crowds out of their enforced discipline, and the challenger almost wrestling control after such a brutal beating makes a furnace of the cool climate as the clock is thankfully extended.
For the hardcores, there will be countless other examples of incredible contest from the last several years, but as an all-important gateway, Hayashishita and Syuri assembled a bona fide classic.