When Chiba-native Mai Sakurai was announced as the newest addition to STARDOM and Cosmic Angels (alongside Waka Tsukiyama) in August 2021, it’s fair to say she was quite inexperienced inside the squared circle.
Joining Cosmic Angels
Having made her wrestling debut in February of the previous year, Sakurai had only competed in 21 matches (according to Cagematch) before making the switch. Initially, she had had a relatively successful career as a model prior to transitioning into the world of Joshi wrestling. She made her wrestling debut at AWG Act 46, an event promoted by Actwres girl’Z, at the (for Joshi wrestlers) relatively late age of 29. So considering her background and maturity, it naturally made logical sense that she joined the Cosmic Angels faction as a 30-year-old. She would be following a very similar career trajectory to those of her new teammates, Mina Shirakawa and Unagi Sayaka. They had also started wrestling ‘late’ (Unagi was 29 and Mina was 30 on their respective debuts) after having prior modeling careers.
Mai Sakurai’s career started with STARDOM was a baptism of fire. Her debut for the company was the expected ‘assessment’ match against the self-appointed “Assessor of Stardom,” Unagi Sayaka, in a Future of Stardom title match during the middle of the 2021 5STAR GP campaign. Mai naturally lost. But her trials were not yet over. Sakurai’s mettle was tested further by facing then red-belt champion Utami Hayashishita in her second STARDOM match, before singles bouts against Momo Watanabe, every individual member of Donna Del Mondo (DDM), Konami, and even the then Cinderella Tournament champion Saya Kamitani. It wasn’t until she faced her fellow rookie Waka in late September that Mai managed to get her first victory. Perhaps it was just desserts after that gruelling gauntlet of matches. It also indicated that the company considered Sakurai just ahead of Tsukiyama in the pecking order of the two rookies.
Mai Sakurai Struggles to Find Her Place
However, despite being placed slightly higher within Cosmic Angels, at times, it felt Waka’s superior character work was overshadowing Sakurai’s efforts with Tsukiyama’s gutsy babyface profile making people compelled to support the “Little Moon” over time, especially as Tsukiyama’s losing streak storyline continued. In addition, being within a faction that was dominated by big, bombastic, and glamorous personalities such as Tam Nakano, Unagi, and Mina, it looked as if Mai was a little lost trying to find her own unique (and standout) character within the group, coming across as quite ‘vanilla’, even with her pre-wrestling modeling background being a seemingly good fit for the idol-inspired Kouzen.
[READ: The Ballad of Gassan: Waka Tsukiyama Searching For Her First Win]
A combination of struggling to find her character and obvious inexperience meant that it was perhaps somewhat difficult for people to be interested in her matches initially. With the company pushing her ahead of the more popular Tsukiyama, there was a small bit of backlash from some sections of the STARDOM fans who felt her ascension was too soon and forced – something which had also been said about Unagi’s first year of the company. This ‘grief’ might have been increased during the end-of-year Tag League where Sakurai and Mina managed to get two victories in their block, one of them against the popular HimePoi‘21 duo. Because of this, a specific meme involving an angry, fist-shaking emote was created amongst the wrestling fan community, showing frustration at Mai’s seemingly relentless push despite a lack of connection with the fans or improvement in her skill set.
The Switch to Donna del Mondo
Thankfully, Sakurai’s career within STARDOM began to change for the better when she made the decision to abandon Cosmic Angels and join Donna Del Mondo. The seeds of the ‘betrayal’ had started to be sown around the New Year period when, during an end-of-year interview with all the members of CA, she was asked who inspired her the most. To everyone’s surprise, Mai said she admired Tam Nakano’s bitter rival Giulia ahead of the more obvious answer, her faction leader, much to Tam’s initial chagrin. In the following weeks, Giulia seized upon this by hinting to Sakurai that she would be better off under her tutelage as part of the now-expanded DDM (which had increased from five to seven members).
It all came to a head in mid-February 2022 following a six-person tag match when Giulia, alongside her previous Momo-masked accomplices and newest DDM additions Thekla and MIRAI, defeated the Cozen trio of Tam, Unagi, and Mai. Following the match, a slightly bloodied Mai stunned her CA team-mates, by claiming she wanted to join DDM because she “didn’t join STARDOM to become a dancer, but become a wrestler,” in a critique of Kouzen’s pre-match dances (although ironically, DDM had their own pre-match dances with ALK and MaiHimePoi). Although yet another riposte in the continuously fierce rivalry between Giulia and Tam (and one which Tam would repay in kind later in the year with the surprise switch of Natsupoi), it would prove to be a masterstroke for the development of Mai’s career.
Becoming “The Lady of Donna del Mondo”
“The Lady of DDM” could finally find her standout position within a faction, even if it was as the regular ‘pin-eater’ of the group. A change in wrestling gear and a fresh new haircut gave Mai the unique identity that she needed when she joined DDM, but, most importantly, she started to improve under Giulia’s guidance. Victories were more forthcoming tagging with her, or with a combination of DDM members, with Mai getting the better of her now rival Waka during DDM versus CA matches.
Arguably, her first big moment in DDM colors came in an eight-person tag match against STARS in mid-May, when Mai pinned that year’s Cinderella Tournament finalist Koguma to get the win for her team. As her teammates were gleefully celebrating her victory in the card’s main event, it finally felt like Mai had found her place not just within her new faction, but Stardom as a whole.
5STAR Grand Prix and Prominence
As 2022 progressed, Sakurai’s development was becoming more apparent. She progressed from a tough five-woman qualification group that included Saya Iida, Ruaka, Rina, and Lady C to qualify for the main 5 STAR Grand Prix flagship tournament, where she would impress with her performances. In her twelve-match campaign, she surprisingly accumulated nine points. The highlights of her tournament were a surprise victory over teammate Himeka (much to the amusement of the other DDM members at ringside at the result) and a count-out draw with Prominence ace Risa Sera. However, it would be against the freelance group’s deathmatch prodigy Suzu Suzuki where the improvement of Mai Sakurai became most apparent and she gave one of her best performances in STARDOM.
Getting involved with the feud between Giulia and her former Ice Ribbon comrades, Mai tagged with her teacher against the deathmatch duo in a hardcore match in late July, a match type suggested by the outsider group. Although it was a losing effort due to Prominence’s specialized stipulation, Mai really showed how far she had come by being an important part of the match and surprisingly showed she was a deft hand at hardcore matches, even if her choice of weapon, a large and unwieldy piece of steel tube scaffolding, was a unique selection for “Steel” Sakurai.
Competing in NEW BLOOD
The introduction of the NEW BLOOD series (a series of shows run by STARDOM that highlights ‘new’ or inexperienced talent from within the Joshi world, as well as from within the company) has also been a great outlet to showcase Mai’s development as a performer as well as a wrestler. So far, she has competed in all of the editions of the rookie showcase series.
From her (at the time of writing) seven matches, Mai Sakurai has won five, fought one to a draw, and lost just once. That single loss was to Suzu Suzuki (NB2), despite a valiant effort against the deathmatch prodigy. Her single matches against YuuRi (NB3) and the charismatic Chanyota (NB5) were further displays of how much Mai was improving in the ring, as was the DQ win against Starlight Kid and Karma (Haruka Umesaki’s alter ego) when she teamed up with the exuberant Thekla. Although her tag match with LINDA against the STARS duo of Momo Kogho and Saya Iida is not a five-star classic by any stretch of the imagination, it certainly enabled Mai to show more character as a performer as she embraced her tag partner’s dominatrix gimmick.
Certainly, this new charisma could be further shown in the press conference for NB7. She teamed up with Chanyota (as part of the New Blood Tag Championship tournament), with the two of them dressing as bunny girls and chomping on unpeeled carrots. They also forced Rossy Ogawa to consume a carrot, much to opponents Hina and Miyu Amasaki’s disgust and disbelief. It was also Mai who earned the victory for the team, pinning Hina via an improved-looking elbow drop.
Mai Fair Lady
With 2022 coming to a close, Mai Sakurai was becoming a more integral and dependable part of Donna Del Mondo. She was clearly gaining more confidence inside and outside of the ring. With DDM only having five members at the time (following the defections of MIRAI and Natsupoi earlier in the year to God’s Eye and Cosmic Angels respectively), Mai was forced to tag with Queen’s Quest’s Lady C in an “odd couple” pairing for the annual Goddess of Stardom Tag League. Despite having the superb team name of Mai Fair Lady, they finished at the bottom of their group with zero points. However, having started the tournament as bickering and squabbling tag partners, they ended it with a begrudging respect for one another, with both ladies being in similar positions within their respective factions.
Bari Bari Bombers
Naturally, Sakurai has seen more success teaming with her faction mates as part of the Triangle Derby (the trios tournament) series in early 2023. Tagging with her mentor (and new red belt champion) Giulia, as well as Thekla, the Bari Bari Bombers (decked out in military attire) have performed well in the tournament. The highlight of Mai’s performance during the Triangle Derby (at the time of writing) was her performance against Lollipop (Waka Tsukiyama, Yuko Sakurai (no relation) & Rina Amikura), where she executed a Harlem Hangover on Tsukiyama, to get the win for her team.
Seeing Mai perform such a difficult technical move to near perfection was a big indicator of how far she had progressed as a performer and a vast improvement to her usual top rope diving elbow finisher, perhaps not the most polished-looking of moves within her ever-growing arsenal. Even little nuances in her character, like using the gear she wore when she “betrayed” Cosmic Angels in her match against Tam Nakano in mid-December 2022 to get into her former leader’s head, are further steps into her becoming a well-rounded character.
Conclusion
In conclusion, whilst it’s fair to say that Mai Sakurai is perhaps not going to be challenging for the Red Belt or producing five-star matches any time soon, she has become a solid and dependable performer within the STARDOM roster as she gained more experience throughout the year. Her transition from Cosmic Angels to DDM has been seamless and the best decision of her career. Whilst her improvement as a performer has been stark and rapid under expert tutelage. Compared to the start of 2022, when she was a bland background player within Cosmic Angels with no noticeable improvement in her skillset, she has blended into DDM’s faction with ease. She is now arguably Giulia’s right-hand woman, her repertoire of moves ever-increasing.
After the monumental and surprising rise of Mina Shirakawa in 2022, Mai Sakurai is certainly next on the list of “most improved wrestlers in 2022” within STARDOM. It’s a big credit to her hard work and dedication to improvement that she can be considered for the award. It will be exciting to see how much further she’ll progress in her career in 2023. Perhaps clinching an Artist of Stardom Title will be next on her goal list.
So please stop with the memes and the unfair criticism of Mai Sakurai now, dear reader! The Lady of DDM doth now certainly impress…
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