It was in December 2021 that Saya Kamitani defeated Tam Nakano to win her first singles title – the Wonder of Stardom Championship. Unlike her AphroditE partner Utami Hayashishita, she was never a holder of the Future of Stardom Championship. It’s not like she needed it; she was never in the shadow of her teammate even during their tenure as Goddess of Stardom Champions and it was clear that even if her partner became World of Stardom Champion before claiming the White Belt, Kamitani was a master of emotion before she was a master of the technique.
Much like Syuri’s entrance music, Saya Kamitani’s track “Sky Dance” is a song that carries the aura of a champion. As soon as you first saw “The Golden Phoenix” wearing the Wonder of Stardom Championship around her waist, you knew that she was the perfect person to be able to overcome the master of emotions herself, Tam Nakano.
It was said by Rossy Ogawa himself that the Red Belt represents the best in women’s pro-wrestling, and that the White Belt represents the best in STARDOM. Throughout the calendar year, the former Goddess of Stardom Champion would put that challenge to the test, to prove to the wrestling world that she was truly the best that the world wonder ring had to offer, and that 2022 was the year of “The Golden Phoenix.”
V1: Unagi Sayaka
Saya Kamitani’s first defense of her newly won championship came from one-third of the original Cosmic Angels trio, Unagi Sayaka.
Unagi Sayaka, however, is not the last person in the line of victories that has vastly improved her wrestling ability in the years since joining as a full-time member of the company. She has dangerous submission moves, powerful leg attacks, and a unique presentation that immediately makes her a threat to the incumbent holder of the White Belt.
Much like Utami, Unagi has also been a holder of the Future of Stardom Title — she knows what it takes to become a champion in the best women’s pro-wrestling company in the world, and won’t be messing around to try and snatch it off the wings of the “Phoenix,” giving her a vital assessment in the process.
On Jan. 29, the two faced off. They’ve fought each other before in the past, but this is much different. Both debuted in 2019, only three years ago, yet the fire inside the two is that of a pair that have been wrestling for much longer.
There’s a variety of different moves on display; takedowns, reversals, and speedy maneuvers. It’s an intense fight that takes both to the limit, with Unagi going for her Taigi De Atta whilst Kamitani tries to counter her with her own Star Crusher. Ultimately, Saya holds onto her title by hitting a brutal phoenix splash with her knees hitting the chest of Unagi instead of getting the full rotation, pinning the challenger shortly afterward.
It’s a brutal end to her first defense, but now Saya has proven she can at least keep the White Belt in her grasp once, but can she hold onto it a second time?
V2: Natsupoi
Natsupoi has challenged for the Wonder of Stardom Championship before, when her former best friend from Actwres girl’Z, Tam Nakano, was the champion.
This is the first time in Saya’s reign that the White Belt challenge main evented at a big Stardom show, and it’s only fitting that it happens against Natsupoi at Cinderella Journey.
Poi is a very crafty wrestler, and much more agile than someone like Kamitani. She has an incredible Fairy Blink move that can end the bout as quickly as the flash-pin is executed, meaning that the champion has to be careful to not be outmaneuvered by her challenger in speed instead of being outpowered through submission moves and targeted hits by her first challenger.
For the first half, Saya Kamitani finds herself unable to get the best of the former high-speed champion, too fast to stop and too quick to counter. But the time limit of a title match greatly benefits the champion because Natsupoi isn’t going to sustain that high-speed style for the full thirty minutes. It starts off as a slick, slip-and-slide encounter before Kamitani is able to gain control, and the pacing of the match slows down in her favor as she targets her opponent’s midsection to prevent her from flying away so easily.
There’s a nasty suplex onto the hardest part of the ring, yet it’s not enough to keep the champion down, and the title can’t be won by a count-out. The two create an innovative match that seamlessly switches styles and creates suspense throughout its runtime; this match comes directly after the Starlight Kid and AZM spectacular and still, these two managed to match the quality of what many were calling match of the year, as Saya Kamitani secures her second defense by pinning Natsupoi after a Star Crusher followed by her signature Phoenix Splash.
V3: Utami Hayashishita
In the first of two title defenses taking place on consecutive days, Saya Kamitani finds herself defending against her AphroditE partner. This was intentional, naming Hayashishita as her challenger immediately after defeating Natsupoi, then Tam Nakano would challenge the winner of Saya Kamitani vs. Utami Hayashishita the next day.
Hayashishita has been Future of Stardom and World of Stardom Champion. Saya has not held any of these titles but she is holding the one that represents the best wrestler in the company, and she doesn’t fancy it being taken away from her, even by her Queen’s Quest stablemate and tag team partner.
The duo has already wrestled with each other three times – once for the Future of Stardom Title, once for the World of Stardom Title, and once in the 2021 5STAR GP. In all contests, Utami emerged as the winner.
With no wins over Utami as she walks into the first day of World Climax, Stardom’s biggest show yet, as Wonder of Stardom champion, “The Golden Phoenix” has a lot to prove and gain by defeating the former Red Belt champion that put Stardom on the radar alongside current champion Syuri in 2021.
As a powerhouse, the challenger has a much bigger upside to the defender, with Utami’s moveset being able to dish out lethal combinations left and right by utilizing strong strikes and powerful slams. Saya’s smaller build also gives her a favorable advantage as long as she isn’t able to be taken down by the blows that Utami can deal to her body by wearing it down over time.
Her high-flying arsenal comes in handy against “The Red Queen,” taking her out from above and outpacing her much like Natsupoi had done back in February. Saya becomes more unpredictable making it harder and harder for Utami to get the best of her.
Still, the match goes on as Utami tries chipping away slowly at her partner to be able to get the victory. After twenty-seven minutes, Kamitani is able to defeat her AphroditE teammate for the first time by once again winning with the Phoenix Splash.
By this point, all possible doubt about Saya Kamitani not being able to hold onto the title is lost, solidifying herself as a fighting champion. She only has so much time to prepare for the fight that comes before her the next day.
V4: Tam Nakano
Fortune favors the patient, and the “Top Kawaii of the Cosmos” is in a better position than the champion. She only used up half of her energy fighting against Mayu Iwatani and KAIRI the day before in a tag team match, and she has held this exact championship before. She knows this title more than anyone else could ever want to know. She is drawn to it, attached to this “cursed belt of emotions,” seeking to dethrone the one that took it away from her back in December of last year.
This is a challenge unlike any that “The Golden Phoenix” has had previously. Now that she’s a confidant and inspiring champion, she faces the biggest threat to her three-month reign since it began.
Tam Nakano is a great wrestler, but her power comes from the feelings within her heart. She will dig as deep as she needs to in order to have her hand raised. The embodiment of the fighting spirit itself, Tam will never give up, she’ll keep fighting and she will bring out the best in any opponent.
Saya Kamitani knows what she’s up against and it won’t be stopping her reign any time soon. She has already proven once that she has what it takes to defeat a resilient force like the leader of the Cosmic Angels, it’s time to do it a second time.
It’s a hard-hitting affair throughout the match, a love letter to the strong style of pro-wrestling that Joshi Puroresu has been ingrained in since its inception. Tam is able to control the beginnings of the encounter, however, Saya once again manages to get back on top even when her rival tries to bring out all the big moves and moments to get the world to believe in Nakano.
A fired-up, emotional contest between the two at STARDOM’s biggest event to date tells all that you need to know about the company they participate in. They fight their hearts out to prove to the world that this is the best wrestling on the planet,
The indomitable spirit of “The Cutest Idol Wrestler in the Universe” is no match for “The Golden Phoenix,” pinning the challenger in a little over twenty minutes to retain the championship.
Against all odds, Saya Kamitani defeated two of the best performers in the company back-to-back, one day after another. Her reign had really shifted gears and there was no stopping now.
V5: Maika
It seems apt that Maika would end up teaming with Hirooki Goto later in the year as part of Historic X-Over between Bushiroad’s men’s and women’s wrestling leagues. She’s a big fan favorite and has never won the big one, so to speak, when it’s clear that they would excel in such a position.
Unlike previous defenses, Maika’s wrestling on her home turf in Fukuoka and, once again, has held the Future of Stardom championship – a title that Saya Kamitani has challenged for, but never held.
Maika is another powerhouse wrestler that stands in the way of the much more slender Wonder of Stardom Champion. Her build makes her a force to be reckoned with in the squared circle, and the added advantage of a hometown crowd makes the challenger a clear favorite to win.
Their first encounter would be Saya Kamitani herself challenging Maika for the Future of Stardom Title back in Oct. 2020. All of their other contests have been singles tournaments that allow for faster-paced athletics such as Kamitani to quickly deal with bigger foes with ease, which is why the champion goes into the match 2-1-1 against her challenger.
An added stipulation for this match was that if Saya Kamitani lost, she would have to give up using her signature Phoenix Splash – there was everything to play for in this championship contest.
Throughout the match, Maika works in some stiff punches and reversals, including reversing a hurricanrana and powerbombing the champion into the turnbuckle. Kamitani is smart, though, and continuously targets Maika’s arm to prevent her from getting in her signature heavy-hitting offensive moveset, giving herself space to breathe whilst the match goes on longer and longer.
“The Golden Phoenix” defeated Maika in the Cinderella Tournament finals the year before, and isn’t a stranger to the pressure of having to beat her in a significant match that can make or break her.
Despite the pressure, Kamitani hits Maika with the Phoenix Splash for the three count, retaining not only her Wonder of Stardom Championship but her signature move in the process.
V6: MIRAI
Saya Kamitani now has five successful defenses to her name and her reign as Wonder of Stardom Champion. She’s already beaten three opponents in a row that contain brutally damaging movesets, but is she up to the task of another?
MIRAI arrived in Stardom in Jan. 2022 and very quickly rose through the ranks as part of Donna del Mondo before joining God’s Eye in April. After defeating Koguma in the 2022 Cinderella Tournament, she issued a challenge to last year’s winner and current White Belt champion, Saya Kamitani, which the champion accepted.
Now dubbing herself as the fighting “Cinderella Princess,” MIRAI looks to win her first championship by becoming the Wonder of Stardom Champion.
It’s fair to say that Saya doesn’t exactly respect MIRAI’s game going into this match. She still believes that her challenger is far away from winning the title that she currently holds and she’ll prove it by beating the “Cinderella Princess” decisively.
The two have signature offensive styles that contrast perfectly with each other, and this isn’t MIRAI’s first rodeo considering that her first PPV match was against Syuri for the Red Belt in the same month that she joined STARDOM.
Much like Maika, MIRAI’s offense is filled with strong lariats and massive power moves. If you gave someone the body shape of Utami and the moves of Maika, you’d get MIRAI.
For two people that have never wrestled each other before, the two have incredible chemistry, with MIRAI managing to dictate the pace of the match at points before the champion is able to get back on top. Saya misses a phoenix splash and the challenger instantly goes for her arm once again, capitalizing on the crucial mistake.
The sense of urgency throughout the bout doesn’t keep the champion down, and Kamitani retains her White Belt with a second over twenty-five minutes as she hits the Phoenix Splash for the 1-2-3.
V7: Starlight Kid
That’s four wrestlers in a row that have powerful moves now dealt with. Saya’s next challenge is against another high-speed sensation, facing off against a changed Starlight Kid who seeks to bring darkness and despair to the championship of emotions.
Her presentation immediately makes her a big deal, someone you want to keep your eyes on at all times – winning the High-Speed championship right after going off on her own makes her a formidable opponent to want to mess with.
Before she turned into the person she is now, she won a tournament to become the first-ever Future of Stardom Champion, a title that Kamitani has challenged for, but has never won. However, SLK’s reign with the Future Title had already ended by the time Saya Kamitani made her STARDOM debut.
Starlight Kid and Natsupoi may wrestle in the same style, but the two are much different beasts. SLK now has submissions locked into her arsenal alongside her flashy moves and ridiculous speed.
SLK made the choice to go down her own path and stay with Oedo Tai, no longer in the shadow of STARDOM’s Icon, Mayu Iwatani. She’s a dangerous foe to be opposite against and time will tell if she has what it takes to defeat “The Golden Phoenix.”
This is the first match in Saya’s reign that sees the opponent using nefarious strategies to gain an edge in their challenge – with SLK using a chair to completely eliminate the “Phoenix’s” leg from the equation whilst concomitantly relying on her agility to keep herself on top of the champion at all times.
Saya Kamitani knows what works, and what has allowed her to keep the championship for six defenses, and uses her tried-and-true moveset to take down “The Sky Tiger” without leaving room for experimenting with what she can and cannot do. It’s an uphill battle, but it’s an uphill battle that Kamitani can fight back against.
She becomes incredibly resilient, fighting through the pain of her targeted leg to perform bridging maneuvers and springboard offense before putting away Starlight Kid for good with a beautiful Phoenix Splash.
V8: SAKI
The leader of Girl’s Pro-Wrestling Unit COLOR’S could be seen as Kamitani’s first “outsider” challenge for the championship. COLOR’S joined Cosmic Angels as a sub-group after losing a match to determine whether the units would become subsidiaries of each other, with COLOR’S ultimately joining the group.
SAKI herself is an interesting opponent for Saya Kamitani, they begin the match swinging as soon as it starts and the action is explosive throughout but SAKI seems to severely underestimate what the champion is capable of, delivering vertical suplexes and powerful offensive moves as well as kicking out of the Star Crusher.
This is Kamitani’s easiest victory so far, winning in a little over thirteen minutes with her finisher to obtain her eighth defense of the championship by becoming victorious over the leader of COLOR’S.
V9: Himeka
Saya’s original opponent for this show was meant to be KAIRI, but unfortunately, she had to pull out of the show, and in her place is the “Nova Princess,” Himeka.
There’s no clear winner going into this match, and no clear loser. Himeka has nothing to lose in this battle, she’s never held a singles championship and has often been the game-changer in the tag team matches she’s been a part of.
It’s a match that starts off slow with the two on equal playing fields, exchanging blows, strikes, and brutal attacks from each other constantly.
Himeka has all the tools necessary to become a singles champion, but her match with Syuri showed that her downfall is being able to end a match at the most crucial of moments.
“The Jumbo Princess” has an impressive set of moves that she can unleash that compliments her tag team partner Maika perfectly, and become incredibly versatile in singles competition as Himeka continuously dominated Saya Kamitani throughout the match, not allowing the champion a chance to breathe or recuperate.
Near the end of the match, she constantly cuts off any offense Kamitani tries to throw at her, and tries to debut the new super-finisher that she’s unable to land. Himeka punished the champion with a multitude of powerbombs, but “The Golden Phoenix” saw an opening to be able to counter the Jumbo Princess, landing a poisonrana into a flash-pin that kept her down for the three count, and holding onto her Wonder of Stardom Championship for the ninth time.
V10: Mina Shirakawa
Just like her Pink Kabuki partner, Mina Shirakawa had improved drastically within the ring since joining STARDOM, and her performance in the 2022 5STAR GP only went and put that on full display as she added two new moves to her repertoire: Keiji Mutoh’s figure-four leg lock and the Glamorous Collection MINA roll-up.
It’s the biggest match of Shirakawa’s career so far, and she won’t be giving in easily, looking to utilize the teachings of Milano Collection A.T and her technical prowess to get one over on the acrobatic White Belt Champion.
Many of Kamitani’s challengers have held a specific championship before they ever decided to aim for the White Belt, and in Mina’s case – it was the Future of Stardom Championship, a singles title that Saya has never won.
Like Starlight Kid, Shirakawa focuses on Kamitani’s leg to immobilize her Phoenix Splash early on, executing a flurry of offensive moves to keep Kamitani down. Later on, the two become more vicious toward each other, exchanging hard-hitting strikes as the match went on.
Mina performs excellently in the match, and in doing so becomes Saya’s most credible threat to losing her championship since the start of the year. She pushes harder and harder to try and secure a victory and proclaim herself the best that STARDOM has to offer, but it’s not enough to get the win, with Kamitani pushing back stronger than ever before.
Saya hits two Phoenix Splashes to keep Shirakawa down for three, but her second splash completely obliterates Mina’s jaw in the process, leading to Shirakawa cutting a powerful promo backstage that showed what a fighter Mina is, at the expense of losing both a huge title match and her mouth for the time being.
V11: KAIRI
A match already postponed once, the returning “Pirate Princess” looks to reclaim the Wonder of Stardom Championship that she lost to Mayu Iwatani in her last singles match before leaving for WWE in 2017.
Kairi Hojo is one of the legendary three daughters of STARDOM, making up one-third of Threedom. She’s one of the three women to have held both the Red Belt and the White Belt — the other two being Io Shirai and Mayu Iwatani.
She returned in February back then better before, having voyaged around the world becoming a better wrestler than she was when she left.
Even before the match, KAIRI had left the champion in a state of tears on multiple occasions, questioning if she was really good enough to hold that title now that “The Pirate Princess” has returned to reclaim it.
There’s no doubt that KAIRI is Saya Kamitani’s biggest challenge in her reign, both physically and mentally.
Since accidentally injuring Mina Shirakawa’s jaw, Kamitani had opted to use her 450, the Firebird Splash, in order to win matches. KAIRI isn’t having any of that, and quickly enters the match acting as despicably as she looks with her black gear on, employing strategies that are less favorable to wrestlers who wish to fight within the rules.
But the tears that Kamitani cried only go to ignite her passion even further, fighting back with everything that she has, determined to prove to one of STARDOM’s most important performers why she belongs in the company, why she is the holder of the White Belt, and why she represents the best in Stardom.
It’s an incredible fight that takes the Golden Phoenix to the limit, resulting in a time-limit draw with neither woman emerging victorious, but with neither woman losing either.
KAIRI had underestimated the champion, and in doing so realized that the new talent that had appeared and grown in her absence was just as good, if not better than she herself was when she left five years ago.
Kamitani holds onto her championship for its 11th defense as she walks into the final show of the year as Wonder of Stardom champion.
V12: Haruka Umesaki
The Golden Phoenix’s second outsider challenge and her final defense of the year was through Diana’s Haruka Umesaki.
Umesaki has primarily wrestled on the NEW BLOOD shows during her time in STARDOM, but for the first time, she steps up to the challenge of challenging a fierce “Phoenix” on her quest to establish herself within the rankings of the company.
During her time at the NEW BLOOD shows, Umesaki awakened her alter ego, KARMA after making the decision to join Oedo Tai for the time being. However, KARMA doesn’t come out to play against Kamitani, and instead, the regular Haruka Umesaki walks out of the entranceway ready to fight against the Wonder of Stardom champion at Stardom Dream Queendom.
Haruka Umesaki is one of the most prolific names on the freelance scene in Japan for women’s pro-wrestling, but she’s not fighting in Korakuen Hall, or Shin-Kiba, she’s fighting in Ryogoku Sumo Hall – a large venue that Kamitani has experience in working within.
Her nerves are evident early on in the matchup, but as she begins to get comfortable in the ring around Kamitani and inside the venue, her moveset begins to click and she becomes the Umesaki that is known throughout the freelance scene for her great wrestling. Kamitani though, is still the White Belt champion after all, holding the physical embodiment of being the best in the company, and her challenger still needs to play catch-up if she wants to hang with the rest in Stardom.
Umesaki still manages to put the champion to the test, with some near falls and resilience that eventually get put down for good as “The Golden Phoenix” hits the Firebird Splash to retain, capping the year off with another successful championship defense.
So, How Was It?
Saya Kamitani’s year as Wonder of Stardom champion was filled with a multitude of different wrestling styles, most prominently powerhouses that possessed a clear advantage over the champion due to their size and powerful moves that could change the tide of the match in an instant. Littered throughout were some emotionally driven contests and high-speed scrambles, whilst there were defenses from less regular members of the Stardom roster that either couldn’t push itself into the second gear or took a bit of time to get a feel for the right atmosphere to suit the matchup.
This isn’t to say that Kamitani’s twelve defenses were bad — she had a lot of fantastic matches across the year, but some fell short of an all-time reign that looked like it was being created in real-time. Both the champion and her challengers were able to shine throughout the year as she engaged in a variety of different contests: Unagi Sayaka, Starlight Kid, Mina Shirakawa, and Himeka were the four that benefitted the most from getting a shot at the Wonder of Stardom Championship as “The Golden Phoenix” was able to elevate not only herself but her opponent as the match went on, making them credible threats to her reign whilst keeping herself in the position of a fighting champion that refuses to give up.
If this is her first year as a singles champion, then the sky’s the limit at just 24 years old. Her second or third singles title reign down the line could potentially be even better than the one that we’re seeing right now, and maybe that reign will be with the World of Stardom Championship one day.
Saya Kamitani proved without a doubt that 2022 was the “Year of the Golden Phoenix” as she looked to either tie or beat the defense record set by Momo Watanabe going into 2023, whilst quietly passing Arisa Hoshiki to become the second-longest reigning White Belt champion behind Yuzuki Aikawa.
Wherever the Golden Phoenix goes in the next year, it’s no doubt going to be even better than the year before.
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