My first ever trip to Japan took place last month with a visit to Tokyo and the opportunity to watch a Stardom show live at the famed Korakuen Hall. My wife is not a big wrestling fan and had never watched Joshi wrestling so I was interested to see what her reaction would be.

Getting tickets to Japanese shows in not easy for non Japanese speaking visitors. Whilst you can take the chance and try to buy them when you are in Japan, we pre booked and ordered through BuySumoTickets.com. The service was excellent and when we arrived at our hotel, the tickets were there waiting for us.

Getting around Tokyo was much easier than we anticipated. The rail and subway transport system is very clean and efficient with announcements in Japanese, English and Mandarin. Alighting at Suidobashi Station, there was a short walk over a bridge to reach Tokyo Dome City with it’s array of shops, restaurants and fairground rides.

After the obligatory photograph of the Tokyo Dome, we grabbed some food at TGI Friday’s which is part of the same set of buildings as Korakuen Hall.

The Hall itself is on the fifth floor of the building and we were directed towards the queue that was forming outside. In the queue we were handed a piece of paper and pencil. This was a list of merchandise available to buy and after a quick Google Translate a Mayu Iwatani t-shirt, Queendom programme and Suzu Suzuki 8×10 were ordered. The process is very efficient, you hand the piece of paper to the staff in the Hall who collect the items for you and you then pay.

Korakuen Hall is an impressive venue which has hosted professional wrestling for over 70 years. The stairways and corridors are a tribute to some of that history as they pay tribute to some of the performers and big moments that have occurred in the Hall. The first thing that hits you is the layout as there is not a bad view from any seat in the building.

After finding our seats, we settled down to watch the show. As it was three days prior to All Star Grand Queendom, it included several tag team matches. Acting as a preview for a number of matches at Queendom it included some storyline advancement.

The quality of sound and lighting was impressive with opposing competitors emerging from different corners of the Hall. Japanese crowds are respectful and appreciative of good wrestling with lots of clapping throughout.

The H.A.T.E. faction immediately grabbed our attention as they took part in a tag team match to kick off the main show. Fukigen Death looked crazed as she ushered a fan out of his seat in the front row and proceeded to read a newspaper. Thekla was impressive in the ring and on the microphone in setting up her match with Sayaka Kurara who was defending the booker Taro Okada.

We were fortunate to witness one of the last Stardom matches of Mayu Iwatani as she teamed with Hazuki and Koguma as they defeated the trio of Saya Iida, Hanan and Syuri. Days after the show Iwatani was announced as signing with rival promotion Marigold.

The main event of the show saw Saya Kamitani and AZM face Tam Nakano and Starlight Kid. The match was fantastic and ended in a time limit draw. Kamitani and Nakano went on to have one of the matches of the year at Queendom with Nakano having to retire after being defeated as per the match stipulation. Kamitani has been World of Stardom champion since the end of 2024 and with performances like these seems destined to have a memorable run.

Although Nakano, Thekla and Iwatani have left Stardom since the show, there were so many great performers on the show and the future of Stardom is bright. My wife really enjoyed the show as well and we both can’t wait to return to Japan and hopefully watch so more live wrestling.