Stardom is in the USA today as part of “The Collective”, a series of over a dozen independent events taking place over WrestleMania weekend beginning today through Sunday, for “Stardom American Dream 2024 in the Keystone State”, a special event held before some participation in other independent events. It’s a lean card on paper thanks in part to the recent talent exodus with just 5 matches, but 2 are title matches. First up is a 3-way for the High Speed Championship with Mei Seira defending the title against Ram Kaichow and Saki Kashima, while in the likely main event, World Of Stardom Champion Maika defends the title against Meghan Bayne, making her first Stardom appearance since returning from a long excursion to the promotion in Japan last year. There’s plenty of notable outsider participation as well including All Elite Wrestling star Willow Nightingale, TNA Wrestling star Xia Brookside and NEW STRONG Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer from the CMLL promotion in Mexico among others. Former foreign wrestler Mariah May, who left Stardom last last year for AEW, also makes a return appearance.
Today’s event will be held at 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA and can be watched LIVE on TrillerTV/FITE worldwide in English as a PPV for $24.99. You get the live broadcast and unlimited on demand replays with purchase. There is no Pia Stream PPV option. The event may be available on demand on Stardom World at a later date. With only 5 matches and the 2 title matches this is going to be a short event unless anything is added last-minute, and seems overpriced for an event that probably won’t go more than 2 hours.
Today’s lineup:
Stephanie Vaquer, Momo Watanabe & Starlight Kid vs. AZM, Saya Kamitani & Camron Branae
Syuri & Konami vs. Willow Nightingale & SAKI
Mayu Iwatani, Tam Nakano & Momo Kohgo vs. Mina Shirakawa, Mariah May & Xia Brookside
High Speed Champion Mei Seira vs. Ram Kaichow & Saki Kashima in a 3-way for the title
World Of Stardom Champion Maika vs. Meghan Bayne for the title
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Updates below will begin at Noon PT/3 PM ET.
Mandatory FBI Warning, then to the intro screen right on time and right to the opening video as…
We are LIVE from 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA. Your hosts are Veda Scott & Tom Lawlor. It sounds like we have the usual New Japan US ring announcer today. There are some minor audio issues at the start, namely I can’t seem to hear Lawlor on commentary.
The paid attendance will be announced sometime after the event. It’s a legit advance sellout so it depends on the setup, but max capacity for the venue would mean 1300, (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 976, so that means the setup reduced the capacity by about 25%).
Match 1: High Speed Champion Mei Seira vs. Ram Kaichow & Saki Kashima in a 3-way for the title. Usually these matches have a 15 minute time limit but we’ll see here.
Result: Saki Kashima beat High Speed Champion Mei Seira & Ram Kaichow in a 3-way by pinning Seira to win the title. Kashima becomes the 25th High Speed Champion. Mostly a comedy match. Kaichow thought she won after using a powder attack following a ref bump but it allows Kahsima to roll up Seira for 3 instead. Rather short match although that’s slightly the point of these matches.
Match 2: Stephanie Vaquer, Momo Watanabe & Starlight Kid vs. AZM, Saya Kamitani & Camron Branae
Result: Stephanie Vaquer, Momo Watanabe & Starlight Kid beat AZM, Saya Kamitani & Camron Branae. Vaquer pinned Branae after Death Valley Driver. Afterwards, Vaquer headbutted Watanabe as things got heated between them. They face off on 4/12 in New Japan for the STRONG Women’s Championship.
Match 3: Syuri & Konami vs. Willow Nightingale (All Elite Wrestling) & SAKI
Result: Willow Nightingale & SAKI beat Syuri & Konami. Nightingale pinned Konami after Babe With The Powerbomb.
Match 4: Mayu Iwatani, Tam Nakano & Momo Kohgo vs. Mina Shirakawa, Mariah May (All Elite Wrestling) & Xia Brookside (TNA Wrestling). The latter team out first, Shirakawa with microphone to introduce her teammates instead of the regular announcer. May did the honors for Shirakawa.
Result: Mayu Iwatani, Tam Nakano & Momo Kohgo beat Mina Shirakawa, Mariah May & Xia Brookside. Nakano pinned Brookside with Twilight Dream. This was definitely the fanservice match for all the male fans. Post-match, as Club Venus posed in the ring for fans…Toni Storm!?! The AEW Women’s Champion came out, minus black & white old-school filter and Luther. Storm rose up the ranks in Stardom before going to WWE. Storm with microphone. Hard to hear what she was saying on the stream though (had to turn the volume up to deafening). She said she was here to put Stardom over and thank them for the opportunities the promotion gave her. She then put May over and gave her a flower bouquet as the crowd chanted for Shirakawa. This caused Storm to go a little more in-character as she reminded them The Forbidden Door is always open. Shirakawa accepted as she & Storm stared down, Storm shoving the AEW Women’s Championship belt in Shirakawa’s face as May broke it up.
That was a really fun surprise, moreso with Storm in her AEW persona (annoying and I’m not a fan of it but she continues to make it work very well). Let’s see if anything comes out of it, perhaps sometime in June…
Main Event: World Of Stardom Champion Maika vs. Meghan Bayne for the title. Usually these matches have a 30 minute time limit (In-match note: They seemed to have FINALLY fixed Lawlor’s microphone/headset, now I can clearly hear him for the first time all event)
Result: World Of Stardom Champion Maika beat Meghan Bayne to retain the title. V3 for Maika.
Bayne had it won at one point but it was a 2.99999999999. Very physical match. The former partners hugged it out afterwards. As it seemed to start winding down, Momo Watanabe came out. With microphone. Challenge issued in Japanese. As Watanabe went to leave, she suddenly came back with a baseball bat shot but Bayne stepped in front of Maika and Watanabe hit the brakes, then walked off. Maika with microphone. Challenge accepted. That match apparently will happen on 4/27 in Yokohama. Maika then spoke in English to lead a “We Are Stardom” chant to send the crowd home happy.
My complaints about this event are all on the technical/production side as for 98% of the event I couldn’t hear Lawlor on commentary, and often the venue/production audio drowned out commentary and the microphone in ring was hard to hear. Could barely hear the announcer too. The matches were solid but with only 5 matches and the event running only about 100 minutes, it did not justify the $25 price tag. $15 would have been better, maybe $20 tops, but $25 was too much for too little. Hopefully it hits Stardom World soon, wait until it does to watch. I did enjoy the event but I felt I paid too much and got too little. The matches were all good to great though, all are worth watching.
End Show.
Some of them will be sticking around for other events as part of The Collective as well as meet-and-greets at WrestleCon before returning to Japan next week.
The next event is 4/12 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, which will be the final Stardom event for Giulia & Utami Hayashishita. Broadcast plans TBA but I would not be surprised if they make it a PPV via Pia Stream.