#261: Giulia vs. Tam Nakano, STARDOM All Star Dream Cinderella (3/3/2021).
I am finally getting around to the round of women’s matches I had promised to do a week ago, and we begin with this one, a Hair vs. Hair Match for Giulia’s Wonder of Stardom Championship.
To say there is history between these two would be an understatement. This was the finale of the first chapter of a rivalry that would only get more heated as STARDOM’s stock continued to rise.
Since her arrival to the promotion at the end of 2019, Giulia had taken STARDOM by storm. She was earmarked as a future top star, and she took the White Belt in a Tournament Final against Nakano, following the vacancy from former champion Arisa Hoshiki – a former partner of Nakano. Her failure in winning that tournament, along with falling in another title match later in 2020 would cause Nakano to become obsessed with Giulia and dethroning her.
For this event, the first STARDOM event held in the legendary Nippon Budokan, Nakano upped the stakes to an unimaginable level – she offered up a Hair vs. Hair Match, for one more shot at the White Belt. The loser of this match would suffer an embarrassing hair cut, and Nakano was willing to go to that level in order to finally defeat Giulia. Who would emerge from the fire with the Wonder of Stardom Title, but more importantly, who’d emerge with their hair still in tact?
After an intense staredown, both ladies grab the other’s hair, and shove one another. The bell sounds, and we are under way. Nakano takes the side headlock right away, and Giulia responds by punching her right in the jaw. She goes for a German Suplex, and Nakano slips out and goes back to the headlock. Takedown by the challenger, and she wrenches on the head on the way down. Headscissors counter by Giulia, but Nakano quickly escapes.
Big slap by Nakano, and Giulia doesn’t take kindly to that. She applies a sleeper hold, and Nakano escapes by flipping her over head. Big kick to the spine by Nakano, and they exchange reversals afterwards, until Nakano takes the chin lock. Giulia looks for a back suplex, and Nakano reverses into a crossbody for 2. Big forearm exchange follows, and Nakano wins out on it. Giulia catches her breath and returns to the ring, and hits a nasty German Suplex.
Nakano rolls to the apron, and Giulia follows. She kicks Nakano with no regard for her safety, and the challenger attempts to come back with forearms to the midsection. Giulia slaps the shit out of her, and looks for a back suplex, but Nakano holds onto the ropes. She kicks her in the face, and drills Nakano with a stiff neckbreaker on the apron. Her landing is sick. Giulia gloats from this, and then chokes her against the steel guardrail.
Giulia with a hard irish whip into the steel. She stands still, admiring her work. Nakano gets back to her feet, and eats a big boot right to the face, before getting whipped into the guardrail again. Giulia grabs a ringside table, and places it on the protective mat. With Nakano up there with her, Giulia crushes her with a Piledriver through the table. Back in the ring, Giulia patiently waits for her rival. Nakano barely gets back inside, and immediately eats a shotgun dropkick by the champion. She kicks out at 2.
Giulia goes to the top, only for Nakano to cut her off with elbows to the face. Giulia locks in a front facelock, and chokes Nakano out, causing her to fall to the mat. She goes for a missile dropkick, and Nakano avoids it. She tries for a running knee, and Giulia blocks it. Giulia looks for the Glorious Driver, and Nakano counters it with the Destino, Naito Style! Giulia is up first, and she shoves the referee, due to him nearly counting Nakano down.
Giulia tops Nakano, and unleashes a barrage of slaps to the face. Nakano fires back with a spinning heel kick to the face. Giulia rolls to the floor, and Nakano comes off the top rope with a Plancha to the outside onto her foe. She quickly rolls her back into the ring, and hits a Tiger Suplex for a 2 count. Giulia blocks the Twilight Dream, but she can’t block the Glorious Driver done by Nakano! She covers, and the champion kicks out.
Nakano grabs Giulia’s wrist, and starts kicking her face repeatedly. Giulia responds by slapping Nakano. She blocks a kick, and hits a back suplex out of nowhere. Giulia delivers a stiff headbutt, and now she hits the Glorious Driver. She makes the cover, and Nakano is able to kick out somehow. On their knees now, both ladies exchange stiff slaps to the face. Neither will relent. As they return to their feet, the strikes get even stiffer.
Nakano wins out with a barrage of slaps, as Giulia holds her hands behind her back. One final strike drops her. Now it’s Giulia’s turn to unleash slaps to Nakano, who stands firm and takes them all. The final slap feels like bone on bone. They both go for broke, and knock each other to the mat. They run from opposing corners at the other, and Nakano lands two spin kicks to the head. She blocks a strike, and hits the Violet Screwdriver! Nakano covers, and Giulia barely kicks out.
Nakano is right back up, and she connects with the Twilight Dream! She bridges into the pin, and that’s enough for the win! Nakano is the new Wonder of Stardom Champion, while Giulia must have her head shaved. During the post match, Nakano shows a sign of mercy, and tells Giulia that she doesn’t have to cut her hair, but Giulia is defiant in loss, and she insists that she have her head shaved right there in the middle of the ring.
Awesome match. While not on the same level as my favorite encounter between these two – that still belongs to their headlining match at the 2023 All Star Grand Queendom event – this one takes it in spades as far as the stakes go. With both of their beautiful hair on the line, both Nakano and Giulia brought their A game here, and weren’t afraid to get a little stiff. The history between the two played well here, as emotions took front and center, and both ladies just resorted to hurting the other.
Nakano showed great reserve here, especially after taking a ringside piledriver through a table. That was a nice tribute to Akira Hokuto by Giulia – the irony being that Hokuto herself was on commentary for this match. There was some nice back and forth between both ladies in the ring, and with the stakes being so high, you had no idea who was going to come out on top. In the end, it was Nakano who showed more grit on this night, as she knew she’d backed herself into a corner with the hair stipulation.
Loss was not an option for her, and she made sure to bring just a little more to the game than Giulia did, and that’s what brought her the dance. Credit to Giulia, who could’ve easily taken the pass by Nakano and kept her hair, but she was absolutely defiant in her decision to honor the stipulation, and that would only serve as further fuel for the future of this story – which would only get more intense as time went on.