STARDOM continues to strive forward in its growth as Year 11 nears its close. The promotion has established itself as one of the top companies in Japan as their attendance numbers only trail fellow Bushiroad-owned company, New Japan Pro Wrestling. STARDOM just had their biggest show in history in terms of attendance as they partnered with NJPW for the first-ever Historic X-Over event. The show had a reported attendance of 7,102, which is the highest mark for a STARDOM show in history.
The second-highest attendance in STARDOM history is now the retirement show of their original ace, Yuzuki Aikawa. Titled Ryogoku Cinderella Champions Fiesta, the show had an attendance of 5,500 back on April 29, 2013 at Ryogoku Sumo Hall. Nearly nine and a half years later, STARDOM has surpassed the number of Aikawa's retirement show with Historic X-Over and will only continue to grow.
Aikawa, also known to many as Yuzupon, played a major part in helping STARDOM get to its current standing as one of the top promotions in Japan. At the age of 27, she transitioned from being a gravure idol to pro wrestling. She began her career in her own produce show, Yuzupon Matsuri, where she debuted in the main event against Nanae Takahashi. From there, she'd go on to become one of STARDOM's staples and eventual ace, competing in the first match in the promotion's history when she teamed with Natsuki Taiyo in a losing effort against Takahashi and Iris.
As the original ace of STARDOM, Aikawa went on to become the inaugural Wonder of Stardom Champion and held the championship for a record 618 days before vacating the championship prior to her retirement. She successfully defended the title against the likes of Io Shirai, KAIRI, and Act Yasukawa (twice) before letting go of the gold. Yuzupon made even more of a mark on STARDOM by being the first winner of the Goddess of Stardom Tag League, teaming with Yoko Bito, and was the first winner of the 5STAR Grand Prix in 2012. Her final wrestling appearance came at STARDOM's All Star Dream Cinderella in 2021, where she entered the All Star Rumble and was the last eliminated at the hands of Unagi Sayaka.
Fightful's Scott Edwards had a chance to interview Yuzuki Aikawa to discuss her wrestling career, get her thoughts on the current landscape of STARDOM, who she'd like to face from the roster, and so much more.
Here's what Yuzupon had to say!
You were pushed to get into pro wrestling after watching AJPW’s Champion Carnival in 2008. Did anyone push you to transition into wrestling after showing interest?
In 2003, I debuted as a gravure idol with a 100cm bust.
I managed to be featured on the cover of over 100 magazines.
However, when I was 27, I was in a tough spot as an idol.
So, the staff at my talent agency told me, why don’t you wrestle?
And I felt like I had no right to refuse, so I began wrestling.
Pro wrestling suited me since I’d been doing Tae Kwon Do since I was 18, and I became the first Wonder of Stardom champion.
Through having matches, I discovered how wonderful pro wrestling is!
Did you intend on continuing wrestling after the Yuzupon Matsuri shows even without STARDOM?
I had thought, I would do it around once every three months or so.
When I debuted, Stardom still wasn’t around as a company, so I hadn’t done that while focusing on joining Stardom.
Do you remember how you felt going into your first match with Nanae Takahashi at your produce show?
Nanae Takahashi was my opponent in my debut match.
I’d heard that she was an awesome wrestler, but when the time came, I couldn’t see her as anything but a “fat old lady”. I seriously thought, there’s absolutely no way I can lose to a fat old lady like this.
But when we actually fought, Nanae Takahashi had this look in her eyes like she was going to kill someone, and she was crazy strong! I was so surprised.
On top of that, because I switched careers from gravure idol to pro wrestler, I received many, many hate messages like “Don’t underestimate pro wrestling!” and “Don’t just step into the ring because you’re a washed-up idol!” and things like that, so I got way too fired up, I was like, I’m gonna take down all of those people too!!
Can you talk about the challenges of going from idol to wrestler? How difficult was it?
First of all, the fan reaction.
By 27 I wasn’t a popular idol, I was on the way out, so people said I was using pro wrestling as a publicity stunt and so on, up to my debut match there was loads of hate, and even my family and close friends were against it.
I was working as a gravure idol while doing it, so I had bruises on my face, on my body.
From bumping and taking moves my body got too big, so from three days before a shoot I was taking laxatives and fasting, or I would go from shooting for a drama to a match without sleeping, or I took practice extremely seriously, so my time would just vanish, and I was very irritable, mentally and physically it was tough.
Have you ever wanted to get involved in promoting wrestling or training?
Oh of course!
I really love wrestling, and I think it really brought Yuzuki Aikawa back up by 120%, so I’m very grateful.
As for training, I’m currently working on my body, and just recently I made my first appearance for Best Body Japan’s Fitness Model division and managed to win on my first time out. [To be clear this is an actual modelling contest and not, like, some kind of wrestling division for fitness models.]
You established the Wonder of Stardom Championship as its first champion. How do you feel about your reign as champion years later?
I thought of the white belt as, my own belt just for me, as a symbol of me.
Now, so many different wrestlers have worn it, it’s packed so full of the feelings of all sorts of different wrestlers, and I think it’s a really wonderful belt.
I think that belt in particular is the belt that really symbolizes the current struggles in Stardom!
Is there anything you wish you got to do when you were still wrestling?
At the time I was using my absolute, maximum strength, I can’t even think of anyone who could work harder than I was, every day I just kept thinking of pro wrestling and giving it my all the whole time, so, no there’s not!
Which modern wrestler reminds you of yourself the most?
In terms of even techniques and such being similar, Tam Nakano.
Her foundation is classical ballet, she’s not large, the kind of figure you’d never expect for a pro wrestler, she does a Reverse Roundhouse Kick, and a Tiger Suplex Hold, the way she fights even while she’s getting beat up, the fighting spirit she keeps within is very similar, I guess you could say I’m quite taken with her.
Do you believe the championship still follows the path you created for it? Who do you think has been best at representing the Wonder of Stardom Championship?
Yes.
The white belt isn’t just about strength, its battles are about the brilliance of women, beauty, fun, popularity, freshness, the future, excitement, and of course strength as well, it’s the belt that symbolizes Stardom.
I don’t think any of that has changed since the early days of Stardom when I was there!
The current champion is Saya Kamitani, and I think she’s exactly the right kind of wonderful wrestler!
Looking back on your wrestling career, what was most important to you?
Of course, there were struggles with pressure, and also struggles with myself.
Until then I’d been living as a gravure idol, my makeup was done for me, my clothes were prepared for me, I was as pretty as possible and then they’d take pictures of me.However, for pro wrestling, everything is self-produced.
Your gear, your entrance, you can think about and decide on all those things yourself.
Losing, getting hurt, getting hit in the face and becoming ugly, frustration, I was overflowing with all of these feelings, I felt like I had gone from being someone’s puppet to being a person.Of course, the support from the fans was incredibly helpful, that touched me directly, and it became my power.
After your one-off comeback at the Nippon Budokan (All Star Dream Cinderella), do you ever get the desire to come back to wrestling? Maybe for one more match?
My one-time return to Stardom was REALLY fun, and I think I was able to give it 120% of my strength!
At present, there are no plans.
What do you want to see more of from the STARDOM wrestlers?
To me, Stardom’s wrestlers are already showing more activity and effort than I could have imagined, and it’s really exciting!
In the future, I think it would make me very happy to see them working so hard worldwide!
What matches do you believe are your best?
- Yuzuki Aikawa vs Nanae Takahashi
- Yuzuki Aikawa & Yoko Bito vs Natsuki Taiyo & Yoshiko
- Yuzuki Aikawa vs Ayumi Kurihara
You can see them on my YouTube.
Out of the current STARDOM roster, who would you want to go against the most?
Lately, Giulia.
Fans worldwide may not know what you’ve been doing since wrestling — How has life been since your retirement?
Since retiring, I’ve become a Tae Kwon Do black belt! lol
And, I got married and had a child.
In my free time from parenting, I record for my YouTube channel.
Lately, I’ve been doing weight training and won in Best Body Japan’s Fitness Model division!
As much as I have time for, I want to go and give it my all to do whatever I can!
Looking forward to working with you!!Yuzupon Kick!
Thank you to Yuzuki Aikawa for taking the time out of her schedule to provide Fightful with such thoughtful answers while giving us insight into her historic wrestling career as part of STARDOM.
If you'd like to keep up with Yuzupon, be sure to follow her on Twitter here.
To check out of Yuzuki Aikawa's matches, you can check out her YouTube channel as well as subscribe to Stardom World.
I want to thank both Chiyoko and Dana for all their help in this interview. Chiyoko helped me translate the questions from English to Japanese while Dana translated the incredible responses from Yuzuki Aikawa.
You can follow Chiyoko on Twitter here: @chiyoko_asakura
You can follow Dana here: @ItsDanaNow
Dana also has a website where she translates a number of STARDOM content from post-match comments to their press conferences. Check the website out here: https://shinetodaybelievetomorrow.home.blog/
You can follow STARDOM on Twitter at their official account (@wwr_stardom) and their official English account (@we_are_stardom) to stay up-to-date with the promotion.