Our story starts in Japan.
December 29, 2022. Stardom Dream Queendom
It’s Stardom’s last show of the year and Mina Shirakawa is making her return from injury. To everyone’s shock, she walks out with two women. One is Xia Brookside. The other a tall blonde in a pink ribbon top.
This is the start of Mariah May's fairy tale in Japan.
May was making her name on the British indie scene and was someone who was slowly appearing on people’s radars. However, no one could predict her next adventure would be in Stardom of all places.
For those not familiar, Stardom is an all women’s company in Japan. The style is very stiff, hard hitting and exciting. To some, it’s the best women’s wrestling on the planet.
May and fellow brit Brookside would be the founding members of Club Venus, a new faction led and created by Shirakawa. It seemed to be a girly and fun type of faction that was focused on bringing over foreign talent.
The trio would perform a choreographed dance before making their way to the ring and pose for photos along the way.
May and Brookside looked like they fit the group to a T. Blonde, pretty and girly. These stereotypes however were a part of the initial doubts some had for May.
Was she just another pretty face? Was she experienced enough to wrestle with such a hard hitting roster? And just how long was she going to last here?
It is true she didn’t have that much experience before joining the company. In fact, May had only wrestled about 40 matches before coming to Japan. It was a crazy jump for someone so new to come to a company filled with veterans and that had such a different style than in the West. But May knew if she wanted to get better, this was the place to be. In an interview with Fightful, she explains why she wanted to be in Stardom.
"...I wanted to do Stardom for a really long time. When I started wrestling, I started trying to watch more and more different wrestling and I remember thinking when I found Stardom, I was like, ‘This is where I need to be. This is how I need to wrestle.’ You’re watching it and you’re trying to learn that style, but obviously, it’s different, trying to do in UK and Europe. I’m like, ‘Okay, I need to go there. I need to train there. I need to wrestle these people.’"
The passion was there but as for seeing how long she'd stay, we'd had to wait and see.
Off the bat, May had a great look to stand apart from the roster. She was tall, athletic, and of course beautiful. But how would she fair in the ring?
May definitely showed promise in her first few matches. There were some hints of nervousness and getting her footing while adapting to the hard hitting style that Joshi wrestling is known for.
She incorporated powerhouse moves into her arsenal. She even whipped out a tombstone piledriver which she fittingly named the “Happily Ever After”.
In these first matches of hers though, she wasn’t afraid to be loud, confident, and cheeky. I believe this is what really solidified Mariah’s chances to succeed in Stardom. She was simply so entertaining. Her big personality and natural charisma forced you to pay attention. She nailed the Club Venus dance down, her gears were stunning, she was funny and she played into her character perfectly. She would come out to her poppy theme song as an enthusiastic voice would sing “When I rule the world!”- perhaps foreshadowing May’s future.
What I love about May the most is she doesn’t stray away from the stereotypes that surround her, but instead embraces them. She can be girly with sparkly pink gear but still be seen as a threat and serious competitor. She can be in full glam while still being a dominant force in the ring. It’s a characteristic that I feel she shares in common with other Joshi wrestlers. A lot of women in Japan have extravagant and beautiful gear filled with ribbons, ruffles and sequins and while they may not look tough on the outside, they're incredibly hard hitting and some of the toughest wrestlers in the world.
In a world where being feminine is seen as a weakness, May and others make it a strength.
Her first month in Stardom, Club Venus competed in the Triangle Derby, a newly created tournament for trios. It was perfect for the debuting faction. They wouldn't win, but they did pretty well in establishing themselves as a group that was here to stay.
May would continue to prove doubters wrong by showing her commitment to Stardom. In and out of the ring she showed she was taking this expedition seriously. She fully gave herself in the ring, into her character and into the Japanese lifestyle. Before coming to Japan, she had just moved into her new apartment and only stayed for a month before packing up to make the journey overseas.
Due to this extreme commitment, she was showing great improvements in the ring as the weeks went on. She was fully committed to the insane Stardom schedule. Like said before, May had only wrestled about 40 matches in her career before coming over and only five months into her career in Stardom she had exceeded that number already. Actually, as of her latest match, she has wrestled 99 matches this year for the company.
Brookside had left Stardom after a month into her run and throughout the year more foreign talent would come over to join Club Venus but they too left after a few months.
To everyone’s surprise though, May stuck around.
Her commitment to the company would grant her the chance to participate in many iconic Stardom events. She competed in their Cinderella tournament, a fitting tournament for the Fighting Princess. She also wrestled on one of Stardom’s biggest shows and one of women’s wrestling's most important events; All Star Grand Queendom.
She had become very successful in such a short amount of time. She had even gone 6 months without being pinned- a show of how high the company viewed her.
May even got to compete in the company's most prestigious tournament: The 5Star Grand Prix. This meant May was going to be able to have singles matches against some of the greatest wrestlers in the world. She had many great matches and showed off just how much she had improved since debuting. Her versus Giulia was a brutal back and forth contest and she even defeated her mentor Mina in an epic battle.
All these accomplishments made Mariah start calling herself the “Foreign Ace”.
The greatest achievement in May’s career this year would have to be winning the Goddess of Stardom belts with Mina. She was able to capture gold in just six months of joining Stardom and fully proved she deserved to be here.
May staying for so long also meant she got to create bonds with the roster and it felt she was really a part of this universe. It was a joy to see her and Club Venus annoy the roster by dancing on them or taunting them. You could see her love for performing for the crowd too.
May formed a deep friendship and sistership with Stardom wrestler Hanan. The two were even paired during Stardom’s Dream Tag festival which was a show where the talent competed in fan voted teams. The two really stood out as they swapped gears for the night!
She also created a separate “feud” with Mei Sera that started on Twitter where Mei would annoy the brit and Mariah would post her annoyance. She also would post that she wanted to face Mayu for the IWGP championship and many other talents such as Mercedes Mone. May used social media to connect with fans, give fun content and make her intentions known.
She took any chance to showcase herself and make herself memorable. May even created an alter ego that went by Sexy Princess Dynamite. She was a lewd and crude masked wrestler that was overly sexy, shoved her crotch into people’s faces and twerked. Sexy Princess Dynamite made only a few appearances but it was yet another way for Mariah to steal the spotlight and entertain fans. She went above and beyond and it worked as you could tell the audience had fallen in love with their Fighting Princess.
But every story has its end.
On September 24, May and Shirakawa teamed up for a match where the two won but looked emotional after. A few days later it was confirmed that May's 5 Star Grand Prix match with Hanan later that week was going to be her final match in Stardom.
It was a bittersweet moment for many who were sad to see her leave but were so proud to see how far she had come since the beginning of this year. She went from being relatively unknown to being one of the wrestling world’s most talked about free agents. In just 9 months, her stock is insanely high and she even has the biggest wrestling journalists speculating what her next move is.
Her match with Hanan was a good send off match for May. She cut a promo in Japanese saying goodbye to Stardom.
"Today is my last match. Thank you everyone! I love Japan! I love Stardom! I love you all! I'm the Foreign Ace! Don't forget about me. Club Venus is here. Mariah May was here. See you again!"
A crying Hanan and Mariah share a hug. Fellow Club Venus member Waka Tsukiyama is on commentary and tears are running down her cheeks. The crowd chants for Mariah. It's an emotional farewell for everyone.
Who would have guessed last year that May would turn herself into one of wrestling’s hottest free agents, go down in history as one of Stardom’s best foreign talents, and leave as a mega star in the wrestling scene?
May was born to be a star, that’s for sure, but this expedition in Japan helped her unlock that potential that launched her into wrestling stardom.
Rumors have circulated for weeks about what’s next for Mariah May. For now, Mariah is back in England spending much deserved time with friends and family. It must be stated how much Mariah gave up to have the career she had this year. She moved to a foreign country where she did not speak the language. She gave up being able to see her loved ones in person for almost a year. She had told her niece she was only supposed to be gone for three months.
In a set of tweets Mariah even expressed how hard of a journey it was but also how rewarding it was.
Who knows what’s next for the Fighting Princess or where we can expect to see her reign. One thing is for sure though, Mariah May’s fairy tale is far from over.
I've compiled a list of Mariah's best matches and defining moments:
Triangle Derby: Club Venus (Mariah May, Mina Shirakawa & Xia Brookside) vs. Rina Amikura, Waka Tsukiyama & Yuko Sakurai (January 3) - Mariah's first match in Stardom
Goddesses Of Stardom Title Match: Ami Sourei & MIRAI (c) vs. Mariah May & Mina Shirakawa (June 25)
Giulia vs. Mariah May (August 8)
Mariah May & Mina Shirakawa vs. Natsupoi & Saori Anou (August 13)
Mariah May vs. Mina Shirakawa (August 15)
Mariah May vs. Momo Watanabe (August 27)
Hanan vs. Mariah May (September 30)
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