Stardom book Chases the Dream
As Japanese women’s wrestling or “joshi” grows and becomes a bigger part of mainstream pro wrestling, some audiences members will become curious as to where these big names — Kairi Sane, Io Sky, Meiko Satomura, to name but a few — got their starts. Luckily there’s a resource out there for these curious minds, one that isn’t hidden behind a paywall. Chasing The Dream: 50 of Stardom’s Greatest Matches is a long but useful book that helps readers understand where these big joshi names came from and how they left their mark on the industry.
Written by Rob Goodwin and featuring wrestler illustrations by Matt Charlton, Chasing The Dream, released in March 2024, serves as a chronicle or historic text of sorts that preserves the biggest matches from World Wonder Ring Stardom, which is now the top women’s wrestling promotion in Japan. It follows a chronological format, covering Stardom’s first 11 years in operation and highlights big matches from each year. But this book provides more than just history: it provides context and clear explanation of events, wrestlers, stables, titles, and more, all while being written in passionate prose. Karen Peterson of POSTWrestling sets the tone for the book with a glowing foreword and notes how Stardom emerged from the ashes of the fractured 2000s joshi wrestling scene and became a central force that helped create a space for women’s wrestlers – both Japanese and foreign – to hone their craft.
Following this, Goodwin explains his passion and appreciation for Stardom and sets the record straight for why he chose to write the book: “As a happy consequence of housing this level of talent, Stardom’s 12-year history is littered with some of the globe’s most outstanding wrestling matches. However, just like any living and breathing industry, the passage of time can leave us forgetting what happened further back in the past.”
This is a sad but true reflection of most things cultural and especially of professional wrestling. Quality might fade over time, matches once deemed classic start being seen as dated, and with access to said great matches changing depending on copyright and intellectual property, it becomes difficult to revisit great matches from the past. And without that access, pieces of wrestling culture risk fading into obscurity.
Because of pro wrestling’s innate ephemerality, recording a live performance and describing it to someone who didn’t experience it in the moment may color or distort how the match took place live. However, Goodwin’s chosen writing style does justice to these 50 matches. Each match is introduced by date, location, and attendance figure, and is then broken down by background, match flow, an overall review, which he calls “verdict” and then a star rating, following the much-copied star rating system first conceptualized by Jim Cornette and Norm Dooley, popularized by Dave Meltzer, and used by other writers all over the internet wrestling landscape (including this author here and here).
While much of these sections are dedicated to calling the action as it happened, Goodwin also takes a fan’s perspective from time to time and describe what he thinks could’ve made things better or what he appreciates the most. Even though Stardom’s matches tend to follow similar structures and the same moves tend to be repeated many times, Goodwin makes the effort to make each “verdict” section stand out on its own.
And while this book serves as a record of events first and foremost one cannot help but feel Goodwin’s passion and appreciation for Stardom’s wrestlers ooze through his words. He heaps praise on a match between Io Shirai and Meiko Satomura from December 2015, giving it a perfect 5-star rating (back when such a thing was rare and hard to earn). He continues to give similarly high praise to at least fifteen other Stardom matches and goes into great detail as to why they are worthy of both praise and of being recorded and preserved. By comparison, Meltzer, the foremost match reviewer, has only given such a high rating to one match in Stardom’s history, that being Syuri versus Utami Hayashishita from the company’s 2021 Cinderella Dream event.
While such ratings are highly subjective Goodwin does a great job of backing up his praise with reasoning and not just describing moves. He emphasizes stakes, emotions, and context that draws in the viewers for each match and then explains why the match was so good. So for anyone looking for a good reason to invest time (and possibly money) into Stardom’s match library, Goodwin’s book serves as a useful starting point and accompanying guide.
Though it might not be the easiest or quickest of reads – the book spans 346 pages cover to cover – it makes for an intriguing read nonetheless. Fans of wrestling will find its viewpoint of Stardom fascinating while fans of joshi and Stardom in particular will find appreciation in the dedication and detail that goes into the match reviews. While it isn’t a purely objective take on Stardom’s matches by any means it’s not a fanzine either; there isn’t any point in the book that makes the reader conclude that Goodwin is simply gushing over this particular company’s style and losing himself in his own fandom. There’s still a sense of separation that keeps the reviews grounded and presents the matches and wrestlers more or less neutrally.
So for anyone wondering why WWE spent so much effort signing big names from Japan, it’s because those women became big names in Stardom and their bodies work, as covered and recorded here, serve as proof.
