(Tagged for spoilers since I'll likely be talking about results from Grand Queendom.)
All Star Grand Queendom is now behind us, and while I'd love to simply continue riding the emotional high from that event, we must also look ahead to what's coming next. For any wrestling company, a big event like Grand Queendom always feels like something of a season finale, where a number of storylines are concluded, but the first chapters of stories are written to provide a hook for the next season. And with any new season comes new opportunities, and these are a few things that I hope to see from those opportunities.
#1: More distinction and competition between babyface units. For at least the past year, if not a little longer, the main story of the promotion was the rise and dominance of H.A.T.E., and in order to combat this dominance, a majority of the babyface factions frequently teamed up in matches that featured wrestlers from two or more factions working together against the heels. While this did a good job of selling H.A.T.E. as a major threat, it also had the by-product of blurring the lines between factions and making them feel a little redundant; why even have multiple different factions if everyone's going to be totally fine teaming up anyway? Now that H.A.T.E. has lost a majority of their titles, I'd love to see them bring back more competition between the babyface factions and establish some rivalries that don't involve H.A.T.E.
#2: A renewed spotlight on the Artist titles. Back in late 2024, I made a post about my dissatisfaction regarding the way the Artist championships where booked, and while there have been some bright moments where they have been given a good spotlight, it feels like we're in largely the same place now as we were then. To me, this championship feels like a booker's perfect multi-tool, as it can be used to give rookies/up-and-comers experience in higher-stakes matches, build someone into title contention by allowing them to pick up some wins or recover momentum after losing a different championship, sometimes all at the same time. Instead, the titles feel like an afterthought, often being put on a team that includes an existing singles champion, which means that they're rarely defended. With Konami having lost the Wonder championship, I'd love to see these titles be given more prominence. This also works with my previous point; while the World and Wonder championships symbolize individual prowess, the Artist championships can be used represent faction superiority, giving the babyface factions a reason to compete with each other to assert dominance.
#3: New unit members. Between the rookies, the members of the now-defunct ExV, and FWC, Stardom has a good number of unaffiliated wrestlers on its roster at the moment. Going forward, I think it's time to see them settle into a faction. There's enough unaffiliated at the moment to create a new unit, which is always exciting (I know a lot of people want IRG to be made an official group, but I personally like the idea of it being an 'unofficial' group with a revolving door of membership featuring anyone who doesn't happen to belong to another unit at the time), but they could also be used to shake up the dynamics of the existing factions. Either way, I think that there's a lot of potential for some interesting storytelling regarding the unaffiliated members of the roster.
And now I'll turn things over to you: what are you hoping to see from this new "season" of Stardom?