This is part of the “Stardom’s Favorite Daughter—Icon or Illusion?” watch series, which you can find here.

This is Miho Wakizawa’s retirement match.

It is not a particularly memorable or touching one.

The first thing that’ll jump out at you is the ensemble that’s been collected for this finale. It’s been these year-end climax shows in particular that have tried to tap into the novelty of intergender matches, and while not a total failure, the casting of Masaaki Mochizuki and Genki Horiguchi from Dragon Gate is a bit too odd to go anywhere interesting. Perhaps oddity, though, is the whole point, as to sum up the career of Wakizawa—but even to that effect, this feels pretty typical of what she’s been up to the last years of her career. They hit all of her signature spots, bring out a big rubber band, and banter with the referee, but nothing more. There’s nothing wrong with any of that; I’ve been caught up in some silliness before, but there’s a certain level of expectation this can’t meet. The biggest disappointment being the most fascinating thing here, Manami Toyota, ends up amounting to little more than a 30-second back-and-forth with Io and a shoulder for Wakizawa to cry on. No attempts from either Mayu or Io to make any kind of statement, or vice versa. The pair, too, generally feel uninvolved in favor of Mochizuki, which, fair, but for the project’s sake, is another bummer.

To credit what this was realistically setting out to do, those letdowns are what they are. It’s easy to be an armchair historian and point to the ‘should’ve beens,’ but frankly, Stardom’s going to miss on a larger scale time and time again down the road. At 12 minutes, there are some tears, a little tribute video, and a crowd that is more than happy to chant “wacky” whenever prompted. Sure, it’s a shame that Toyota’s last appearance in Stardom is this, and that Mochizuki would’ve been better utilized beating up on Mayu or Io, but it’s hard to be too upset at a celebration of a career.

And a fitting one, at that.

Rating: Meh