Star Gazing is our series which will add to our expansive coverage of World Wonder Ring Stardom (Also known simply as Stardom) and the Joshi scene where we will get you up to speed with members of the Stardom roster. Today we will be focusing on current Goddess Of Stardom Champion Himeka.
Himeka debuted for Stardom in 2020 and burst onto the scene with a winning streak that established her as an important performer. She also got the distinction of becoming the first wrestler in Stardom to defeat Giulia in a singles match. Himeka, who is just 23 at the time of this writing, is set to be a key player in Stardom’s future. Let’s take a look back at Himeka’s path to Stardom.
Idol Days with Through Skills
https://twitter.com/ebisumuscatsba/status/810289868379025408
In 2016, Himeka passed an audition to become a member of a group called Doll Fu. She was not with the group long as she became a member of the fourth generation of the group Through Skills. It was actually during her time in Through Skills that she gained the “jumbo” nickname that has followed her throughout her career.
Through a partnership with All Japan Pro Wrestling, Through Skills performed at AJPW shows. Performing for wrestling fans and being at shows led to some of the members of the group becoming wrestling fans. Himeka was one of those members as she began to attend shows with some of her group members.
Through Skills disbanded in June 2017 which led to Himeka making the decision to make the jump to professional wrestling.
Actwres girl’Z
Actwres girl’Z (AgZ) is a promotion that trains people from acting and idol backgrounds to wrestle. This was a method of recruiting talent popularised by JDStar Women’s Wrestling (Jd’). This made AgZ a perfect fit for Himeka to start her pro wrestling career.
She debuted in December 2017 just a few months after starting her training with the name Himeka Arita. Her debut match saw her lose to Miku Aono at Korakuen Hall. A month after her debut, Himeka wrestled for AJPW in a losing effort to Natsumi Maki. This was an interesting full-circle moment for Arita who had been performing on AJPW shows as an idol just a year prior. During this match, she hit her signature Jumping Knee, a move that Akiyama passed on to her.
The jumping knee has a lot of significance to AJPW as it was the signature move of Jumbo Tsuruta, who was one of AJPW’s biggest stars ever. With Arita’s Jumbo nickname carrying over from her idol days she became the first Jumbo to hit the jumping knee in an AJPW ring in years.
It wasn’t until August 2018 that Arita got her first singles win in Actwres girl’Z. Just one month later she picked up her first win against one of her “seniors” when she defeated Hikari Shimizu in the first round of a tournament to crown the first-ever AgZ champion. In the second round, she defeated Miku Aono, who she lost to in her wrestling debut, before losing to SAKI in the quarterfinal. The win over Aono would be her last singles win of that year.
Arita gained a lot of experience in 2018 as she not only wrestled full time for Actwres but she also competed for Pro Wrestling WAVE, SEAdLINNNG, and World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana among others.
In 2019, she a breakout year as she teamed up with Miyuki Takase to form the tag team known as Beginning. In April 2019, the two won the SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Championships by defeating Arisa Nakajima and Sae. Be it as a tag team or on her own, Arita performed all across Japan in 2019, having her most prolific year ever as far as matches go. Towards the end of 2019, AgZ needed to crown a new champion. Arita was entered into the tournament to win the vacant championship. Arita got to the final of the tournament where she faced tag team partner Miyuki Takase. Takase won the match and the championship, which she still holds to this day. Little did we know this would be one of Arita’s last matches with Actwres girl’Z as it was announced in March 2020 that Arita was leaving the promotion on March 31st when her contract expired.
Stardom
COVID-19 brought a halt to professional wrestling in Japan which meant that fans were left waiting to see what Arita’s next move would be. On Stardom’s return event in June, Himeka Arita debuted as the newest member of Donna Del Mondo. She dropped her second name and became known as just Himeka.
Himeka came into Stardom and immediately hit the ground running as she remained undefeated until September. She entered the 2020 5STAR Grand Prix, which saw her become the first person in Stardom to defeat Giulia in a singles match. Himeka won her GP block, finishing with 11 points and suffering just one loss to Mayu Iwatani. Utami Hayashishita defeated Himeka in the GP final but it was a real feather in Himeka’s cap to reach the GP final so soon after her Stardom debut.
Following the Grand Prix, Himeka went on a hunt for a championship. In the months following the Grand Prix, she unsuccessfully challenged for the Goddess Of Stardom Championships twice and failed to dethrone Giulia in a Wonder Of Stardom Championship match. In February 2021, she finally struck gold as she and Maika defeated Konami and Bea Priestley at Korakuen Hall to win the Goddess Of Stardom championships, marking Himeka’s second tag title run of her short career.
In her short time with Stardom, Himeka has been treated as nothing short of a future star. While the tag team division is her forte for now, it is just a matter of time before the company pulls the trigger on her and lets her loose on the World Of Stardom title picture.
Check Out Some Of Our Other Star Gazing Profiles
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. If you wanna see more from Stardom, you can check out their subscription service Stardom World for all your wondrous Joshi needs.
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