Giulia vs. Tam Nakano, the finals of the Stardom 5Star Grand Prix 2022

The story here goes all signs point to Giulia being the one who SHOULD be leading Stardom into the future, but she’s been slotted against the person who gave Giulia the most humiliating defeat of her career. Giulia wants revenge and respect, and she’s willing to kill and be killed if that’s what it takes to get what she wants. This isn’t a perfect match, but it told its story powerfully and wonderfully, and (thankfully) without the “feeling out” process that renders the first ten minutes of too many big-event matches utterly skippable. How has WWE not poached these two?

9