Some people you can identify as a pro wrestler by taking a single look at them. Be it the scarred body of a Jun Kasai, the intimidating size of a Kevin Nash or the bodybuilder physique of a Saya Iida.
Then, there are those like Saki Kashima. Her entire career she’s been defined by her skinny stature, to the point she was given the nickname of ‘beanstalk’. Debuting in 2011 at just under 40kg (88 pounds), a light breeze might have been enough to blow her over. Imagining her able to handle the rigours and abuse that a professional wrestler has to endure almost seems laughable.
Saki has always had to defy expectations from the very beginning. However, that has come to define both her character and her career. It made her first singles title victory on May 27 2023 all the sweeter.
There was an undercurrent of nervousness surrounding her as she made her way to the ring for the title match. It was etched across her face and in her mannerisms – you could tell how much this moment meant before the bell rang.
As Saki desperately held Fukigen Death’s shoulders to the mat the bell rang a second time. Then, she could finally allow the gravity of the moment to take over.
The ‘beanstalk’ let the tears flow as she gazed upon the High Speed Championship, and shared a touching moment with founder Rossy Ogawa as he awarded her the trophy and belt.
Earlier that month Saki Kashima had turned thirty. It was the age she had first intended to retire when she made her return to the ring in 2018. It would have been a believable end-goal as she periodically missed shows for poor health and niggling injuries. But over the past few years, something inside of her changed. Now she’s reached that 30 mark, there are no signs of her hanging up the boots.
The past twelve months in particular have been the best of her career, both in terms of success and as a performer. Her Artist of Stardom Championship run alongside Momo Watanabe and Starlight Kid was built around her as a main character. She was the catalyst for their success and often at the forefront of the final decision, much like how YOSHI-HASHI was lifted up in his NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship reign alongside Tomohiro Ishii and Hirooki Goto. Outside the ring her antics frequently stood out, and she continued to cultivate a strong fanbase of dedicated fans.
Saki has always been a valuable hand, but there was a very hard ceiling over her head. She never carried the aura of a megastar like a Giulia or Utami Hayashishita. Envisioning her as a White or Red Belt Champion seemed like delusions of grandeur, and it can be easy to get lost in the shuffle in a promotion as deep as STARDOM if you can’t threaten to become a top player.
With that in mind Kashima carved out her own niche, filling a role that couldn’t be served by the big names and heavy hitters. She cemented herself as an important and hard to replace role player. Not every wrestler is willing to make themselves look foolish, and even fewer are willing to be presented as ‘scared’.
Saki Kashima took that and ran with it, building a fun and continual story with the most fearsome and dangerous member of the roster: Syuri. As understandable as the trepidation would be to face a former Pancrase Champion and UFC fighter, Saki turns it up to eleven, going so far as to openly beg management to change scheduling so they don’t have to face each other – interspersed with the odd moments of overconfidence where she convinces herself she might be able to win.
Ironically, the result of this ongoing story has led to her getting two singles victories over the former World of Stardom Champion. Successfully defeating Syuri is impressive. Doing so twice is something only Giulia and AZM can claim to have done since Syuri started becoming a regular with the company back in 2020.
As much as she portrays a pushover, Saki has one of the deadliest aces up her sleeve: The Kishikasei. The Revival Pin remains one of the most effective moves in STARDOM, and this is where the value of Saki Kashima really shines. Not in being the ultimate wrestler, but serving as the ultimate spoiler.
It’s the move she used to set the fastest victory in STARDOM history – beating Hana Kimura during her successful 2019 5 Star Grand Prix in just eight seconds. She caught Mayu Iwatani off guard with a seventeen second win during the Cinderella Tournament using the move. Crowds audibly gasp and react when she even tries to set it up, they know it as the match ender it is.
Even when her opponents don’t get caught by surprise out of the gate, it remains a constant threat. Kishikasei translates to ‘wake from death and return to life’, the perfect name for a move that Saki Kashima can pull out at any time, even when it looks like she’s dead on her feet. Saki Kashima might spend a lot of matches getting beat up, but she can reverse those fortunes in an instant with a move that has proven incredibly difficult to kick out of.
Technique over pure strength.
She might not be able to overpower opponents with brute force, but she knows how to manipulate someone’s body to trap them, so that even someone with her slender frame can control a wrestler. Much in the way a judoka shifts bodyweight and balance to their advantage, the Kishikasei uses all of the opponent’s weight against them. A perfect move in execution and concept for a wrestler like Saki Kashima.
The move, much like her whole career, comes from having to work off of the back foot. As recounted in an interview with Number, Saki grew up as a disillusioned youth; a loner and a high school drop out who spent her time watching men’s wrestling DVDs. When she decided to become a wrestler after reluctantly going with her mother to watch a joshi event, she had to move to the other side of the country, from small countryside Shimane Prefecture to the megacity that is Tokyo.
There she didn’t belong to any one graduating class. She was too late in joining STARDOM to debut with Mayu Iwatani in the first group of graduates, but she wasn’t alongside AZM and KAIRI in the second batch. Instead she debuted in June of 2011, in a 1.5 class of her own.
The workload was tough. Saki wasn’t a natural or experienced athlete, the training sessions were incredibly draining. She tried to put on weight but couldn’t, leaving her frail frame susceptible to punishment. Kashima made it a year and a half before eventually saying goodbye, leading to a five year hiatus before coming back to pro wrestling.
Through the last months of that first stint Saki had already drifted towards what was natural to her, ditching the bright pink costume for a black, tattered attire and teaming with Natsuki Taiyo and the originator of Oedo Tai: Act Yasukawa. When she returned, she regressed to her glitter and the pink. She was with STARS after all; the happy, friendly group lead by Mayu Iwatani.
She found success with STARS, winning the Artist Titles twice and the Goddess Titles with Mayu once. However, she suffered the same fate a lot of Mayu’s friends did. When Saki returned, Mayu couldn’t wait to work with her and team with her. Then Arisa Hoshiki came back, and suddenly that connection wasn’t quite there. Saki was pushed down the line.
Meanwhile, she was in her friend’s shadow and pretending to be something she wasn’t. The latter was something that might have been easy to miss for fans who hadn’t seen the last moments of her first run, but she couldn’t hide it from everyone. Especially Natsu Sumire.
Natsu took a special pleasure in agitating Saki, whether it be comically dressing up as the ‘real Saki Kashima’ during the costume change battle royal, or constantly performing her theme song. One such time was perhaps the most damning to Kashima’s stint in STARS.
Natsu, microphone in hand, is once again giving an inspired performance of the song. As Saki tries to gain some revenge Oedo Tai dogpile her, keeping her at bay while Sumire was free to perform the full track. STARS try to help…kind of. Their efforts are not only delayed but they do nothing. All the while Mayu Iwatani stands in the ring (serving as a special guest announcer for the show) and not only doesn’t help her stablemate and friend, she actively dances along with the antagonising performance!
It would take a while for Saki to embrace her true self. As Natsu so eloquently put it, a ‘yankii’ (delinquent/degenerate). She didn’t truly belong anywhere else other than Oedo Tai, and it was under the villainous banner that she grow into the best version of herself. Free to carve her own path.
Still, even at her best singles success never seemed on the horizon for Saki Kashima. She was never a regular in the main scene, and while she would score many big upset wins in tournaments she never threatened to win them. Saki embraced her spot on the card as a spoiler and a role player.
A skinny high school drop out with no friends who left the business 18 months into her career. Twelve years later and Saki Kashima is not only a veteran of the industry, she’s a singles champion. That journey and personal evolution is why the moment meant so much for her.
It wasn’t just a moment of career success, but validation.
She had earned the right to call herself a champion. She was presented with the title by the man who had seen her grow more than perhaps anyone. STARDOM founder Rossy Ogawa saw her come into the business as that scrawny teenager. He had seen her walk away, only to return and grow into an irreplaceable part of the team.
Of everyone on the roster, it is Saki who seems to get Rossy involved the most. From backstage skits, to calling him out in press conferences to using him as a weapon at ringside, the connection they share clearly goes deep. It wasn’t just a special moment to win the title, but it meant that much more to share it alongside Rossy. So much so she dragged him back for the photo op.
She might have come into the industry as a loner, but not only does she have a family in Oedo Tai, she has an audience cheering her on. It doesn’t matter what she does, by Rossy’s own words she is a People’s Champion. The important thing is she did it her way. “By her own wrestling” as she described it in her post match comments.
This victory was in defiance of anyone who spoke down to her. Was it the Red or the White Championship? No, but it’s a singles title – more than what many might have expected from her when she first stepped into a ring in 2011.
It was a slow journey to become the High Speed Champion, but every step of that journey has led to the ultimate role player finally getting her chance in the spotlight.
Wrestle Inn 