Stardom DREAM SLAM 2018 Memorial Photobook Review

Stardom DREAM SLAM 2018 (not DREAM SLUM as the book says) is a photobook released by Stardom to commemorate one of their biggest and most exciting events of the year. You can read reviews for more photobooks on the Joshi Photobook Reviews page.

Stardom DREAM SLAM 2018 Memorial Photobook Details:

Title: Stardom DREAM SLAM 2018 Spring Festival Memorial Photobook
Release: Spring 2018
Size: A4, approximately 96 pages
Cost: ¥2,500
Where to Buy: Third Party Vendors (Ebay, Buyee. Toudoukan, etc.)

While most Stardom photobooks are based around a theme or a wrestler, the DREAM SLAM 2018 Memorial Photobook is different as it focuses on a pair of Stardom events in 2018. At 96 pages, it is one of the larger Stardom photobooks and thoroughly covers the two shows, with the event on April 1st featuring Stardom’s first Exploding Bat Death Match.

This is one of my favorite photobooks released by Stardom, and there are a lot of reasons why. Since the book features just two events, it has a very narrow focus which allows them to feature more wrestlers and in more situations. The pictures include the wrestlers before their matches, during their matches, and after their matches instead of just photos taken in a studio or “on site” like many Stardom photobooks. Since the second show had the Exploding Bat Death Match, the action shots are great and present the wrestlers in a unique light. Most of the wrestlers have individual full page pictures from one of the two events, allowing them to highlight their entire roster rather than just the more popular wrestlers. This was also one of the peak ‘modern’ times for Stardom, when Io Shirai still led the promotion and Oedo Tai was in full swing, so looking back at it in 2020 is a nice walk down (recent) memory lane. For fans of Stardom, especially during that time period, this is a must-buy. Here are a sample of pictures from the photobook: