Pantoja’s STARDOM in Shiodome Review 6.18.23

STARDOM in Shiodome

June 18^th, 2023 | Belle Salle Shiodome in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 461

I was going to hold off on reviewing any more STARDOM until the Grand Prix begins but this is a relatively short show with some notable implications for the tournament so I figured, why not?

Mina Shirakawa and Xena vs. Momo Watanabe and Natsuko Tora

I will say, it’s odd watching things out of order, like knowing that Mina is one-half of the Tag Champions now. Xena doing the little Club Venus entrance dance is like, adorably awkward. Typical Oedo Tai antics were all around this match from fighting outside to underhanded tactics to throwing their opponents into the chairs at ringside. Surprisingly, it was Mina who took the heat. I mean, she’s better at the face in peril role but you might think she’d get the hot tag as the bigger star. Xena’s hot tag was fine but her move on both opponents took a bit long to set up. Her spinning side slam ruled though. Mina came back in soon after and did her thing but then Momo and Natsuko used a kendo stick and bat as weapons, getting disqualified in 11:05. As a match it was fine though that finish was kind of ass. Why pull the DQ stuff randomly this late? Couldn’t Xena have just eaten a pin? [**½]

Ami Sourei, MIRAI and Syuri vs. AZM, Saya Kamitani and Utami Hayashishita

They had a really good match in the Triangle Derby (***½) and have met in undercard tags on a few other shows this year. This was a lot of the same from them which was fine because their interactions have never been bad. The best sequence was between AZM and Utami, which reminded me why I’m excited for their meeting in the Grand Prix. Once they went at it, this went from being an okay tag to something I quite enjoyed. The main thing to note here was that this was another case of Queen’s Quest drama, with Saya nearly booting Utami and the two getting in each other’s faces. It’s good to know things worked out well for the unit though. Surprisingly, despite the issues, Utami was able to secure the win by making AZM tap to a vicious Stretch Muffler in 11:18. That was some quality pro wrestling. [***¼]

Starlight Kid vs. Suzu Suzuki

Oh, this feels like a nice surprise. We rarely get singles matches on these shows, especially ones between two women who are going to be part of the Grand Prix. Interestingly, they’re in the same block too so we’ll be getting a rematch. The styles here worked well as they blended the high speed stuff with some more aggressive hard hitting bits. I liked Suzu returning the favor after SLK threw her into a bunch of chairs. She’s the type of wrestler who won’t put up with that and is happy to dish things back out. They traded stuff inside as well and each avoided some big, potential match ending moves from the other. When a modified Tequila Shot didn’t end it for Suzu, I was pretty stunned because that move is fire. SLK ended up hitting Suzu with a chair for another DQ finish in 8:53. That was very good and felt like a tease of what’s to come. Given that finish, expect something violent in the Grand Prix. [***¼]

Giulia and Maika vs. Hazuki and Mayu Iwatani vs. meltear

All I need in life is meltear. Hazuki, Mayu, and Giulia certainly don’t hurt either. Maika is also very good, she’s just not one of my absolute favorites the way the rest are. I can’t stress enough how much I appreciate that STARDOM does these tags with three legal wrestlers at a time. Triple Threat tags with only two people legal make no sense. Right off the bat, there were smooth transitions and exchanges between everyone involved. Natsupoi took the brunt of tandem offense by Stars and DDM but she and Tam rebounded well enough. There’s not much to go into when it comes to the specifics of it all but everything in this match came off well no matter who was going at it. Giulia vs. Tam vs. Mayu led to some cool spots that stood out before meltear did a dive onto everyone together which was one-upped by the Stars duo. Down the stretch you could tell where this was headed. Hazuki hit a springboard dropkick but ate a German suplex from Natsupoi as time expired after 15:00. Just a really good where everyone worked seamlessly together. [***¾]

5STAR Grand Prix Qualifying Rumble

Simple enough rules here: the last two standing get the final two spots in the tourney. It likely comes as no surprise that this opened with Rina vs. Hina and then having Hanan be #3 was pretty fitting. I liked the touch of having the likes of Mayu at ringside to cheer on her stablemates. Like with a Royal Rumble, you knew only a few people had a chance at winning. It wasn’t going to be the young crop like Rina, Hina, or HANAKO, and lower card ladies like Momo Kohgo, Saya Iida, or Yuna Mizumori were out Regardless, everyone got a moment or two to shine from the twins battling early to Lady C’s big swing. Stars had a section where they held serve in the ring and eliminated a few people together. Thekla and Mai Sakurai then did their thing as a team for a while. The final four came down to four of the five women I thought had a shot which were Mei Seira, Mariah May, Hanan, and Mai Sakurai (Thekla was the fifth). They all fought on the apron where Hanan flipped Seira out and May tombstoned Sakurai, giving us Mariah and Hanan as our final two. This went 20:01 and was entertaining throughout. [***¼]

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

I’m like a broken record here but again, STARDOM put on a fun show. This is especially short but everything is entertaining, we got some really good matches, and finished setting the field for the Grand Prix.