wrestling / News
Pantoja’s STARDOM 5STAR Grand Prix 2023 Night 17 Review
Image Credit: STARDOM
Loading...STARDOM 5STAR Grand Prix 2023 Night 17
September 18th, 2023 | KDDI Ishin Hall in Yamaguchi, Japan | Attendance: 437
With Destruction reviewed, I have time to get back to the best tournament anywhere. We’re rapidly approaching the end of this saga though we have only two matches on tap here.
Red Stars: Ami Sourei [4] vs. Natsupoi [9]
I’ve explained that Ami Sourei isn’t my favorite in the tournament. On the flip side, Natsupoi is! Natsupoi needed to win here to stay alive given the point total by Natsuko Tora, who also beat her. This was a relatively fine match but it suffered from the same thing that basically all Ami Sourei bouts suffer from. It felt kind of lifeless. I should’ve felt some drama here given what was on the line. Instead, it came across as two wrestlers having a house show match. Natsupoi tried, evidenced by how she sold the pain of the weird looking elevated Boston Crab Ami does. It just wasn’t clicking. The highlight was a series of counters capped by a pretty sweet Blue Thunder Bomb from Ami. In the end, Natsupoi’s tournament run ended when Ami hit Like a Thunderbolt at the 10:04 mark. A disappointment. Though if this is the floor for a tournament, that’s an impressive tournament. [**¾]
Blue Stars: Mina Shirakawa [6] vs. Momo Watanabe [8]
Major implications again here given how close the Blue Stars block is. Mina’s entrance dance was interrupted by an attack from Momo from behind. That set the tone as Momo remained the brutal bully and somehow, Mina got busted open during this brawl, which led to her being the ultimate face in peril. It was one of those cases where blood added to a match. You believed in Mina’s pain and you wanted her to vanquish the evil Momo Watanabe. Every Mina hope spot was well done. I do feel like some of the Momo shenanigans were a bit overdone. When you beat someone up before a match, you don’t really need to go for the bat again or something like that. It becomes a bit much. I did like her throwing the referee into Mina to break up the Figure Four though. That was a good case of cheating and with him down, the bat spot that followed it made more sense. Plus, the fans popped for the kick out. Mina countered Momo’s best move several times and then got the win after Ruaka accidentally hit Momo with a weapon. This went 14:07 and was really good. [***¾]
