Pantoja’s STARDOM 5STAR Grand Prix 2024 Night 2 Review

STARDOM 5STAR Grand Prix Night 2

August 11^th, 2024 | Shibuya Ward Sports Center in Shibuya, Tokyo | Attendance: 417

After a PPV start to the tournament, we’re moving to shorter shows in smaller venues with less production value. We’ll see how that goes. I’m already three shows back. It’s hard to keep up with this stuff.

Anyway, it’s all Red Stars today with meltear having the night off from tournament action.

Red Stars A Block: Maika [2] vs. Yuna Mizumori [0]

It’s the Grand Prix debut of Yuna Mizumori who is typically a fine undercard worker but another person who I’m unsure about getting this kind of spot. Here she is against the former World of Stardom Champion. This was a classic hoss battle and I was happy with how Yuna performed. She took some big shots from Maika and dished it right back out. While she’s built for this kind of match, it’s not something we’ve seen from her a lot so I appreciated her bringing it in this case. She stood tall when they just ran into each other over and over with lariats and she took to the skies for a plancha to the outside. I also liked her going for several flash pins because she needs to do something like that against someone much higher in the card. Then, she made one quick mistake as Maika caught her charging with a Michinoku Driver and added another to win in 9:06. A good debut for Yuna and a strong, hard hitting opener. [***¼]

Red Stars A Block: Hazuki [2] vs. Ruaka [0]

Ruaka unfortunately upset Hazuki in the Cinderella Tournament earlier this year (**). Hazuki is one of my favorites in general but also someone I’d like to see win her block. I don’t think it’ll happen though. Ruaka jumped her during her entrance because Oedo Tai, I mean HATE, things. That saw her send Hazuki into the chairs and do the typical heel stuff the stable is known for. Hazuki is a great fiery babyface but the crowd doesn’t have it in them to get too invested in a Ruaka match and this was a small crowd either way. Hazuki got going and delivered a tope suicida as the high spot of the bout. Ruaka seemingly went for a big move only for Hazuki to turn it into a victory roll and win in 9:19. Hazuki is great but she’s no miracle worker. [**¼]

Red Stars A Block: Konami [2] vs. Manami [0]

Manami impressed on night one against Hazuki and she did her homework on HATE, striking quickly with a dropkick at the bell and getting the jump on Konami. When Konami turned the tide, she brought Manami into the crowd and threw her into chairs. Now where have I seen that spot before? They had solid enough action here with the main story being Konami as the veteran bullying the young babyface and Manami showed some decent fire when fighting from beneath. Konami seemed on the verge of a win with an armbar only for Manami to turn it into a pin for the two points at the 9:57 mark. Slightly better than the last match. [**½]

Red Stars B Block: Momo Watanabe [0] vs. Tomoka Inaba [1]

Tomoka looked great against Mei Seira in a night one draw. Guess what? This match also featured the HATE stable member throwing her opponent into the steel chairs around the ring. Three-for-three. I’m already over this table. Thankfully, this was the best of their three matches tonight thanks to Tomoka doing what she does best and throwing out some stiff kicks. Momo, always willing to trade blows with anyone, was throwing back her own. And yes, I am down to watch two wrestlers wail on each other with kicks. It’s simple but almost always entertaining. They built to some late near falls without overdoing anything before Tomoka won with a running kick to the chest in 12:01. That was good and a step back up in quality, though that ending was kind of lackluster. [***¼]

Red Stars B Block: AZM [2] vs. Mei Seira [1]

Now we’re really cooking. These Neo Genesis stablemates met for the High Speed Title back at Fukuoka Goddess Legend last year (***¾). These are the two best High Speed wrestlers around (okay, Starlight Kid is in the conversation too) so it made sense that they went that route and that made for some great action. Just two awesome wrestlers going at an absurd pace to the point where I had no chance at keeping up with my typing. While it was mostly a respect based match, the intensity did pick up as this progressed, including some fighting on the outside. That led to a double countout tease that I will admit felt a bit out of place given the rest of the action. The closing stretch saw some flash pin near falls and close calls as the crowd was really getting into things. When AZM turned a Mei pin into an armbar as we neared the time limit, it felt like that would be the finish. Mei survived and then we got them battling over pin attempts until AZM hit a Destroyer as time expired. Mei has back-to-back 15:00 draws and two really good matches. Just a banger of a fast paced match. [***¾]

Red Stars B Block: Mayu Iwatani [2] vs. Saya Iida [0]

We go from a Neo Genesis interstable battle to STARS going against each other. Saya has been killing it as part of wing*gori but this was here chance to really showcase herself as a singles star and she put on one hell of a show. She got into a chop exchange with Mayu and lit up her friend. Mayu dished out her own but Saya is stronger and it showed. Mayu seemed to regret her decision and sold the hell out of these shots. She charged into one that just floored her and it was clear that she was out to make sure her friend looked fantastic in this main event. I believe Saya threw more than 50 chops in this. Mayu had to change up her tactics and to go some of her other many offensive weapons, including some impressive lariats as part of her big late rally. Saya came close a few times but Mayu was too good, winning with a moonsault in 12:41. An awesome compact match. I never expected to rate a Saya match this high but she’s having a strong 2024 and Mayu is the GOAT for a reason. [****]

BLUE STARS A	POINTS	BLUE STARS B	POINTS	RED STARS A	POINTS	RED STARS B	POINTS
Anna Jay	2 (1-0)	Ranna Yagami	2 (1-0)	Maika	4 (2-0)	Mayu Iwatani	4 (2-0)
Miyu Amasaki	2 (1-0)	Saya Kamitani	2 (1-0)	Hazuki	4 (2-0)	AZM	3 (1-0-1)
Syuri	2 (1-0)	Hanan	1 (0-0-1)	Konami	2 (1-1)	Tomoka Inaba	3 (1-0-1)
Koguma	0 (0-0)	Suzu Suzuki	1 (0-0-1)	Manami	2 (1-1)	Mei Seira	2 (0-0-2)
Starlight Kid	0 (0-1)	Thekla	0 (0-0)	Natsupoi	0 (0-1)	Saya Iida	0 (0-1)
Xena	0 (0-1)	Risa Sera	0 (0-1)	Yuna Mizumori	0 (0-1)	Momo Watanabe	0 (0-2)
Saori Anou	0 (0-1)	Saki Kashima	0 (0-1)	Ruaka	0 (0-2)	Tam Nakano	0 (0-2)

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

I was a bit concerned when HATE had two mediocre matches in a row but this turned out to be a strong show. The opener is good, the semi-main event delivered and that main event was way better than expected.