Pantoja’s STARDOM 5STAR Grand Prix 2026 Night 10 Review

STARDOM 5STAR Grand Prix 2026 Night Ten

August 8^th, 2026 | Chateraise Gateaux Kingdom in Sapporo, Hokkaido | Attendance: 592

I finally caught up on these shows only for both STARDOM and New Japan to drop two events each during a busy weekend for me. So we’re back to some relatively shorter reviews as I try to get back in position.

Red Stars A Block: Akira Kurogane [1] vs. Tomoka Inaba [4]

Akira is just looking to pick up her first win, while Tomoka needs one to keep pace with several people ahead of her. They worked this at a slow pace to start, which surprised me because openers usually go quicker in STARDOM. They exchanged holds and worked the mat, which was an interesting chance of pace for this tournament. Then, just as it was picking up, Tomoka hit a spin kick to win in 6:57. I think they had something really good in them but for now, it was solid enough. [**½]

Red Stars A Block: AZM [6] vs. Natsuko Tora [5]

Two of the four or five women who have a legitimate shot to make it out of this block. Natsuko had jumped AZM ahead of time and brought her to the ring for some brawling. They almost immediately went back outside for more fighting through the crowd. It was a different kind of David vs. Goliath story, which is something I usually like, though this one didn’t quite grab me. It wasn’t one of Natsuko’s more captivating performances. She brought a chair into play and had some help from Rina at ringside. AZM and Natsuko fought over the chair and knocked the referee aside, resulting in the rare double DQ in 9:42. Nothing special here, though a decent little fight. [**½]

Red Stars B Block: Azusa Inaba [3] vs. Maki Itoh [5]

Side note but Natsupoi worked a tag before this match and I really wish we got her in the tournament. They could’ve done a lot with a story of her going for one last big run ahead of retirement. Anyway, this was crowd favorite Maki Itoh against the suddenly hot Azusa Inaba, who is impressing in this tournament. As is often the case with a Maki match, there were some good personality bits in the early goings with the two playing to the crowd and mocking each other. There was a lengthy section that saw them fight in the crowd and that’s such a tournament trope that I’m done with in both STARDOM and New Japan. After a while, you could tell that they were going to at least tease the time limit and that became a problem because these two aren’t exactly ideal for that scenario. A few bits dragged, though I did like the submission battle late. That gave us our finish as Maki had Azusa in a submission when the 15:00 expired. [**¾]

Red Stars B Block: Konami [6] vs. Rina Yamashita [6]

Two wrestlers who have surprised me and become two of the more enjoyable workers to watch in this Grand Prix. Alas, this was another match to go outside early on and feature some crowd brawling. That’s three in a row. I know they’re all HATE matches, but please start booking some variety. Once they were back in the ring, this was much better as Konami targeted the arm and started laying in the kicks. It became a case of Yamashita trying to work through the damage while Konami kept going after it. I liked Yamashita blocking the spray paint with her hand and then headbutting the can into Konami. I’ve never seen that before. Soon after, Yamashita hit Jig and Tonic, which is listed as Impact on the Stardom site, to win in 10:26. A good match and a step up in quality. [***¼]

Red Stars A Block: Maika [6] vs. Rina [4]

Surprisingly, Maika jumped Rina from behind during her entrance. That gave her the upper hand but Rina turned things around with, you guessed it, some brawling through the crowd. That’s four matches in a row. The New Japan is strong with STARDOM these days. That said, Rina is good enough to make her section here a bit more fun than others. Rina was such a little shit in this match, laying in her kicks and stuff while talking trash and even spitting at the referee. She kept the pressure on for a while and forced Maika to have to dig deep for her big comeback, especially after a suplex on the outside. Once inside, Maika made the rally with a series of lariats. They both went for flash pins until the time expired at 15:00, giving us our third draw of the evening. That was very good, though it needed a bit more back and forth to really stand out. Cut some of the brawling outside and give us an actual winner and it’d have ranked higher. [***½]

Red Stars B Block: Lady C [2] vs. Utami Hayashishita [3]

It was pretty clear from the start that this was never going to fully hit as a main event. While it’s nice to see Lady C getting a chance against someone of Utami’s stature, there was never going to be any drama. Utami’s only at 3 points and already lost to Azusa Inaba, so another upset was highly unlikely. That said, they did a good job with certain aspects, like playing into Lady C’s size and having that cause some problems for the former World Champion. Utami has been very giving in this tournament and she did her best to make Lady C look good. I also want to shout out how good Lady C’s chokeslam has gotten. Lady C survived a ton of German suplexes as Utami was just launching her. Utami won with the Torture Rack Bomb after 11:08. That was a good match, though it would’ve been more at home in the middle of a card. [***¼]

Red Stars A	Points	Red Stars B	Points	Blue Stars A	Points	Blue Stars B	Points
Itsuki Aoki	8 (4-2)	Saya Iida	8 (4-1)	Suzu Suzuki	8 (4-0)	Momo Watanabe	7 (3-1-1)
Maika	7 (3-1-1)	Rina Yamashita	8 (3-1-2)	Ruaka	6 (3-1)	Saya Kamitani	6 (2-0-2)
AZM	7 (3-1-1)	Maki Itoh	6 (2-1-2)	Julia Hart	6 (3-1)	Hanan	6 (3-1)
Natsuko Tora	6 (2-2-2)	Konami	6 (3-2)	HANAKO	4 (2-2)	Starlight Kid	5 (2-1-1)
Tomoka Inaba	6 (3-3)	Utami Hayashishita	5 (2-2-1)	Aya Sakura	4 (2-3)	Ami Sohrei	4 (2-2)
Rina	5 (2-2-1)	Azusa Inaba	4 (1-3-2)	Miyu Amasaki	4 (2-3)	Koguma	4 (2-3)
Sayaka Kurara	4 (2-4)	Mei Seira	3 (1-2-1)	Hina	4 (2-3)	Yuna Mizumori	4 (2-3)
Akira Kurogane	1 (0-4-1)	Lady C	2 (1-5)	Rian	0 (0-4)	Kikyo Furusawa	0 (0-5)

6.0

The final score: review Average

The 411

This is honestly about as low as I usually can go for a STARDOM show. Even on a night like this where nothing was great, nothing is bad, so it bottoms as just an average show. I’ll take that in the middle of a tournament where not every show can be a banger.