Pantoja’s STARDOM 5STAR Grand Prix Night 8 Review

STARDOM 5STAR Grand Prix 2023 Night 8

August 12^th, 2023 | Arcrea HIMEJI | Attendance: 507

It feels odd to review a show from 8/12 after I already covered the PPV from 8/13. Ah, well. The more STARDOM the better. We’ve got all Blue Stars matches tonight.

Blue Stars: AZM [2] vs. Hanan [0]

Like in her previous match, Hanan came out of the gates firing. I love that for her. I hate when people act like wins and losses don’t matter in a tournament. Homegirl is trying to get on the board. Respect. AZM knows what she’s doing though and rebounded quickly enough. I figured Hanan would try to match AZM in speed but what surprised me was how she traded strikes with her. They were leveling each other in a way I wasn’t expecting from these two. Hanan seemed to gain confidence the longer this went on and that was even truer after she got some near falls on pin counters. Both ladies went for arm submissions with AZM giving a stronger focus on that body part in her offense. Hanan fired up late and hit a series of moves capped by a bridging belly to back suplex. She took a near fall from that and rolled it into another suplex, winning in 11:02. That was the best Hanan match I’ve seen as she was able to more than keep up with AZM. [***¾]

Blue Stars: Giulia [5] vs. Mina Shirakawa [4]

Oh, this is an interesting one that I’m pretty stoked for. Mina attacked early but paid for it when Giulia flipped her with an Exploder. However, Giulia missed a knee strike outside and hit the ring post, opening the door for Mina and setting the stage for her to do what she does best, which is work the leg. That meant slamming that knee on the ground and going for the Figure Four numerous times. There are so many things Giulia is good at and that was evidenced by her doing an avalanche underhook suplex that she rolled into another move and by her popping up after getting dropped on her head. Versatility. Anyway, the leg work wasn’t the entire focus of the match which was a nice change of pace. Mina couldn’t get a huge advantage over Giulia, who just felt overwhelming at times despite the damage done to her knee. However, Mina would slap on the Figure Four and stop whatever momentum she’d regained. That was the difference maker as some of Giulia’s best stuff couldn’t hit as well as it should have due to Mina’s smart offense. Mina eventually scored a huge win with the Figure Four Driver after 12:33. A smartly worked match between two great wrestlers with a satisfying result. [***¾]

Blue Stars: Saori Anou [4] vs. Utami Hayashishita [2]

Yet another exciting match on paper. It’s Utami’s five year anniversary as well. We got a feeling out process to start things here and Saori was the one to take control first. Everything she does just looks so good from vicious kicks to smooth roll-through superplexes to the Muta Lock she applied. Utami fought back with some stiff shots and then busted out some power offense. It was cool to see her do that against a smaller opponent. Especially since Saori has been taking a BEATING in this tournament. At times, Saori was taking wild bumps here, including down the stretch when she landed violently on a lariat. Utami kept up the pressure and Saori looked out of it before Utami won with a German suplex at the 13:06 mark. I didn’t write a ton about this match for two reasons. First, I was simply engaged in what they were doing as they put on a really good match here from start to finish. The second reason was that this was a simple match and I mean that in a good way. No BS, quality back and forth, and just two standout wrestlers doing their thing. [***¾]

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

Another night of the 5STAR Grand Prix, another night of hits. I keep saying it but this tournament really doesn’t miss and I can’t think of one bad match so far. They’re all at least good and most are very good or great. This was three really good matches that won’t make my year-end list but made for one hell of a time.