wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s STARDOM Goddess Of Stardom Tag League 2023 Night 1 Review
Image Credit: STARDOM
Loading...STARDOM Goddesses of Stardom Tag League Night 1
October 15th, 2023 | Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 812
With a company like New Japan, I skip the hell out of the World Tag League. That’s not the case with STARDOM as I will do my best to cover their tag league, which will be an interesting one. The company is faced with some major injuries to Saya Kamitani, Tam Nakano, Natsupoi, AZM, Utami Hayashishita, and Starlight Kid. Whether we’ll see any of them in this tournament is unclear.
Red Goddess: Crazy Star [0] vs. Prominence [0]
I love how each team has names for this tournament even if they aren’t a regular duo. Prominence is Hiragi Kurumi and Risa Sera while Crazy Star consists of Suzu Suzuki and Mei Seira. During the opening Tag League ceremony, Prominence attacked to kickstart this match before the bell. That meant this planned semi-main event went on early. What we got was an intense bout that included fighting all around the arena and saw people get thrown into chairs. I haven’t seen much of Prominence since the Triangle Derby but I’ve grown to really like the Suzu/Mei pairing and they showed why here. One brings the quickness and the other is extra aggressive. The Sera/Suzu exchanges were a high point here as Suzu really doesn’t seem to be taking any nights off despite a grueling Grand Prix. The closing stretch leveled up the intensity once more, especially between Kurumi and Suzuki. As they were going at it, the bell rang, resulting in a time limit draw at 15:00. A really good way to start things with a lot of hard hitting action. [***½]
Red Goddess: Maximum & Mini [0] vs. Moonlight Venus [0]
Maximum & Mini is HANAKO and Saya Iida because of their height difference. Moonlight Venus is the Club Venus tandem of Mina Shirakawa and Waka Tsukiyama. It is kind of odd that Saya is in this tournament without her New Blood Tag Title partner. Unlike the previous match, this one didn’t quite work. Saya Iida is someone who has never really clicked for me, Mina Shirakawa didn’t have all that much to do, Waka wasn’t her usual fun self, and HANAKO is very inexperienced. That led to exchanges that were kind of awkward at points and there were a few botches in there to bring this down. Even the Mina/Saya interactions, which should’ve been the best part, was pretty lackluster. Mina put down HANAKO with an implant DDT in 7:19 to take home the win in a wildly average match that lacked energy. [**]
Blue Goddess: Divine Kingdom [0] vs. Reiwa Tokyo Towers [0]
The Tokyo Towers are Ami Sourei and Lady C. The former had a very bland Grand Prix run but the latter is an undercard highlight most nights. Meanwhile, Divine Kingdom (Maika and Megan Bayne) feel like they have a real shot to win this. They even had matching headpieces here. I liked Lady C stepping right up to Megan because she’s one of the few women on the roster who can match her in height. I think this match should’ve mostly been Divine Kingdom running over their opponents. Instead, the early portions seemed to want to show that the Tokyo Towers could match them in some ways like Ami hoisting up Maika for a Torture Rack. I get the idea but I don’t think it worked here. Once Diving Kingdom got going, this match took a step up and got better. Megan beat Lady C with the F5 in a quick 6:27. Like I said, it was fine once the dominant team took over. [**½]
Red Goddess: Anecon [0] vs. XL [0]
XL is Oedo Tai’s Momo Watanabe and Natsuko Tora, while Anecon (a name I only saw on Wikipedia) is the fun duo of Syuri and Saki Kashima. The God’s Eye ladies have totally different personalities which usually makes for entertaining tag wrestling. There’s also the added history between Kashima and Oedo Tai. Saki even ran all the way to the back at the bell to avoid her old partners. That comedy gave way to more serious stuff as soon as Syuri and Momo started throwing kicks at each other. That brought intensity and took this up another notch. I loved how Saki got tougher as this progressed and nearly beat Momo with her pinning combination but Momo knew how to counter it and beat her with Tequila Sunrise at the 10:03 mark. A good match that was a step up from the previous two but not as strong as the opener. I’m pretty pumped to see Syuri and Saki progress as a team in this tournament. [***]
Blue Goddess: Eye Contact [0] vs. FWC [0]
It’s STARS vs. STARS as Eye Contact (Mayu Iwatani and Hanan) take on former Goddess Champions FWC (Hazuki and Koguma). I came in pumped for this given Hazuki is one of my favorites, Mayu is Mayu, Hanan impressed in the Grand Prix, and Koguma is pretty much always fun. Early on, I got a renewal of Hazuki vs. Mayu, which was one of my favorite Grand Prix matches this year. You could tell that while some wrestlers might chill coming off of a big singles tournament, that’s not Mayu. She clearly brought the energy from the start, likely in an effort to make sure her stablemates looked as good as possible. Both sides showed off good tandem offense and Hanan’s fallaway slam of sorts on Koguma for a near fall looked really good. Hazuki managed to take out Mayu late and then Hanan survived a double team move, only to stay down after a Koguma splash off the top after 12:47. That was really good with the STARS ladies bringing the heat and having the kind of match you’d expect from people who dislike each other rather than being friends. [***¾]
