Pantoja’s STARDOM Nagoya Big Winter Review 12.2.23

STARDOM Nagoya Big Winter

December 2^nd, 2023 | Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium in Nagoya, Aichi | Attendance: 952

It’s time for one of the last big shows before Dream Queendom at the end of the year and this event has major implications for it. Right off the bat, I will say that the crowd looks pretty lame here as it’s a decent sized venue with just under 1,000 people, so it looks empty.

HANAKO and Miyu Amasaki vs. Mina Shirakawa and Yuzuki

Mina Shirakawa loses in the Korakuen Tournament and ends up on the pre-show. Cold. Her partner here is the young rookie Yuzuki, who got isolated by her opponents almost immediately. Mina didn’t do all that much, which I get as we always appreciate a night off. Instead, Yuzuki got to gain some experience and handle most of the work though it was often her taking a bit of a beating. Miyu and HANAKO are two raw prospects as Miyu botches a fair bit and HANAKO has some awkward moments but they’re improving. HANAKO managed to take Mina outside just before Miyu got the win with a Facebuster style move in 8:24. A fine enough start. [**]

Mai Sakurai vs. Ruaka

This feels like kind of a random match. Maybe Oedo Tai is gonna get a shot at the Artist of Stardom Titles. Anyway, Mai has been getting a bit of a push lately and Ruaka isn’t much more than a jobber at this point so the outcome here was never really in doubt. I don’t have a lot to say about this match. It was standard heel vs. face stuff with Ruaka doing some trash talking and underhanded tactics and Mai rallying before winning with La Magistral in 5:27. Another ho-hum match though I suspect things pickup soon. [**]

Hanan and Saya Iida vs. Saori Anou and Yuna Mizumori

Our New Blood Tag Team Champions against a Cosmic Angels duo. The champs showed off solid tandem offense to start on Yuna but found themselves in trouble against Saori. She hit Hanan with a fisherman suplex while trapping Saya in Muta Lock, which was a cool spot. As expected, Saori was the high point here but I’ve really come around on Hanan. She wasn’t someone I was interested in at the start of the Grand Prix, yet she turned me around thanks to a string of strong performances, including here. I was surprised to see Saori get the win with a fisherman suplex on Hanan in 7:06. I thought Yuna would eat the pin. That was a fun tag match. [***]

High Speed Championship: Mei Seira [c] vs. Thekla

I love the idea of this match. The energetic, exciting High Speed Champion against my favorite undercard lady and the super underrated Thekla. Thekla kept up with her quicker opponent at the start but soon realized she wouldn’t be able to do that for long. She slowed the pace a bit, took a water break, and resorted to using the water bottle itself as a weapon. I liked her attacking the knee with it because she hoped to slow the champion. Thekla picked up a few near falls but Mei survived it all and retained with a pinning combination from out of nowhere at the 8:05 mark. I dug that and I really like that Mei is winning with different moves. There should always be an air of unpredictability in this division and she’s keeping that alive. [***¼] 

Ami Sourei, MIRAI and Syuri vs. Momo Watanabe, Natsuko Tora and Starlight Kid

It’s an Oedo Tai tag, so you know it involved some brawling on the outside. However, when this became a more traditional match inside, it started to shine. Tora and Sourei battled as Ami showed enough power to contend with her. If Sourei keeps focusing on that aspect of her game, I think it could go a long way for her. Then we got SLK and MIRAI having some really good back and forth despite their size and strength differences. The high point was probably Syuri and Momo just throwing vicious kicks at each other. It felt like that moment in New Japan undercard tags where the two top stars battle. In the end though, it was Tora pinning Sourei after the big senton in 9:09. That had a lot of fire and the pairing off throughout the match really helped boost it. [***¼]

 

UWF Rules: Nanae Takahashi vs. Scandinavian Hurricane

These kind of matches have always split fans, with many not wanting to see pretend shoot fights on a wrestling card. While I’m not totally against them, these UWF bouts haven’t really worked. The only ones I’ve somewhat enjoyed have had Syuri but without her here, this one really missed. It was rather dull despite Nanae usually being a safe bet to deliver in the ring. The biggest problem was that the crowd just didn’t care. Any good will that the previous two matches built up was gone here as the fans mostly sat on their hands. Nanae won with a good looking elbow that stunned Hurricane before adding a second, less impressive looking one that knocked her out for good in 7:12. Not my cup of tea. [*¾]

NJPW Strong Women’s Championship: Giulia [c] vs. AZM

This is what I’m talking about. I was PUMPED for this in the Grand Prix only for AZM to steal the win in under a minute. Now, we’re getting a legitimate, official match, even if it’s for a title that is kind of useless. They opened with a repeat of the Grand Prix match, which makes sense as AZM would try to win the same way again. She added a sweet dive outside but missed a second and Giulia took control. Giulia kind of kicked ass from there until AZM got pissed and just started laying into her with strikes. It brought the intensity level up which they kept at for the rest of this match. That made for a fantastic back half filled with action. The desperation of AZM’s flash pins late were great and even though I knew she wasn’t going to win, she made me bite on some close calls. She went to the well one too many times though as Giulia started dodging her kicks and eventually finished her with a Northern Lights Bomb in 12:56. Just some great wrestling between two of the best. And I know they have an even better match in them. [****]

Goddesses of Stardom Championship: AphroditE vs. Divine Kingdom

Divine Kingdom is Maika and Megan Bayne, who won the Goddesses of Stardom Tag League. AphroditE consists of Utami Hayashishita and Saya Kamitani, who have just returned from injury. The titles are vacant here after the injury to Natsupoi, who held the belts with Saori Anou. I dug the idea of this match on paper as Utami is legit enough to stand toe to toe with her larger opponents, while Saya would be the outmatched one who could play up her speed advantage. Indeed that’s how it went, with Saya getting the first big spots on some high flying moves. Of course, the size of Divine Kingdom proved to be too much and she found herself in trouble rather quickly. I still like the way Bayne is booked. It often took both Utami and Saya to take her down because she’s such an unstoppable powerhouse. Divine Kingdom did their take on the old AOP tandem powerbomb spot but it wasn’t enough to put down their opponents. The finish felt like it kind of came at a moment where you’d expect a near fall but Utami managed to keep Bayne down for three with an impressive German Suplex after 13:08. A very good tag match with the right winners. Saya and Utami get gold now that they’re back and bring some notoriety to the titles, even if they go off to singles stuff in 2024. Plus, Maika has a big singles title match coming up so she didn’t need this belt. [***½]

World Of Stardom Contender Certificate: Suzu Suzuki [c] vs. Hazuki

Suzuki’s spot in the vacant World of Stardom Title match against Maika is on the line. I loved their Grand Prix match (****¼). They threw shots at each other from the opening bell here. Hazuki has made a habit of being very aggressive and hard hitting in matches this year and this was no different. She threw herself into everything from kicks to her bumps, taking a particularly great one on a Suzuki missile dropkick. A lot of this felt like Hazuki’s match as she brought a ton of fire here and delivered some of the best offensive moves. It was Suzu who had to fight from beneath which I wasn’t expecting given she did win a big tournament a few months ago. Her comeback was very good though it could’ve used another minute or so to really get built up. Still, she laid into Hazuki with a series of strong kicks before winning with two German suplexes in 14:16. The expected great match from these two even if there wasn’t much drama. Hazuki continues to deliver in every big match she’s had this year, while Suzu remains hot. [****]

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

This show got off to something of a rocky start with several mediocre at best matches and a UWF Rules outing that didn’t work for me. Thankfully, the show rebounded with some good undercard tags, a great title match, a very good tag title match, and a really strong main event.