wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s STARDOM New Year Dream Review 1.3.25

STARDOM New Year Dream
January 3rd, 2025 | Tokyo Garden Theater in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 2,054
STARDOM finally uploaded their PPV from last week, which had some notable stuff go down.
Athena and Thekla vs. Mina Shirakawa and Tay Melo
Right off the bat, there was tension between the ROH Women’s Champion and Thekla, as the latter took offense to being given an “Athena’s Minion” shirt. This is also Tay Melo’s first match in about two years since stepping away after getting pregnant. Athena against Mina was a highlight but the focus was on the Athena/Thekla partnership. They grew more and more uneasy as this progressed. Tay Melo didn’t look bad out there considering it has been so long. She seems to be right back to where she was before her hiatus. She got isolated before making the hot tag to Mina, who did her thing until getting hit with Thekla’s spider suplex. Athena got some cool spots late to showcase her stuff in Japan. She won by hitting Tay with the O-Face in 14:21. A good, solid way to start the show. It had pretty good action and set the stage for some stuff coming up. [***]
High Speed Title #1 Contender’s Elimination Match: Kohaku vs. Matoi Hamabe vs. Saki Kashima vs. Waka Tsukiyama vs. Yuna Mizumori
This is basically a battle royal. Given that and the High Speed aspect here, it makes sense that his moved quickly yet didn’t exactly blow anyone away. Hamabe was first out via pinning combination by Yuna, which was obvious since she’s still such a rookie. Waka was out next by a Kohaku pin, which left it to the three more notable women in the match. That said, it felt like Yuna wasn’t going to win since she had a High Speed Title shot relatively recently. However, she combined with Saki to pin Kohaku. I was surprised at that because Kohaku vs. Mei would be cool after they teamed in the tag league. Both women went for various flash pins but that’s Saki’s specialty so she got one over on Yuna to win in 5:10. About what you’d expect. [**]
Hanan and Manami vs. Rina and Ruaka
The website hypes this as a New Generation tag. Manami had a solid run in the 5STAR Grand Prix and was part of one of the better tag matches last year with Mika Iwata against Natsupoi and Saori Anou. The HATE girls have worked together for a while so they had some solid chemistry and worked a few tandem moves. Hanan and Rina had the highlights of this one as they had good exchanges, including Rina using a weapon throughout. Ruaka and Manami wasn’t as good though I do appreciate that they both brought a harder hitting presence to the action. I was very surprised at the result here. Ruaka used her signature weapon and got help from Rina to beat Hanan, who has been one of the more pushed stars in this new era of STARDOM. This went 10:08 and was fine but that ending is a head scratcher. [**½]
Sendai Girls Junior Championship: Chi Chi [c] vs. Aya Sakura
Some cross-promotion stuff here. I’ve not seen Chi Chi before but Aya is still a relatively green wrestler, though her stuff with some of the other Cosmic Angels has been solid. According to commentary, these two debuted a week apart some two years ago and there has been build across multiple promotions. I respect that. Even if I didn’t hear that, I’d believe there was something here because this was pretty intense from the start. Aya slapped the champ after a clean break and Chi Chi responded with a dope fisherman suplex on the outside. They kept that up with their back and forth throughout, leading to both being exhausted as they traded forearms in the middle of the ring. The spot where Chi Chi pinned down Aya’s arms just to slap her with no defense was cool and I’d like to see more of that. Aya rolled over and hit her with her own unprotected slaps. Aya threw some vicious kicks and applied a triangle choke that nearly ended it but Chi Chi reached the ropes. She rebounded to retain with a bridging back suplex in 15:09, winning a match that far exceeded my expectations. Hard hitting, intense, and filled with action. As good as it gets for two people with this little experience. [***¾]
Azusa Inaba, Fukigen Death and Momo Watanabe vs. Kiyoka Kotatsu, Syuri and Tomoka Inaba
This is my first look at Kiyoka. She was kind of the punching bag in this one, taking a beating from the various members of HATE in the early stages. She showed good promise as an underdog as she drew sympathy and had some solid bursts of offense. Of course, Syuri turned the tide for her team and Inaba is pretty rad, so her stuff also worked. The problem here was that I’m just really not into a lot of what HATE does, especially in the case of Fukigen Death. The Momo/Syuri kick exchange was pretty good and Azusa had some solid interactions with her sister. They always work well together. STARDOM surprised me again with a result as Kiyoka made Fukigen Death tap to a kneebar in 7:04. Not much to this match but Kiyoka impressed. [**¼]
AZM, Mei Seira and Miyu Amasaki vs. FWC and Mayu Iwatani
This was mainly designed to preview Mayu/AZM, which happened a night later in the Tokyo Dome. The match got off to the usual lighthearted Koguma start before STARS took over and really worked over Miyu. FWC works so seamlessly together. It’s why they’re among the best teams on the planet. The crowd got the Wrestle Kingdom preview they wanted as AZM and Mayu had a great interaction in the middle of this match, which makes sense since their title match was fantastic. The Mei/Mayu stuff was shorter but also good. That’s a singles match I’d love to see in the Grand Prix this year. The STARS trios offense remains a high point of any match they’re involved in. Mayu tripped up Mei and pulled her into a pinning combination to beat her in 10:43, all while looking right at AZM. A very good tag here, which is par for the course with STARS and Neo Genesis. They’re both just so good. [***¼]
Natsuko Tora and Vulgar Alliance vs. Natsupoi, Sayaka Kurara and Saori Anou
I’m not going to say much here. This was total dominance by Tora, Dump Matsumoto, and ZAP. I understand that Dump and ZAP are legends and as monster heels, they can dominate underdogs. The issue here was that A) I don’t really see the benefit of them thoroughly dominating some top stars and B) it wasn’t good. At least do it in interesting fashion. In the end, meltear held off the legends as Sayaka scored a huge win by rolling up Natsuko Tora in 6:56. [*]
High Mate vs. Team 200kg
Oh, there’s potential here. Yuu was a fun monster of sorts to have around a couple of years ago and Hashimoto ruled in basically everything I’ve seen her in. Meanwhile, High Mate was pretty good through the tag league. Hashimoto and Maika had a good old fashioned HOSS battle and that’s something I hope they give us in 2025. A singles match between them sounds cool like Hashimoto vs. MIRAI in 2023. Team 200kg has some cool spots like the stereo Boston Crabs as they hold hands and showboat. As she was for a lot of the tag league, HANAKO was a welcome surprise, putting on another solid showing. She gave just as good as she got, going toe to toe with both Yuu and Hashimoto. When HANAKO got Hashimoto up on her shoulders, it was legitimately impressive. Speaking of impressive, Yuu carrying both Maika and HANAKO was kind of nuts. Maika and Hashimoto just throwing haymakers and trying to prove who was tougher made for the kind of match I was hoping for. I popped for Yuu’s steamroller spot and realized that I missed seeing it. The fact that Team 200kg does a spot where Yuu splashes you off Bret’s rope with Hashimoto on her back is genius. Yuu went for the Last Ride only for Maika to roll through into a rollup to win in 18:10. Again, I expected HANAKO to eat a pin here but I’m surprised by the result. The match was a blast and the second best thing on the show so far. [***½]
Tam Nakano vs. Unagi Sayaka
There’s a long history with these two, including Unagi leaving Cosmic Angels and STARDOM at the end of 2022. Commentary noted that the reason was up in the air for a while but recently Unagi made it clear that Tam’s leadership had something to do with it. If Unagi wins, Tam can never use the Tam Nakano name again and if Tam wins, Unagi can’t work STARDOM again. At least that’s what I get from things. Thankfully, this didn’t start with typical wrestling stuff. They slapped and kicked each other though none of it really felt too vicious or intense. The fight spilled outside where they brawled for a while. Tam was doing some work in terms of the storytelling, being melodramatic and having moments where she was having trouble going through with things against an old friend. The stuff they did was fine but it never fully clicked the way you want from something with high stakes. I think part of it was that I never bought Tam losing. Tam won with a tiger suplex in 17:02 which kind of came from out of nowhere and felt abrupt. [**½]
Momo Watanabe and Saya Kamitani vs. Starlight Kid and Suzu Suzuki
Suzu Suzuki seems to be the first challenger to the new World of Stardom Champion Saya Kamitani. I’m not sure if Momo (who is pulling double duty here) is in line to face Starlight Kid but as stablemates of the people feuding, they make sense here. The two top champions started this and I love the contrasts between them as Saya went evil to win the big one while Starlight Kid turned good to get to the top. While Saya against SLK was filled with some exciting exchanges, Momo against Suzu was more of a battle of brutes. They were throwing stiff kicks and forearms in what was more of a fight than anything else. When they mixed things up, it remained entertaining. Momo tried to get a big win after SLK missed the moonsault but she ended up trapped in the Black Tiger Leg Killer. Suzu vs. Saya was very good and if they go that route for a title match, I’m totally down for it. Their Grand Prix match was good but I know they have better in them, especially since Saya is more comfortable as a heel now. A ref bump led to the usual HATE antics but Neo Genesis overcame it. Then, in yet another surprise, Saya ate a pin when Suzu hit her with a pair of Germans after 15:43. A very good main event that sets up some interesting stuff going forward. [***½]