Pantoja’s STARDOM New Year Unit Competition Finals Review 1.23.25

STARDOM New Year Unit Competition Finals

January 23^rd, 2025 | Shin-Kiba 1st RING in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 284

Small crowd on hand for the finals here.

New Year Unit Competition Finals: Empress Nexus Venus vs. Neo Genesis

So the way this works is that the factions face off in a 30 minute match and whoever gets the most falls during that time wins. The teams jumped out to a quick start, brawling for a bit before things became more traditional in this kind of environment. As it should be, everyone got a moment or two to shine from HANAKO using her size to AZM’s speed to Starlight Kid just being an all around great. The first fall came at 6:28 after Miyu took a beating from all of ExV and fell to some kind of driver by HANAKO. ExV grabbed the first lead, 1-0. Teams took a moment to regroup before getting right back at it. There was a renewed sense of urgency from Neo Genesis. Mei pounced on Rian, who responded with some counters and flash pins that impressed the crowd and had them biting. Still, Mei beat her with a dropkick to even the score after 8:17. The pace stayed quick for the next fall and we got the tropes of this match type like ExV all doing submissions at the same time. This quickly became the AZM/Mina show as the two had a really good exchange and I realize it’s a pairing I haven’t seen every often, if ever. Their battle of counters ended when Mina pulled her into a pinning combination at 14:45 to go up 2-1. Neo Genesis went after the tired Mina, leading to more AZM/Mina. The resilient former Wonder of Stardom Champion still trapped AZM in the Figure Four. AZM survived, hit a Destroyer, and tied it up with the Azumi Sushi in 18:40. Interesting to have AZM and Mina trade pins. Suzu and Maika came in as the heavy hitters with things tied again, trading shots and throwing bombs. It also worked to remind us of their Grand Prix Finals matchup from 2023. Neo Genesis worked together to put Maika in trouble before Suzu pinned her with a German Suplex in 24:39. That basically gave ExV five minutes to tie it up. The frantic energy was ramped up again, especially with Mina and Starlight Kid having a great fight. Every pin attempt from ExV had the crowd on the edge of their seats and Neo Genesis running in to save their partner was great. In the end, the defense of Neo Genesis worked as time expired at 30:00 and they retained their lead. That was super fun. Lots of energy, the individual exchanges were strong, and the drama was ramped up. [***¾]

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

That was a blast. One match, lots of action, and I also want to applaud the format of this tournament. It felt fresh and that’s not something you get often in Japanese wrestling.