Pantoja’s STARDOM New Year Unit Competition Night 1 Review 1.17.25

STARDOM New Year Unit Competition

January 17^th, 2025 | Matsuyama Community Center in Matsuyama, Ehime | Attendance: 366

I’m committing myself to another STARDOM tournament. The tag league was disappointing but I’ve enjoyed their trios stuff the past few years so this should be a safer bet. This seems to be an expansion of the Triangle Derby trios tournament they’ve run.

For anyone wondering the rules of this new format, it breaks down like this in simpler terms:

• The six current units will be divided into two blocks of three.
• Each trio that wins earns points for their respective unit.
• The winner of both blocks advance to the final
• Winning unit is allowed to challenge for two Stardom Belts of their choosing

 

On the streaming site, these are listed as one match so I’m going to save my rating for the overall combination of the three individual smaller matches.

Blue Block: Cosmic Angels [0] vs. Neo Genesis [0]

Everyone is wearing matching shirts representing their stable. It’s like the Raw vs. Smackdown days of Survivor Series. To start, it was Aya Sakura, Sayaka Kurara and Yuna Mizumori vs. AZM, Mei Seira and Miyu Amasaki. Lots of energy in this one as they seemed determined to put on a show for the first section of this new format. Yuna was doing well until Miyu came in with her array of DDTS. The Future of STARDOM Champion ended up beating Yuna with a pinning combination in 7:02. Good start and Neo Genesis earns two points.

Next, we have AZM, Starlight Kid and Suzu Suzuki against Natsupoi, Saori Anou, and Tam Nakano. Now is where strategy comes into play as Cosmic Angels, needing a win, send their best trio out there. Of course, Neo Genesis combated them with their three best. Interestingly, AZM moved Starlight Kid out of the way so she could face Poi to start. This was the best bit of action of the night. Just lightning quick exchanges with bits of intensity involving six of the best wrestlers around. I love when meltear does one of their signature moves and then Saori just comes in like a killer. As noted, this was intense so it makes sense that the fight spilled outside. Unfortunately, that meant we got a double countout at 5:19. Tons of fun with a lackluster ending. Each team gets a point.

Last up, we have Mei Seira, Starlight Kid, and Suzu Suzuki taking on Natsupoi, Sayaka Kurara, and Tam Nakano. Sayaka with meltear is lovely. Sayaka and Mei handled the early stuff since they weren’t just competing. I’d love to see that as a High Speed Title match at some point. It was fun. There was also a strong Suzu vs. Tam interaction. The upcoming title challenger against the former champion. The true highlight though was Starlight Kid and Natsupoi. They absolutely wailed on each other and gave us bits of their excellent title match from last month. Natsupoi surprisingly beat her with La Magistral cradle in 8:54. That means the teams each ended up with 3 points here. Overall, that was very good with a lot of action and went 21:15. I like the format. [***½]

Red Block: Empress Nexus Venus [0] vs. STARS [0]

It’s worth noting that STARS has six women while ExV has only five. We opened with HANAKO, Maika, and Waka Tsukiyama against Hanan, Mayu Iwatani, and Saya Iida. So basically, HANAKO and her two partners against wing*gori and the GOAT. That worked here as the chemistry between the teams was strong. The power of HANAKO and Maika proved to be troublesome for STARS as they tossed the girls around with surprising ease at points. When things started to look dire, Hanan found a way to pull HANAKO into a pinning combination to end this in 7:51. That was relatively fine. Two points for STARS.

It’s time for FWC and Momo Kohgo against Mina Shirakawa, Rian, and Waka Tsukiyama. Mina has to take the two members of her team who lose the most often in a tough situation. STARS also pounced early, attacking before ExV could really settle in. Koguma mostly kept up her lighthearted gimmick stuff but Hazuki was again aggressive. The crossface she worked on Rian had a little something extra on it. Mina became the legal wrestlers and turned the tide for her team, especially when in there against Momo Kohgo. And it was Momo who Mina pinned at 7:13 to even things up. Two points for each team.

The swing matchup and one that will be important for the final standings saw Hanan, Mayu, and Momo against HANAKO, Maika, and Mina Shirakawa. This is where STARS made a mistake (to be fair, I don’t know if the trios are set before the bell rings) as they didn’t put out their best trio (which would be Mayu/Hazuki/Hanan) against the best from ExV. Indeed, ExV isolated Momo to start this. Mayu got the tag and did her thing for a while but still found trouble when HANAKO used that size. The next notable tags brought in Hanan and Maika, the winners of the two major singles tournaments in 2024. Hanan took out everyone with a dive outside before fighting hard against Maika and even countering the Michinoku Driver. A triple team move by ExV hurt Hanan, leaving her prone to a Michinoku Driver that ended this in 7:02 and 22:06 overall. Not as good as the first match but still solid stuff that moved along swiftly. [***]

Blue Block	Points	Red Block	Points
Cosmic Angels	3 (1-1-1)	ExV	4 (2-1)
Neo Genesis	3 (1-1-1)	STARS	2 (1-2)
HATE	0 (0-0)	God’s Eye	0 (0-0)

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

Oh, I like this. It’s a short tournament and something totally different that I haven’t seen before. It may not give us totally great matches in the end but if things are as entertaining as this, we’re in for a treat.