Pantoja’s STARDOM Nighter In Korakuen Review 9.27.25

STARDOM Nighter in Korakuen

September 27^th, 2025 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 1,639

Well, the streaming site may not list as a “Nighter” show but it feels like one so I’m going with it. We’ve got a HUGE double title main event and another major sellout crowd so this is a big night.

Ranna Yagami, Rian and Sayaka Kurara vs. Natsupoi, Saori Anou and Tae Honma

I knew this wasn’t a match that I was meant to totally take seriously given the mixed up factions. Sayaka is a Cosmic Angels girl going against Poi and Saori. I don’t know much about Honma but she is apparently preparing for retirement and this is one of her final matches. Indeed, this wasn’t the most serious of tags. It was solid fun with Tae getting to hit her shit and everyone around her having a good time. Tae was moving well out there and it looks like she’s retiring on her own terms rather than because she can no longer go like so many who stick around for too long. The focus late was on Tae and Ranna, which was interesting and they had a good back and forth until Tae made her tap to a kneebar in 10:57. Good opening contest with lots of energy. [***¼]

Post-match, they seemed to set up Ranna against Tae at some point. Interesting.

Momo Kohgo vs. Waka Tsukiyama

Two fan favorite undercard women in a rare singles contest. I believe the idea here is that one of them could challenge Mei for the High Speed Title at some point. That said, this was another match that wasn’t really serious. Waka did her usual antics and continued her run as STARDOM’s answer to Ryusuke Taguchi with ass based offense and all. They did some basic exchanges otherwise and while I wasn’t all that into it, the crowd was. A series of flash pins ended when Waka rolled Momo into a successful three count at the 5:08 mark. Inoffensive though that finish came off slow and awkward. [**]

Bea Priestley and wing*gori vs. Fukigen Death, Konami and Momo Watanabe

Bea with wing*gori is still weird. She’s all smiling and waving to the fans now but she was working heel during the tournament and never felt like she actually turned face. HATE attacked before the bell because, HATE. That means throwing in chairs, Fukigen Death antics, and general heel brawling. Momo Watanabe feels like she should be doing something more important. I know she doesn’t need to be feuding over the top title just yet but it’d be nice if she had an upper midcard feud or something. Her and Saya had some good hard hitting exchanges though. Otherwise, this was your standard HATE tag. Konami ultimately cracked Hanan with a chair several times to get disqualified in 6:38. Better than the previous match but not much here. [**¼]

HATE kept up a pretty vicious beatdown of Hanan after the bell.

Akira Kurogane, Bozilla, Itsuki Aoki, & Rina Yamashita vs. Aya Sakura, FWC & Yuna Mizumori vs. Ema Maishima, Mei Seira, Miyu Amasaki & Starlight Kid

This is STARDOM’s bread and butter. They’s so good at putting a ton of people in the ring together and having it work when it probably shouldn’t. This had a lot of moving parts but was a ton of fun. Koguma did her taunt gimmick, Bozilla looked like an absolute monster, everyone got at least one or two moments to shine, and Hazuki showed again why she’s the most underutilized wrestler in the world. I really liked how you could see each stable’s distinctive personality in their offense. It added a lot of personality here (though FWC with Cosmic Angels was weird). There was also a cool spot where Mei ran off people’s backs into an offensive move. In the end, Hazuki got the win by hitting a senton off the top onto Maishima in 8:47. An absolute blast of a match and I’ll always pop for a Hazuki win. [***¼]

After the bell, FWC cut a promo. Koguma will be defending her CMLL Japan Women’s Title against her partner Hazuki on 10/11 in STARDOM. They’ll both be heading to CMLL for their Women’s Grand Prix later that month.

Ami Sohrei, Kiyoka Kotatsu and Lady C vs. Natsuko Tora, Rina and Ruaka

Rina is one third of the Artist of Stardom Champions, while Tora and Ruaka make up BMI2000, the Goddesses of Stardom Champions. The focus of this match seemed to be teasing or getting us to Lady C and Ami challenging those two for the titles down the line. Kiyoka was fighting for her life out there, completely undersized compared to Ruaka and Natsuko, who no sold a lot of her stuff but she just kept coming at them. I actually like the BMI2000/Ami & Lady C matchup because the God’s Eye girls have been showcasing their strength lately and that’s an intriguing opponent for a power-based team. The action here was nothing special until the final few minutes. That’s when Lady C was in trouble and had to rally against HATE. The crowd, which has been molten hot all night, was into everything she did. HATE tried to cheat but Ami took the chair and whacked Natsuko. Lady C then hit her with a big boot to score the biggest pinfall of her career, winning in 12:03. A pretty big moment to cap a solid tag match. [**¾]

Kaoru Ito and Sareee vs. Syuri and Tomoka Inaba

Remember when Syuri appeared at All In? I’m surprised she’s back so soon. Her and Tomoka is a sick team, especially after Tomoka’s great 5STAR run. This was our first Sareee against Syuri interaction since Sareee took the IWGP Women’s Title from her in a classic (****½). That was the focus of the match because Kaoru is 53 and limited at this point in her career. She threw around Tomoka a bit when she was in there. They also made sure not to have her in there enough that it would bring things down. Just the right amount. Still, it was Sareee and Syuri who carried this and that’s a rematch I really hope we get. At one point, Syuri just came in and kicked Sareee in the back of her head to break up a pin. That’s something you do when you hate someone. Tomoka fought hard in the end but Sareee dropped her on her head with a suplex to win in 8:50. Solid stuff. [***]

Post-match, Syuri wanted a rematch with Sareee. However, the champion declined as she will be defending her gold overseas first.

Future of Stardom Championship: Hina [c] vs. HANAKO

I didn’t have high hopes for this as their 5STAR match was mediocre (**½). HANAKO is something of a powerhouse but I was pleasantly surprised by Hina here. She was laying in some forearms that sounded pretty vicious. In fact, they sounded much harder than anything HANAKO threw, which isn’t exactly a good sign for HANAKO. That said, she was also very good here, giving what was probably her best singles performance to date. She was throwing Hina around when she could. Hina gave it right back and hit a series of suplexes, including a modified Jackhammer, for a good near fall. HANAKO hoisted Hina up and won the title by nailing the JP Coaster in 14:11. That was really good and better than expected. I’m also surprised at the result given I expected Ranna to dethrone Hina. [***½]

After the match, Aya Sakura came out and she’ll be HANAKO’s first challenger.

NJPW Strong Women’s & World of Stardom Championships: AZM [c] vs. Saya Kamitani [c]

I am so pumped for this. AZM beat Saya in the 5STAR in the one of the best matches of the year (****¾). I got a little worried during the opening exchange, which saw both ladies be just a bit off. Thankfully, they turned things around quickly. The fight went into the crowd and saw them fight in the Korakuen faithful. Saya threw AZM through a door and went back for the countout win but AZM found her way to the ring in time. Still, that put AZM on the defensive for a while. Once AZM got going, this really picked up and she’s just a blast to watch on offense. Everything is filled with so much energy. They did the spot where AZM beautifully catches the spinning heel kick into an armbar. The crowd ate it up too. That set up a closing stretch where AZM came close with some big moves, including a few Destroyers. When AZM countered the spinning Star Crusher into the Azumi Sushi, I bit on the near fall. The top rope Destroyer near fall was a bit overkill though. It wasn’t long after that Saya hit the spinning Star Crusher to win in 23:10. A great main event though I much preferred their previous match. This one was a bit excessive down the stretch. Still, AZM delivered in another big match and Saya continued her case for wrestler of the year. [****¼]

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

That was a really fun show. Not everything was great but it moved along nicely, had some good action, and that main event delivered in spades.