Pantoja’s STARDOM Triangle Derby in Anjo Review 1.9.22

Stardom Triangle Derby In Anjo

January 9^th, 2023 |  Tosho Arena Anjo in Anjo, Aichi | Attendance: 711

Okay, so I was planning on reviewing these shows in order (as you’d typically do) but the uploading schedule makes it difficult. The events don’t go up on Stardom World until three days after airing, so I don’t have access to the 1/8 show yet. However, the 1/9 show is available to stream on YouTube, so I’m doing that one first.

Also, I’ve had a bit of champagne as I write this.

Momo Khogo vs. Thekla

I’m intrigued by this given the Momo storyline that is apparently going on where her teammates like Mayu Iwatani are looking for more from her. From what I’ve seen, Thekla seems like a solid midcard hand and Khogo plays a strong underdog babyface, making this a pretty good matchup. Nothing about it blew me away but I liked how Khogo didn’t back down and fired back shots whenever they were dished out to her. Khogo took a bit of a beating but fought back in the second half despite getting leveled with some shots. I was surprised to see Thekla secure the win with a DDT variation in 7:20 though it continues the Khogo story, which I’m intrigued by. Just a solid way to start the show. [**¾]

Syuri vs. Yuna Mizumori

Our former top champion in the second match on the card. As noted, I don’t know a ton about the company but it’s always interesting to see how someone is booked after being at the top. You knew Mizumori didn’t have a chance but she still gave a spirited effort. That’s all you can ask for in this sort of match. The one move that stood out for me for Mizumori was her lariats. She threw some really good ones. Syuri could’ve handled this like mostly a squash but Mizumori was given a lot of time to strut her stuff while Syuri never looked bad in the process. Syuri won with a stiff kick to the head in 9:17. [***¼]

Himeka, Lady C and Maika vs. Mariah May, Mina Shirakawa and Xia Brookside

The Club Venus theme makes me wanna dance like they do in their entrance. They showed off some early personality by posing while doing offense but you could still tell that they have kinks to iron out. Himeka got isolated to start with a focus being on some leg work. Mina was again the most polished member of her team but that’s to be expected. Once she was able to tag out her team took control and beat up on Xia for a while. Even after a tag, Mariah May found herself in trouble but got saved by her partners. Lady C had Mariah on the ropes but Mina again made the save. Club Venus went into a flurry of offense that Mariah capped with a Tombstone to secure the victory in 11:41. Another solid but unspectacular match for Club Venus so far. I’ve seen some hate for them online and while I wouldn’t go that far because this stuff has been good, it still does need work. [***]

Hazuki, Koguma, Mayu Iwatani and Saya Iida vs. Natsuko Tora, Rina, Ruaka and Saki Kashima

Forget Triangle Derby, this is rectangle derby (?). No, it’s just a regular eight-woman tag. This was STARS against Oedo Tai and it was pretty entertaining. I got the sense that the Tai quartet featured a good mix of veterans and younger members, which made for an intriguing group. Meanwhile, the STARS team was basically their main stars (pun intended). I could watch Iwatani do almost anything so her time in the ring was certainly the highlight here. Whether she was getting beaten up for on offense, she made it work. In the end, it was Iwatani who won with a moonsault at the 13:03 mark. Another match that was just very good. I don’t much else to say about it. [***¼]

Ami Sourei and MIRAI vs. Saya Kamitani and Utami Hayashishita

I noted on my review of day one that I wasn’t feeling the exchanges between Sourei and Kamitani and they teased starting against each other but we got Hayashishita against MIRAI instead. Kamitani and Sourei actually met the night before in a title match. Both teams worked very well together and have solid chemistry, making for one of the better matches of the night. I liked the MIRAI vs. Kamitani back and forth more than what Kamitani did with Sourei, though that aspect was better this time around. As this kept going on though, you got the sense they might go to the time-limit draw, and while I don’t mind time-limit draws, in the short time I’ve watched Stardom, I’ve run into a fair few. Maybe they do too many but again, I’m no expert. MIRAI was really starting to get going on Kamitani when the time expired at 15:00. Just a really entertaining tag match here. [***½]

Natsupoi, SAKI and Tam Nakano [0] vs. Rina Amikura, Waka Tsukiyama and Yuko Sakurai [0]

Hey, it’s a Triangle Derby match! Also, I get meltear and that’s all I need in life sometimes. I was wondering why they did individual entrances but Nakano was given flowers and I believe this is her hometown. Everything meltear did here came off smoothly and I’m really going to make time to go back and see some of their tag matches over the past year. When the Lollipop trio got going, they also impressed. Tam fired off shots with Amikura as they were wailing on each other in hard-hitting fashion. That allowed Lollipop to take control and isolate Tam for a bit. The hometown sympathetic wrestler typically works. The closing stretch was really good and saw a lot of action capped by Tam winning with one of my favorite moves ever, the Screwdriver. It went 14:58 and I actually really dug the time limit draw tease here. [***½]

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

Nothing about this show was must see but it’s a breezy two or so hours with entertaining matches and nothing even remotely bad.