Pantoja’s STARDOM Year-End Climax 2023 Review

STARDOM Year-End Climax

December 24^th, 2023 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 765

A Christmas Eve STARDOM show in Korakuen Hall? Sounds like a recipe for a good time, especially with Dream Queendom right around the corner.

Mei Seira vs. Yuzuki

Obviously non-title action for the High Speed Champion. Yuzuki has only had a handful of matches and I’ve likely mentioned this before but she has been very impressive for someone with so little experience. She did well to keep up the pace with Mei Seira, which is not easy to do. You could tell that her timing was a bit off on some spots but that’s to be expected. She never threatened to win this and that was never the point. She held her own and Mei was her usual strong self. It’s a little thing but I really liked Yuzuki doing three in attempts in a row. She knows she’s not the expected winner so desperation like that works. Mei got going late and won with a picture perfect dropkick in 8:36. Quality opener here and Yuzuki really has a bright future. [**¾]

HANAKO vs. Hanan

HANAKO has been around longer than Yuzuki and stands out for her height but I haven’t been as impressed. Hanan is someone who has really stepped up in 2023, though she’s still very young and not the person I’d expect to lead a match. However, this turned out to be a decent little match. Nothing blew me away about it but HANAKO used her size well enough to take the early upper hand and Hanan had to fight from beneath a bit to overcome that. She’s a good fiery babyface even if HANAKO isn’t a heel, so that’s a good way to set this match up. At the 6:12 mark, the Hanan Special (which is like a fallaway body slam of sorts) put away HANAKO. Ho-hum but inoffensive. [**¼]

Hazuki and Saya Iida vs. Mai Sakurai and Thekla

HAZUKI CLAUS! She and Saya were dressed in Santa style outfits and entered through the crowd to give them presents. Like the Shield but with Christmas spirit. This had some good energy from the start, whether it was something as simple as Saya and Thekla battling over a test of strength or some sweet tandem offense by the DDM ladies. I could watch Hazuki vs. Thekla all day so I loved their exchanges here. They were laying in shots harder than you’d expect from some random undercard tag. That was the kind of vibe this had from start to finish. The ending saw Hazuki sent outside and then Saya ate a Spear from Thekla before getting pinned by Mai Sakurai at the 9:22 mark. I probably liked that a bit more than most but this was a really fun tag between girls who are always out there working their asses off. [***¼]

Mina Shirakawa vs. Saki Kashima vs. Yuna Mizumori

Saki returned the night before, so she got to come out last for a nice hand from the crowd. Mina is a big star who is still around despite the many injuries so I’m surprised she doesn’t have a bigger spot on the Dream Queendom card. Saki shook both opponents’ hands and then made them shake each other’s. Of course, she still did Saki things like sitting back and chilling while the other two handled all the action. Saki taking on Mina was the high point of the match, mostly due to them having two of my favorite personalities in STARDOM. Yuna was kind of just there. She did eat the pin though as Saki rolled her up in classic Saki Kashima fashion, winning in 6:56. That was just what it needed to be and was entertaining enough. It’s good to have Saki back. [**¼]

Ami Sourei and Syuri vs. Nanae Takahashi and Yuu

It’s good to have Yuu back. Her and Nanae made for a great powerhouse tandem last year and early in 2023. They have a Goddess of Stardom Title match coming up at Dream Queendom. They jumped the God’s Eye tandem before the bell, sparking a brawl in the crowd. Once this calmed down into a more traditional tag, we got some tag formula. Ami took a bit of a beating while Syuri hit the ring like the top star she is. Also, Syuri being Syuri, she wasn’t afraid to mix it up with Nanae and Yuu when they were throwing bombs at each other. Still, this felt like a story of dominating duo against a non-regular team that was kind of overmatched at times. Ami did her best to keep up with Nanae late but fell to their tag team finisher after 13:31. That was some good, hard hitting tag team wrestling. [***¼]

Post-match, Syuri cut a promo about having a good 2023 but that it was too quiet, so she issued a challenge to Mayu Iwatani for the IWGP Women’s Title on January 4^th. Mayu arrived and accepted in Mayu fashion, which included joking that it was a scary prospect and forgetting to bring her belt to the ring.

Elimination Match: AZM, Hina, Lady C, Miyu Amasaki, Saya Kamitani & Utami Hayashishita vs. Fukigen Death, Momo Watanabe, Natsuko Tora, Rina, Ruaka & Starlight Kid

The sequel to a killer cage match from earlier this year, with a few changes. Classic pre-match assault by Oedo Tai and similar to the previous match, it meant we started with a brawl around the arena. Utami and Natsuko went at it extra hard and I feel like I remember them having issues ahead of the Grand Prix but I could be wrong. Anyway, once this reached the ring, the young girls (Miyu and Rina) got to go at it and it had a bit more fire than you’d expect from those two. It was Hina who got sent packing first though, falling to a Fukigen Death rollup at the 4:50 mark. Miyu won the battle against Rina, eliminating her next at 7:35. The next section saw Lady C and Ruaka go at it, culminating with Ruaka getting bounced at 9:20. Momo avenged that by eliminating Lady C next at 10:32. Of course there had to be a revival of the AZM/SLK rivalry that was great and saw them go over the top and out together at 14:17. They don’t miss against each other. Tora and Utami followed suit at 16:48 following a hard hitting exchange. We were down to an unexpected tag match of sorts. Momo and Fukigen Saya and Miyu. Basically a top member of the stable and a lower card lady. Momo got rid of Miyu at 17:37, leaving Saya alone. She traded blows with Momo and got lit up at points but she rallied to eliminate Fukigen a bit after and then win a battle on the apron with Momo to earn the victory after 19:56. This was treated like a big PPV match by everyone involved and it worked. Not on the level of the cage match from June but a hell of a follow up. [****]

Giulia, Maika and MIRAI vs. Megan Bayne, Saori Anou and Suzu Suzuki

It’s a preview of the three big singles matches at Dream Queendom: Giulia/Megan, Saori/MIRAI, and Maika/Suzu. I know that’s not what the company had in mind for that show but given the slew of injuries, it’s pretty solid. I loved the start as Maika/Suzu and Giulia/Megan immediately attacked but Saori and MIRAI had a staredown and a handshake. Perfect given how these rivalries are built. After the upcoming pairings handled some business, we were treated to mixed battles like Giulia vs. Suzu, which is something I’ve always really enjoyed. There isn’t much to say about the exchanges here because they were all just really good. None blew me away or shocked me but they gave the consistently good interactions I’ve come to expect from these combinations. The classic three submissions spot was cool here since Giulia’s guillotine looked great on Megan due to her size and MIRAI’s submission looked vicious. It was in the closing stretch where this really got going as the women stepped up with the best spots of the match. Megan looked like an absolute beast, even tossing her teammates (with Suzu shouting NO! NO! NO!) onto opponents outside. She planted Giulia with a  sitout powerbomb and the F5 to win in 21:17 and gain momentum ahead of her big match. A very good main event that set the tone for the big matches coming up. [***¾]

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

They really wanted to make sure this show rocked as well as it could have. The undercard isn’t anything special which I get due to injuries and a LOT of talent in the last two matches. That said, there are two good tags in there. The last two matches were great and worth the watch.