Pantoja’s STARDOM Year-End X’mas Night Review 12.24.24

STARDOM Year-End ‘Xmas Night

December 24^th, 2024 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 1,009

With Dream Queendom right around the corner and this being a Christmas Eve show, I thought it would just be a skippable house show. However, there are a handful of notable matches in here, include two for titles, and they drew 1K so I’m gonna try to give this a shot.

This is also the first STARDOM show I’m watching since they updated their interface. I’m skipping the five minute (pre-show?) match between two trainees.

High Speed Championship: Mei Seira [c] vs. Momo Kohgo

This is a fine spot for Momo after a solid run in the Tag League and a good singles match with Mayu Iwatani. I’ve said it before but Mei is the perfect person to lead the division after the AZM/Starlight Kid era. She’s mastered the art of the high speed sprint. They opened with an even feeling out process until Mei missed a dropkick off the apron and crashed hard on the outside. Momo pounced but when Mei responded with a submission, Momo’s screams sold the hell out of that spot. The intensity picked up as this progressed with the two getting into a harder hitting strike exchange than I’d expect. That’s not exactly what either woman is known for. Momo’s biggest close call was probably the crucifix bomb that she hit and she was in disbelief that it wasn’t enough. Soon after, Mei busted out a really cool flipping move apparently dubbed Checkmate to retain in 8:35. Just a really fun way to kick things off and fitting of the title reign. [***½]

Devil Princess and Fukigen Death vs. HANAKO, Rian and Waka Tsukiyama

For those who didn’t follow my Tag League reviews, Devil Princess is Azusa Inaba and Rina. Yeah, anyone who watches enough STARDOM knows what you’ll get from these undercard multi-woman tags. The HATE trio worked well together given they team more often. Rian is still figuring things out and Waka is Waka but the story here was HANAKO. She was coming off of a solid run where she made the finals of the tag league and was booked impressively here too. She dominated for the most part when she was in there and she’s learning to use her size better. Teaming with Maika helped her a lot. In the end, Waka fell to a running knee by Azusa in 8:59. Nothing special here though HANAKO and Rina going at it after the bell was intriguing. [**]

Koguma vs. Matoi Hamabe vs. Saki Kashima

Like the multi-woman tag, goofy triple threat matches are another STARDOM staple. This was as lighthearted as it gets with Koguma dressed in a Santa outfit, the trio taking photos before the bell, and Koguma’s taunt gimmick being a big part of it. Saki headed up into the crowd, leading to some action there. Everyone kept going for flash rollups, so this was right up Saki’s alley. It was a fine little comedy match but it dragged on for too long. The finish was fun as Koguma had it won only for Saki to cover her head with a Santa hat and stole the pin in 10:03.  I get what they were going for but that would’ve worked better at 5-6 minutes. [*½]

Aya Sakura, Saori Anou & Yuna Mizumori vs. AZM, Kohaku & Suzu Suzuki vs. Nanami, Ranna Yagami & Tomoka Inaba

Man, we’re getting all the STARDOM staples tonight. This is one I really enjoy though because they’re the rare promotion that allows more than two legal wrestlers in the ring at once as it should be in this situation. Three legal wrestlers for three teams. Makes sense. Given the people involved, this was a blast. AZM, Ranna, and Aya had a really good exchange involving lots of kicks and fast paced action that turned into just Aya and Rana trading kicks. It was a nice way to give some shine to some of the younger ladies. Of course, the veteran women kicked ass too with some really good Suzu and Saori exchanges where they both hit big German suplexes. In the end, Saori used her tight backslide to beat Inaba at the 9:41 mark. A clusterfuck that worked because it moved along nicely and was fun from start to finish. [***]

Hazuki and Mayu Iwatani vs. Hina and Lady C

Hina and Lady C were in the Tag League though they didn’t win much. Mayu and Hazuki were both here dressed in different styled Santa outfits (Hazuki, like Koguma earlier, was more of a reindeer) which fits their fun loving nature. There was indeed fun to be had at the start with Hazuki not being able to reach a test of strength with Lady C so Mayu came in on her shoulders to do it, which led to Hina going on Lady C’s shoulders. From there, this was mostly good fun with some solid action. I was surprised at how long it went though since Hina and Lady C are lower card girls while Mayu and Hazuki are much higher on the card. That said, Mayu and Hazuki were able to bring something good out of the duo who has worked pretty well together since the Tag League. Hina survived a lot of what Mayu threw at her but fell to a moonsault like so many others after 14:22. A bit long but another good, quality match boosted by the holiday festivities. [***]

Konami, Momo Watanabe, Natsuko Tora, Ruaka and Thekla vs. Maika, Mina Shirakawa, Syuri and wing*gori

Mina Shirakawa is so over. We’ve got a team from different factions to go against HATE members. This also works to preview wing*gori vs. H.A.T.E. Supreme (Momo and Thekla), Maika/Natsuko, and Konami/Syuri, which are all set for Dream Queendom. I was a bit disappointed to see Syuri and Konami open this with a traditional exchange. Their feud is built on hate and betrayal so it needs to be more intense. For the most part, this was standard HATE stuff, which meant some brawling outside, cheating, and bits of shenanigans sprinkled in. That said, having so many people involved meant that things moved along nicely and there was almost always someone fresh in there to keep things interesting. The brawling was the focal point and led to everyone fighting outside, into the crowd, and up the Korakuen steps. The end result was a double countout at 14:43. Solid enough for what it was and better than a lot of what you get from HATE. [**½]

Future of Stardom Championship: Miyu Amasaki [c] vs. Sayaka Kurara

Miyu Amasaki has some big shoes to fill as champion given Rina’s reign. She has been a lot better since Neo Genesis formed and looked really good here again. Her work is much smoother and while Sayaka still has some botch issues (which can be expected in these matches given the parameters), she brings so much energy to her matches. That was the case here with Sayaka throwing her everything into trading forearms with Miyu and when she got into trouble, her comeback attempt featured a lot of fire. She seems to have the kind of stuff that, when the rest of her game develops, can make her a top babyface. The crowd was totally into her. Miyu used a lot of variations of the DDT as part of her offense. It’s an interesting thing to base your offense around, though it does seem like she’ll need to expand. She used a cradle DDT and then her Facebuster to retain in 12:03. That was good stuff and again shows how good the young talent in STARDOM is. [***¼]

meltear vs. Saya Kamitani and Starlight Kid

The return of meltear! They were really the first people in STARDOM I connected with. I love Poi and Tam, adore Starlight Kid, and like Saya, so this is right up my alley. It also previews the two biggest matches on Dream Queendom as Tam meets Saya for the red belt and Starlight Kid faces Poi for the white belt. This did the job of giving us a look at those upcoming matches, with Poi and SLK having a high energy, fast paced interaction to start before Saya threw Tam around on the outside and into a bunch of chairs. They even fought to the back while Starlight Kid and Poi worked a submission inside, giving you a taste of how different these matches will likely be. Once back in the ring, Tam made sure to dish it out as much as she getting it, trading blows with Saya but still finding herself in trouble. There was an added story bit of Saya and SLK not being friends, including some uneasy tags. Saya is now part of a stable featuring wrestlers who turned on Starlight Kid in Oedo Tai last year. The focus of SLK/Poi was on limb work, which I wasn’t totally expecting going into their match but it could be a key story given SLK’s penchant for the Stretch Muffler. The way she caught a superkick into the submission was dope. The closing stretch had a ton of action and made me the most exciting for the upcoming matches. As this got past the 20 minute mark, I figured we’d get a draw to preserve the PPV bouts. Instead, Tam scored with a sweet rollup on Saya to secure the win at the 25:34 mark. Great main event, it got me more pumped for the PPV, and if the singles matches are as good, we’re in for a treat. [****]

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

Everything I could want from this type of show. It was entertaining, only had one or two things that didn’t work, featured two good title matches, and had a main event that rocked while upping the excitement level for the PPV.