Ruaka vs Hanan vs Shiki Shibusawa
Rookie three way opener. This is the quintessential Stardom
opener, competently worked whilst still feeling quite rehearsed. There’s a few
moments of hesitation, with Shibusawa looking the least comfortable of the
three. Her offence at this stages seems to be mainly dropkicks. The sections
with Ruaka working Hanan look the most coherent, they work very well together,
and Hanan has a great looking rolling leglock. Ruaka gets the win by rolling up
Hanan.
Natsuko Tora vs Konami
Konami is pretty great, really like her fighting stance. Her
early offence targets the back with some sharp kicks and a nice knee drop. They
work a fun headscissors section early on, with Konami battling to get to the
ropes whilst Tora seems to choke the life out of her. Tora hits a surprisingly
great spear, but Konami hits a big German suplex and kicks her in the face to
win. Short match, but pretty fun.
Jungle Kyona & Mari Apache vs Shanna & Starlight Kid
Nicely worked battle of speed vs power. Starlight Kid has a
very brief advantage until Kyona catches her on a 619 and nails a side slam. Apache
works Kid on the mat, with her size advantage letting her control easily. It’s
the speed advantage that allows Kid to make her escape and tag in Shanna, and
her hot tag run is pretty fun. Her offensive run does include a
double-underhook facebuster that basically drops Kyona on her head and her
crossbody into a sunset flip looks great. Her mistake is taking out Apache with
a big suicide dive, as this leaves Kid alone with Kyona, with Jungle nailing a
big clothesline for the win. Good stuff.
Queen’s Quest (Viper, HZK & AZM) vs Toni Storm, Xia
Brookside & Gabby Ortiz
Everyone gets paired off in the opening stages, with the big
gun of both teams – Viper and Storm – having the best sequence. Viper is really
good at using her size advantage in interesting ways, and her sudden crossbody
looks deadly with how quickly she’s able to hit it. When things break down, it’s
unsurprisingly the two least experienced, Brookside and Ortiz, who look slightly
lost. Though AZM and HZK are both really young, their execution has a crispness
that belies that and shows their experience. Storm hits a lovely suicide dive,
but Ortiz ends up isolated and all three members of Queen’s Quest jump on her,
culminating in a Viper senton for the win.
Oedo Tai (Kris Wolf, Kagetsu & Hana Kimura) vs Mayu
Iwatani, Hiromi Mimura & Yoko Bito
This is the first time I’ve seen Iwatani since she’s become
the World of Stardom champion, and it’s quite interesting to see her carry
herself as the ace. She’s believable in the role, partly helped by the fact she’s
the best performer in the match. Given the nature of Oedo Tai matches, this
breaks down pretty swiftly. I loved the fact that, during the Oedo Tai pose,
Wolf decides to tickle Mimura rather than put a boot into her face, somehow
feels a bit more dickish. The faces later do the Kaientai pose on Kimura, which
feels like a nice payback spot. Oedo Tai logically have the advantage when
things break down, swifter at coming to each other’s aid and triple-teaming the
first member they isolate. In this case, it’s Mimura who gets singled out. The
superior teamwork of Oedo Tai even plays into the finish, as Kagetsu gets a
blind tag during a Mimura/Wolf roll up exchange and gets the win with a 450
splash. Fun main event.
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