Review: Stardom – 2017.12.10

Starlight Kid & Natsuko Tora vs. Kaori Yoneyama & Ruaka
This was very good quality for an opener. While you could argue that most of the participants in this match deserve to be much higher on the card it was still entertaining. Starlight Kid pinned Ruaka after a beautiful reverse frog splash. 2.25/5

Hanan vs. Shiki Shibusawa (Rookie of the Year 2017)
This was easily Shiki’s best singles match so far. She showed much more variety in her moveset and looked comfortable in the ring throughout. Hanan also did well, providing a lot of emotion and showing good selling skills. Shiki Shibusawa pinned Hanan after a missile dropkick and becomes Stardom’s 2017 Rookie of the Year.. 2.75/5 

Oedo Tai (Kagetsu, Hana Kimura, Kris Wolf & Sumire Natsu) vs. Jungle Kyona, Hiromi Mimura, Konami & Mari Apache
There were glimpses of everyone’s talent in this match (a fantastic clothesline by Jungle Kyona to Kagetsu being one of the highlights) but this felt very much like one of those WWE matches that have a ton of talent but the match is limited because they have to stick to the story. In this case Hana Kimura was barely involved in the match at all as she sat on the outside until right near the end before coming and helping Kris Wolf get the pin on Hiromi Mimura. None of it was bad it just felt like a missed opportunity, especially for someone like me who is not really interested in the current Oedo Tai storyline. 3/5

Queen’s Quest (Momo Watanabe, HZK & AZM) vs. Bea Priestley, Scarlett & Chardonnay
A solid enough match but the standout moment was Momo Watanabe receiving a nasty mouth injury from a Bea Priestley kick. She battled on and finished the match despite bleeding heavily. The rest of the match was fine though there was nothing too exciting. HZK pinned Chardonnay for the win. 3/5

Io Shirai vs. Kelly Klein (Wonder of Stardom Championship)
A really great match, though a little on the short side (especially as they made a big deal about the match having no time-limit before it started). Very quickly the match moved outside of the ring and Kelly Klein carried Io all the way outside the building. Io fought back and climbed on top of a parked truck and moonsaulted from the top in a brilliant spot. Io headed back to the ring and hit a nice suicide dive on Kelly shortly after. The match evened up with Klein getting in some of her power moves and bringing some very near falls. Io Shirai eventually got the upperhand with a very impressive piledriver followed by a moonsault to get the pin and retain the white belt. 4.25/5

Yoko Bito vs. Stardom
This was Yoko Bito’s final match at Shinkiba and to honour the occasion she has this gauntlet match against 15 women (plus a couple of special guests). First up was the rookies and youngsters, Ruaka, Hanan & Shiki Shibusawa. Starlight Kid was the first wrestler to reach a time-limit draw. Natsuko Tora was next and also got a draw before helping the next entrant, Kaori Yoneyama to achieve the same. Yoneyama also invited some of the trainees to help her. Kris Wolf appeared from the crowd to surpside Bito. Bito removed her tail before more of Oedo Tai got involved and a draw was declared. AZM was next and got in her awesome octopus stretch before the bell sounded another draw. HZK was next and also got a draw. Konami and Hiromi Mimura followed, Bito getting stopped by the bell whilst attempting to imitate Hiromi’s “shouta” dropkick. Jungle Kyona provided some stiff hits. Kagetsu provided some nice comedy, bringing her own watch to count and continuing to assault Bito long after the official draw had been declared and Hiroyo Matsumoto had been introduced. Matsumoto threw Kagetsu out of the ring and proceeded to get another draw. Momo Watanabe got the first pin on Bito as she used her own B-Driver against her. Io Shirai was next and beautifully reversed a crucifix powerbomb into a pin attempt before hitting a moonsault after the bell. In a shock appearance, Mayu Iwatani was the final competitor. Still clearly recovering from her dislocated elbow they had a nice safe exchange before embracing after the bell. After the final match it was announced that Bito’s final match would be a tag match with Takumi Iroha against Meiko Satomura and Toni Storm on the 24th December. Yoko Bito gave a touching speech to close out this great end to the show. 4/5