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Cero Reviews Stardom New Years Stars 2017 - Day 2

Posted: Jul 14th, '17, 19:45
by cero2k
Stardom New Years Stars 2017 - Day 2
January 7th, 2017
Osaka, Japan

Natsuko Tora vs Azumi - 4.5/10
Azumi was much faster than Natsuko, so she was able to maintain control as long as she didn't leave an opening for Natsuko to counter with her far superior strength. Natsuko would win with a top rope senton.

Kris Wolf vs Arisu Nanase - 5/10
This match all Kris Wolf torturing Arisu, making fun of her, mocking her, and all. Arisu would have a decent comeback at the second part of the match, but it wasn't enough to take on Wolf.

Saori Anou & Yoko Bito vs Hiromi Mimura & Jungle Kyona - 6.5/10
Saori and Yoko had the control of the match for the most part. Hiromi and Kyona had both a respective hot tag, but they would easily lose control back to the bigger sized team of Yoko and Saori. Hiromi was good, but nothing outstanding.

Kay Lee Ray, Nixon Newell, & Shayna Baszler vs Kairi Hojo, Konami, & Mayu Iwatani - 7.5/10
The heel work of Newell and KLR together is amazing, and any combination against Iwatani or Hojo you just know was amazing. Baszler and Konami had a good exchange, but Baszler, while trying to play Zack Sabre, really needs to work on her selling, she executes all these moves way to quick, so that they don't even give the crowd a fans to eat it and react to it.

I'm not sure why they didn't have Yoko Bito in this match if KLR and Newell are challenging for their titles soon, may as well have her here and allow someone to pin her to build the match.

Artist of Stardom Championship Match
Queen’s Quest (Io Shirai, Momo Watanabe, & HZK) vs Oedo Tai (Viper, Kyoko Kimura, & Kagetsu) - 8.5/10
Because Hana Kimura was injured, the titles were vacated, so this match if to crown new champs. This is also Kyoko Kimura's final match in Osaka and thus for the titles, so there's the extra story there that QQ won't allow her to retire with the titles.

Match started with a brawl outside the ring, but quickly enough it continued with HZK in the ring and it kinda stayed lie that for a long while as Oedo Tai got the heat on her. During the match they worked a bit with the Momo/Kagetsu rivalry, and the Viper/Shirai one-on-one match that is coming, really making it seem that even though slow, Viper is a monster if she catches her.

Towards the end of the match, there was an accidental ref bump that gave Io a clean pin over Kimura, but no ref to count it. Everyone would be taken out and leave Kimura and Shirai alone in the ring, Kimura would come close to taking out Shirai, but Shirai would go all fighting spirit on her. Queen's Quest would all hit their moves on Kimura before Io connects the moonsault for the win. That last moonsault, Io landed knee first on Kimura's chest.

Post-match - Io Shirai says that this is her 3rd time, but it's the first for HZK and Momo, so they get a chance to say something, the only thing they did with the mic was talk shit to the other rookies and tell them to come at them. No thanks or anything. Io took their mic and straight up took control of the segment, she really comes off as a superstar when she talks. She also calls out Kimura.

Kimura gets the mic, she uses her last Osaka promo to put over Io Shirai as the best wrestler. She thanks the Osaka crowd and gets her picture taken with Oedo Tai and QQ. This was a good moment. Io Shirai says that she'll be there on the 22nd to see her finally retire.

After Oedo Tai leaves, Io invites everyone to the ring, including one Kairi Hojo, which takes the chance to put out a challenge to regain those titles.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Good show, nothing special. Like always, the show starts with the rookies and thus kinda meh, but the last matches usually tend to deliver.