Cero Reviews STARDOM Nippon Budokan Great Eve Festival
Posted: Feb 8th, '21, 15:19
Stardom Nippon Budokan Great Eve Festival
January 30th, 2021
Belle Salle Takadanobaba, Tokyo, Japan
Gokigen Death vs. Natsuko Tora vs. Lady C - 4.5/10
This was fun, but not particularly good in-ring work. Tora is not the best and Lady C is still green. There was a little story with Gokiden bringing up that it was Tora's birthday the day before, and this annoyed Tora so much that she started beating up both women. At the end, after some comedy with Gokiden, she used C as a weapon to take out Tora and then pinned her with the O'Connor Roll. Coming in, you knew it was a weird matchup between the three.
Queen's Quest (AZM, Saya Kamitani & Utami Hayashishita) vs. STARS (Ruaka, Saya Iida & Starlight Kid) - 6.5/10
Good match, really action packed. They're building Hayashishita vs Kamitani for Budokan, but they actually worked like normal, no dissension or anything. Kamitani got the pin over Ruaka, which was to be expected, either her or Hayashishita. For that matter, it was actually Hayashishita who set up the finish, so that Kamitani could come in with a Missile Dropkick for the pin. Beyond that, the stuff with Iida vs AZM was great.
Mayu Iwatani vs. Saki Kashima - 6.5/10
Kashima is not wearing her current Oedo Tai gear, she went back to her former self, she tried to pretend being honorable early on, but as the match went on, the heelish side came out and started cheating and relying on Tora for the occasional interference.
Mayu gave Kashima a lot in the match, but even so, Kashima never felt like having a chance, and it was more of an Iwatani destruction path. It makes perfect sense, not only in their standing in the promotion, but just because Iwatani is heading into collision with Yoshiko, and Kashima is not really doing anything, not even within Oedo Tai. Both women did look great and I'm still hoping that Kashima would get more.
Donna del Mondo (Giulia & Maika) vs. Cosmic Angels (Tam Nakano & Unagi Sayaka) - 8.5/10
Favorite match of the night, not only was it well wrestled, great selling by Sayaka, and energy with Guilia, but every time that Maika and Sayaka worked together, I couldn't help but think that we were looking at the future of STARDOM. They may not be the best wrestlers, even in the promotion, but there are many places these two can go. Maika reminds me a lot of year one Hayashishita, an ass kicker that is slowly growing (let's just hope that STARDOM doesn't want to 'prettify' her like they did with Hayashishita). Sayaka on the other hand, she is more of a underdog babyface, great selling, great look, a hell of a Frog Splash, and her 7-match trial is doing a lot for her, she strikes me as someone that we're going to get to see grow in the same way we saw Iwatani grow.
The match saw DdM completely dominate Sayaka, she was the ultimate babyface in peril, with Nakano being the one that got some offense. The story here was that Giulia was just overly vicious, but she had a lot of trouble putting down Sayaka and it seemed that it made her snap, and that's when they took it home, Giulia killed and submitted Sayaka.
Post-match - Giulia, being a complete asshole, kept the submission on Sayaka, forcing Nakano to straight up start punching her to release the hold. Nakano and Giulia started exchanging some words that lead to Nakano challenging Giulia to put her title on the line, in an Explosive Deathmatch!, but before Giulia continued, Starlight Kid jumped in, took the mic, and respectfully asked for a shot herself, and quite potentially to annoy Nakano, Giulia accepted Kid's challenge instead.
Since this is taking place before Budokan, I think I'll be actually getting my idea of Giulia vs Nakano for the title at Budokan, and it seems there will be some actual fire underneath it all.
Goddesses Of Stardom Championship Match
Oedo Tai (Bea Priestley & Konami) (c) vs. Donna del Mondo (Himeka & Natsupoi) - 8/10
This was great, I only felt that Himeka's hot tag wasn't as strong as Natsupoi's babyface in peril selling, and to a certain point, it was the same match we had just seen with the other half of Donna del Mondo vs Cosmic Angels.. Natsupoi was cut off early in the match and started getting beat up, mostly by Konami's kick and submission offense. Himeka did eventually get the hot tag and did kinda run wild for a bit, but going against Bea, they ended up just taking each other out, forcing for Natsupoi and Konami to come back in. at the end, Oedo Tai double teamed Natsupoi and Konami finished her off with a submission.
Natsupoi's performance, either selling or in offense was fantastic, soo much potential in her, she's so little that she takes advantage of the ring to really put extra speed and power to everything she does, even the way that she moves her arms when going for something as simple as a stomp, it makes it look great.
Post-match - Priestley talked some trash, which provoked Himeka to go for the weird trope in STARDOM where whoever doesn't get pinned in a tag title match, challenges for the same title but with a different partner, and so, Himeka and Maika made a challenge for the tag titles.
SWA Undisputed World Women's Championship Match
Syuri (c) vs. Momo Watanabe - 8/10
The build up to this video, Syuri pushed and pushed Momo to bring the 'angry side' out of her, and so we kinda got that. The action was based on kicks and submissions, but with a couple of Germans and other slams in there as they started to hit second gear, mostly back and forward. Syuri is really charismatic and full of energy, so it was a good complement to Momo, who tends to be all business all the time, and can get somewhat dry at times. At the end of the match, it was Syuri that manage to lock Momo in a pretzel and I wasn't 100% sure of Momo submitted, or the referee stopped the match, that's how rolled up Momo was that I couldn't see her hand or face submitting.
Post-match - Syuri put over Momo and thanked her for a great match. Syuri said she wanted her next challenger to be someone who defeated her at the 5Star Grand Prix -- AZM. The match will take place the same day of Guilia vs Starlight Kid, so Syuri and AZM agreed to have a better match than them. Syuri then closed the show along with LIJ....sorry, Donna del Mondo
OVERALL THOUGHTS
We're still doing stops before the big Budokan, so since we already know that some people have their matches, it feels like we're working with less people; however, they're still trying to get some matches out of Donna del Mondo for sure, who just looking at this particular card, took the three top matches, and are already building to main event another show prior to Budokan. It's were Hayashishita vs Kamitani and Iwatani vs Yoshiko being booked hurt them, since the promotion likely wants to close shows with title matches and Hayashishita won't be putting the title on the line before Kamitani, and Iwatani doesn't have much to do without Yoshiko being in the promotion.
January 30th, 2021
Belle Salle Takadanobaba, Tokyo, Japan
Gokigen Death vs. Natsuko Tora vs. Lady C - 4.5/10
This was fun, but not particularly good in-ring work. Tora is not the best and Lady C is still green. There was a little story with Gokiden bringing up that it was Tora's birthday the day before, and this annoyed Tora so much that she started beating up both women. At the end, after some comedy with Gokiden, she used C as a weapon to take out Tora and then pinned her with the O'Connor Roll. Coming in, you knew it was a weird matchup between the three.
Queen's Quest (AZM, Saya Kamitani & Utami Hayashishita) vs. STARS (Ruaka, Saya Iida & Starlight Kid) - 6.5/10
Good match, really action packed. They're building Hayashishita vs Kamitani for Budokan, but they actually worked like normal, no dissension or anything. Kamitani got the pin over Ruaka, which was to be expected, either her or Hayashishita. For that matter, it was actually Hayashishita who set up the finish, so that Kamitani could come in with a Missile Dropkick for the pin. Beyond that, the stuff with Iida vs AZM was great.
Mayu Iwatani vs. Saki Kashima - 6.5/10
Kashima is not wearing her current Oedo Tai gear, she went back to her former self, she tried to pretend being honorable early on, but as the match went on, the heelish side came out and started cheating and relying on Tora for the occasional interference.
Mayu gave Kashima a lot in the match, but even so, Kashima never felt like having a chance, and it was more of an Iwatani destruction path. It makes perfect sense, not only in their standing in the promotion, but just because Iwatani is heading into collision with Yoshiko, and Kashima is not really doing anything, not even within Oedo Tai. Both women did look great and I'm still hoping that Kashima would get more.
Donna del Mondo (Giulia & Maika) vs. Cosmic Angels (Tam Nakano & Unagi Sayaka) - 8.5/10
Favorite match of the night, not only was it well wrestled, great selling by Sayaka, and energy with Guilia, but every time that Maika and Sayaka worked together, I couldn't help but think that we were looking at the future of STARDOM. They may not be the best wrestlers, even in the promotion, but there are many places these two can go. Maika reminds me a lot of year one Hayashishita, an ass kicker that is slowly growing (let's just hope that STARDOM doesn't want to 'prettify' her like they did with Hayashishita). Sayaka on the other hand, she is more of a underdog babyface, great selling, great look, a hell of a Frog Splash, and her 7-match trial is doing a lot for her, she strikes me as someone that we're going to get to see grow in the same way we saw Iwatani grow.
The match saw DdM completely dominate Sayaka, she was the ultimate babyface in peril, with Nakano being the one that got some offense. The story here was that Giulia was just overly vicious, but she had a lot of trouble putting down Sayaka and it seemed that it made her snap, and that's when they took it home, Giulia killed and submitted Sayaka.
Post-match - Giulia, being a complete asshole, kept the submission on Sayaka, forcing Nakano to straight up start punching her to release the hold. Nakano and Giulia started exchanging some words that lead to Nakano challenging Giulia to put her title on the line, in an Explosive Deathmatch!, but before Giulia continued, Starlight Kid jumped in, took the mic, and respectfully asked for a shot herself, and quite potentially to annoy Nakano, Giulia accepted Kid's challenge instead.
Since this is taking place before Budokan, I think I'll be actually getting my idea of Giulia vs Nakano for the title at Budokan, and it seems there will be some actual fire underneath it all.
Goddesses Of Stardom Championship Match
Oedo Tai (Bea Priestley & Konami) (c) vs. Donna del Mondo (Himeka & Natsupoi) - 8/10
This was great, I only felt that Himeka's hot tag wasn't as strong as Natsupoi's babyface in peril selling, and to a certain point, it was the same match we had just seen with the other half of Donna del Mondo vs Cosmic Angels.. Natsupoi was cut off early in the match and started getting beat up, mostly by Konami's kick and submission offense. Himeka did eventually get the hot tag and did kinda run wild for a bit, but going against Bea, they ended up just taking each other out, forcing for Natsupoi and Konami to come back in. at the end, Oedo Tai double teamed Natsupoi and Konami finished her off with a submission.
Natsupoi's performance, either selling or in offense was fantastic, soo much potential in her, she's so little that she takes advantage of the ring to really put extra speed and power to everything she does, even the way that she moves her arms when going for something as simple as a stomp, it makes it look great.
Post-match - Priestley talked some trash, which provoked Himeka to go for the weird trope in STARDOM where whoever doesn't get pinned in a tag title match, challenges for the same title but with a different partner, and so, Himeka and Maika made a challenge for the tag titles.
SWA Undisputed World Women's Championship Match
Syuri (c) vs. Momo Watanabe - 8/10
The build up to this video, Syuri pushed and pushed Momo to bring the 'angry side' out of her, and so we kinda got that. The action was based on kicks and submissions, but with a couple of Germans and other slams in there as they started to hit second gear, mostly back and forward. Syuri is really charismatic and full of energy, so it was a good complement to Momo, who tends to be all business all the time, and can get somewhat dry at times. At the end of the match, it was Syuri that manage to lock Momo in a pretzel and I wasn't 100% sure of Momo submitted, or the referee stopped the match, that's how rolled up Momo was that I couldn't see her hand or face submitting.
Post-match - Syuri put over Momo and thanked her for a great match. Syuri said she wanted her next challenger to be someone who defeated her at the 5Star Grand Prix -- AZM. The match will take place the same day of Guilia vs Starlight Kid, so Syuri and AZM agreed to have a better match than them. Syuri then closed the show along with LIJ....sorry, Donna del Mondo
OVERALL THOUGHTS
We're still doing stops before the big Budokan, so since we already know that some people have their matches, it feels like we're working with less people; however, they're still trying to get some matches out of Donna del Mondo for sure, who just looking at this particular card, took the three top matches, and are already building to main event another show prior to Budokan. It's were Hayashishita vs Kamitani and Iwatani vs Yoshiko being booked hurt them, since the promotion likely wants to close shows with title matches and Hayashishita won't be putting the title on the line before Kamitani, and Iwatani doesn't have much to do without Yoshiko being in the promotion.