Cero Reviews STARDOM World Climax 2022 ~The Top~

[cero2k]

STARDOM World Climax 2022 - Day 2: The Top
March 27, 2022
Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan

Future Of Stardom Championship Match
Hanan (c) vs. Mai Sakurai - 6/10
Fun, short match. Hanan was really dominant compared to her match from yesterday. Sakurai looked good in what she got in, it just wasn't that much. Hanan won with the backdrop bridge that she really needs to work on the landing, she's usually having to bridge herself in a crooked angle.

Post-match - Hanan talked about her V5. Her sister Hina made her return from a hiatus that she had taken to focus on her high school entrance exam. She challenged Hanan for a Future title down the line.

Cinderella Rumble Match
Saki Kashima vs. Ruaka vs. Mei Suruga vs. Yuna Mizumori vs. Rina vs. Mina Shirakawa vs. Unagi Sayaka vs. Maria vs. Saya Iida vs. Haruka Umesaki vs. Momo Kohgo vs. Tomoka Inaba vs. Nanami vs. Waka Tsukiyama vs. Lady C vs. Ai Houzan vs. Aoi vs. Miyu Amasaki - 5/10
Entrances for this rumble are done by tag teams, but it's everyone for themselves. So we're getting Cosmic Angels wrestling each other at first, but then Marvelous came in, followed by STARS, and so forth. This is a delayed entrance style rumble, with eliminations only counting until the final team has joined the match.
Sayaka and Shirakawa started the match, for the not so common pair up between them. Third was Ai Houzan, followed by Maria, who was out there trying to make friends with Natsuko Tora on commentary, giving her a gatcha capsule.

Fourth was Kohgo and Iida from STARS. Fifth were Aoi and Inaba from JTO. Nanami and Umesaki from DIANA came out later. Amasaki and Lady C representing QQ's. Oedo Tai team of Rina, Kashima, and Ruaka all came out together. Tsukiyama came out alone since the rest of the Cosmic Angels were already in the ring. And finally, last but surely not least, Gatoh Move representatives, Mei Suruga and Yunamon.

Once everyone was there, the eliminations came in fast, and it actually became a really fun match, seeing the pair ups between STARDOM roster versus outsiders, seeing stablemates trying to work together in a really chaotic environment, and of course, seeing who from other promotions were getting spotlight and pins over STARDOM wrestlers. At the end, it came down to Sayaka, Mei, and Amasaki, which already says a lot for both Mei and Amasaki.

Amasaki eliminated Sayaka over the top rope, leaving Mei and Amasaki pair up in a 'Future of Joshi Wrestling' dream match teaser. Mei eventually pinned Amasaki with her Propeller Clutch. These matches are usually a clusterfuck, but they're so incredibly fun, with everyone getting at least one big spot in.

Utami Hayashishita vs. MIRAI - 7.5/10
Really good match. MIRAI wasn't on the offense a lot, but taking on Hayashishita in a singles match pushed her to step up to the plate. They both worked each other's heads, to the point that Hayashishita was actually hurt enough that she had trouble following up after hitting moves that also had her putting preassure on her head, like a German or a bridge. Eventually, Hayashishita relied on locking in a Sleeper instead and tapping out MIRAI. Hayashishita wasn't pushed to the limit, but MIRAI forcing her to switch her game is already good enough for MIRAI.

~Generation of Destiny~
Momo Watanabe vs. Hazuki - 8.5/10
This was incredibly heated. These two had their rivalry for the tag titles that ended with Oedo Tai winning them yesterday, and add to that the post-match insult to injury at the hands of Momo and SLK, and now we had a really stiff looking and energetic fight between the two.

Match was mostly back and forth, really intense liked I mentioned. There was one point early on where Momo got Oedo Tai to join in and attack Hazuki outside the ring, but it was early enough that it only led to some heat and back into the back and forth. The level of intensity of this match best works when the wrestling is never one sided. Towards the end, we got some seriously scary strikes, later followed by Momo trying to cave in Hazuki's head in going for every Peach named move in her arsenal, eventually ending her with a Peach Sunrise bridge.

5★STAR GRAND PRIX 2022 Tournament Announcement - We got dates for the tournament, end of July.

High Speed Championship Match
AZM (c) vs. Koguma vs. Natsupoi - 8/10
This was great. The nature of the high speed style in STARDOM made the 3-way action way better because of the constant chase of counters and roll up pins. Formula here was that each woman had something going on for them, AZM the submission, Poi the athletics, and Koguma the strength, and while Koguma didn't have the speed to keep up with everything that AZM and Poi could do, she was perfectly used to slow down a sequence and set up something new, or two straight up stop them on their tracks and control the action. Finish saw AZM try to roll up either woman, eventually managing to keep Poi down for the 3 count.

Post-match - Mei Suruga came out and challenged AZM, who gladly accepted the challenge.

KAIRI vs. Starlight Kid - 8/10
Good match. Not exactly a high speed match, but a lot of the sequences felt like it. What this had was a stronger story with SLK working KAIRI's arm, and KAIRI overcoming the pain in order to hit the falling elbow. I really enjoyed watching KAIRI do her character here, she feels like she's having fun.

Donna del Mondo (Giulia, Himeka, Maika & Thekla) vs. Prominence (Akane Fujita, Mochi Miyagi, Risa Sera & Suzu Suzuki) - 7.5/10
This was a clusterfuck for all the right reasons. Two teams of four women who have grown to dislike each other a lot, so most of the match felt like a brawl while one or two pair ups took the ring, and it would always break down with one team rushing in to work on someone.

The meat of the match was all about Suzuki and Giulia pairing up. Their fight was back and forth, with a lot of striking and big slams as they started to chase the pin. At one point, Giulia had enough momentum that she got cocky and broke her own pin, only to get slammed. She regained the upper hand, but at that point, Prominence ran in and sent the match to the ending sequences when Giulia pinned Miyagi with a Northern Lights Bomb.

Post-match - Suzuki and Giulia exchanged some words, pretty much saying that things between them aren't over, but with the Cinderella tournament incoming, there was nothing set in paper.

Cinderella Tournament Lineup - We got a rundown of the tournament brackets first round. AZM vs Momo and Hayashishita vs Tam Nakano are arguably the highlights. GIULIA vs Thekla and Natsupoi vs SLK could be show stealers.

Wonder Of Stardom Championship Match
Saya Kamitani (c) vs. Tam Nakano - 8/10
Great match wrestling-wise, but I wasn't convinced with how Kamitani was presented. The match was mostly back and forth, making Kamitani seem way more competitive compared to their title match where Kamitani won. My problem was that as they headed to the ending sequence, Nakano suddenly went all OP, started dropping Kamitani with a lot of heavy slams and then out of almost nowhere, Kamitani rolled up Nakano for the pin. I understand, protect Nakano, but there was no reason why Kamitani could have gone back and forth and won with the Phoenix Splash.

World Of Stardom Championship Match
Syuri (c) vs. Mayu Iwatani - 9/10
Wrestling aside, I thought this was really good in pushing Syuri to a different type of match. Looking back at some of the bigger Syuri matches, her opponents were mostly strikers or big move wrestlers, but Iwatani had a different, more explosive style, with superkicks and moonsaults that don't necessarily need to wear down Syuri to make damage, she can catch you with a superkick and you're down. Syuri had to focus her work on Iwatani's legs just to keep her down. She did most of the damage with her Byakko, the modified stretch muffler, which after a couple of tries, submitted Iwatani.

Post-match - Saya Kamitani and KAIRI came out and joined Syuri to close the show and celebrate.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Great show, I thought it was somewhat stronger than "The Best" yesterday, but I do think that most of it was based of the action inside the ring, since it was night one that had all the strong storylines going into the title matches.