Stardom No People Gate

Stardom No People GateStardom No People Gate

By GARZA
From March 08, 2020
Discussion

Jyushin Liger is on commentary!

Time Change Battle Royal
Momoe Nakanishi vs. Mima Shimoda vs. Death Yama-san vs. Natsu Sumire vs. AZM vs. Konami vs. Starlight Kid vs. Tam Nakano vs. Ruaka vs. Rina vs. Hina vs. Saya Iida vs. Leyla Hirsch vs. Saya Kamitani vs. Captain Stardom vs. Super Strong Starlight Machine - 6/10, but really fun.


Time Change just means that entrants come in in time intervals a la New Japan Rumble, and that participants had not been revealed. Rules are that it's over the top rope, pin, or submission to eliminate.

Death Yama and Saya Lida started the match. AZM was third and immediately came in, rolled up Lida, and eliminated her. Nakanishi came in with a mask and pretended to be someone else until AZM unmasked her, she had retired in 2005, so it was nice to see her back, moving like nothing. She eliminated Death Yama with the most awesome-est pin.

Ruaka, Rina, and Hina came in to fill the ring and become sacrificial lambs for someone later on. Captain Stardom and Starlight Kid came in to become babyfaces in peril until Hirsch came in and beat up all the rookies.

Captain Starlight eliminated Hina, so she may now have more pins than Captain New Japan, Captain NOAH, and Bone Soldier. Just kidding, I honestly don't know any of those men's win/loss records. At this point, all the rookies and curtain jerkers were eliminated.

And finally, a real kickasses started to come in with Konami and Tam. There was an awesome spot with all the ladies doing a centipede, except for Nakanishi who stepped on all of them. Natsu came in and started spaying everyone in the centipede.

The other big surprise was Mima Shimoda. Liger popped for her. She eliminated Natsu in the shittiest way tho. After this, Konami and Tam had a chance to do their thing together, which was the best part of the match. The latter eliminated the former over the top rope. Mima later eliminated Tam.

Kamitami had a good showing towards the end, doing Pele Kicks and Shooting Star Presses, but SSSM was the one that took the pin surprisingly over her.

Finish saw AZM and Momoe fight in the apron, Momoe had a German on AZM, who was holding on the ropes. SSSM kicked her hands off and both crashed down.

Momoe Nakanishi's comedy was the best thing in the match. She's a national treasure. She eliminated Starlight Kid with a moonsault.

Saia Lida did a 3 faces of Saya, playing herself, Captain Stardom and Super Strong Starlight Machine. Liger's reaction to both characters was great.

Post-match - After the match, SSSM called out Tora Natsuko.

Natsuko Tora vs. Super Strong Starlight Machine - 6.5/10


Natsuko Tora was originally going to face Arisa Hoshiki, but she got injured right before the show and so Tora took on the winner of the previous match to not have her miss the show since she is being pushed right now.

In all good sense, SSSM just fought a Battle Royale and Tora Natsuko IS the new leader of Oedo Tai, and thus this was pretty much a squash, that I won't rate as such because SSSM did have a short hope spot, but it was still all Tora destruction.

Tokyo Cyber Squad (Hana Kimura & Jungle Kyona) vs. Donna del Mondo (Giulia & Maika) - 8/10


For personal reasons, but I think Donna del Mondo is top 3 stables in the world right now. I love their look, I love Giulia, I love Maika, and in a sense, I like that they came in to Stardom, they're not women we saw as little rookies five years ago. Gives them a big time essence. If only they were above average wrestlers like the top echelon of Stardom.

Match saw Donna cut off Kyona, beat her up for a while until Hana came in with the hot tag. Hana did have a great hot tag, at least up until she had the double submission that she, I guess had to let go because Giulia wasn't legal?

Giulia and Hana had a great one-on-one fight for a while until they took each other out and tagged in Jungle and Maika, they fought for a while until Kyona hit the Jungle Buster on Maika for the win. TCS just earned themselves a shot at Donna's titles. Great match.

Post-match - Jungle Kyona challenged Giulia to a singles match. I didn't get all of Giulia's response, but I think she just blew her off.

Goddesses Of Stardom Title Match
Oedo Tai (Bea Priestley & Jamie Hayter) (c) vs. Queen's Quest (Momo Watanabe & Utami Hayashishita) - 8.5/10


This had a weird start, but I liked it. QQ tried to jump Oedo Tai, but the latter was fast enough to exit the ring, and by forcing the other two to chase, they manage to get the upper hand and cut off Momo from her corner and begin working over her.
Utami got the hot tag and had two good runs against both Bea and Hayter, but in a sense, it almost became a babyface in peril spot too and gave Momo a hot tag run too.

Towards the end, there was a big spot with Momo giving Bea the B Driver on the apron, followed by a Diving Somato to the back of the neck, and a running knee to the front, and yet another B Driver, but Bea still kicked out. Hayter didn't break the pin, but she did save the match by taking out Momo before she could go for the kill.

Momo got another big near fall with another Diving Somato, and another near fall with the Peace Sunrise, but that one was broke up by Hayter. Bea made a comeback with a desperation Regal Plex and a Kamigoye. Finish came soon after after Oedo Tai hit a running knee/clothesline combo, followed by Bea hitting a running knee and the Queen's Landing for the win. Really good match, the last minutes especially.

Post-match - Kamitami came out and asked Utami to team up with her to challenge Oedo Tai again. Utami made the challenge to Bea and Hayter vs Kamitami and herself. This all builds towards Momo and Utami's dissension.

Bea told Utami that she couldn't beat her for the Red Title, she couldn't beat Hayter for the SWA title, and she JUST lost this match, and now she wants another match along with a rookie, but she still accepted because it'll be an easy paycheck. The Momo vs Utami breakup will be soo good.

Lumberjack Match
Mayu Iwatani vs. Saki Kashima - 7.5/10


Even in an empty arena, Mayu still gets streamers. Bless her heart for getting excited for them.

The match inside the ring between Mayu vs Kashima was great, could had been a lot better if this wasn't a Lumberjack match. The lumberjacks were the STARS and Oedo Tai, so it was a lot of just beating up the girl of the other stable, and the stables fighting each other. I didn't mind it at first until they brawled in the seats. After that, it was a lot of Oedo Tai costing Mayu the match when she had a clear win, either by ref bumps, pulling the ref, chair shots behind the refs back, and such, and they did that over and over until all of Oedo Tai had been taken out and Mayu had the clear path to hit a kick combo and Moonsault for the win.

The brawl in the seats was good. Mayu took out Oedo Tai with a Plancha over the entrance balcony, but then Kashima tossed her down the stairs, and she straight up went down all the way to the floor. Later on, Mayu hit a Border Toss on top of Oedo Tai, with so much strength that Mayu herself flew back.

I think Lumberjack matches will be a good idea going forward with empty arena shows, but don't let them become overbooked just because you have the people there.

Post-match - Mayu starts doing her promo with only one dude, probably Liger, reacting to her. She called in STARS, they all talked a bit, explained a bit about STARDOM's situation dealing with the COVID-19, thanked those watching home, and bid goodbye. No challenges or anything, so that was a nice change of pace.

Backstage, Mayu cut another promo with the press, pretty much saying the same about how STARDOM will proceed going forward.

OVERALL THOUGHTS


Good show, it was entertaining and straight fun, it went by fast. The two tag matches were particularly better than the rest of the card. There's definitely ways to do empty arena shows and not look dumb and make them work, STARDOM did it right. I laughed a lot with Momoe Nakanishi.

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