Cero Reviews STARDOM 5★STAR Grand Prix 2021, 8.9

[cero2k]

STARDOM 5★STAR Grand Prix 2021, Day 5
August 9, 2021
EDION Arena Osaka #2, Osaka, Japan

Tam Nakano vs Mina Shirakawa vs Hina - 5.5/10
Fun match. I came in expecting Shirakawa and Nakano to just beat up Hina together, but instead Nakano wasn't having any of that and she brought it to Shirakawa as she did to Hina. Shirakawa was definitely my favorite in this match, she was both funny and good wrestling, I get the impression she's getting into some High Speed stuff soon. Nakano won with Dodom Tam on Hina.

5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Blue Block Match
Konami [0] vs Unagi Sayaka [4] - 6.5/10
This was kinda going the way of most Sayaka matches, but Konami ended up being too dominant, Sayaka had her comebacks and little flurries of offense, but unlike some other matches, Konami would eventually come back and looked complete in control of her plan. At the end, Konami submitted Sayaka with a Triangle Lancer.

5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Blue Block Match
AZM [2] vs Maika [4] - 7/10
Really good match, I wouldn't go and say it was a clash of styles, but we did see the struggle of AZM trying and mostly failing to gain momentum using her high speed approach. Every time AZM seemed to get some space to go after Maika, she would get stopped on the path and either put on a submission or slammed down. Eventually AZM did manage to get Maika off her back and get some offense in and go after Maika's arm. Hurt arm and all, Maika was still to powerful and won with a Michinoku Driver II.

STARS (Mayu Iwatani, Koguma, Hanan, & Lady C) vs Oedo Tai (Starlight Kid, Saki Kashima, Rina, & Ruaka) - 6/10
I wasn't a big fan of this match, too many people in the ring, and sometimes all those people were green and the action was all over the place. The one saving grace was finally seeing SLK and Iwatani come to blows for the first time since SLK properly told Iwatani that she wasn't coming back to STARS, and while it didn't last long, it was great intensity. Beyond that, I liked the little that Koguma and Rina did and of course Kashima, but that was it. Ruaka won with a Freezer Bomb on C.

Donna del Mondo (Giulia, Syuri, & Natsupoi) vs Queen's Quest (Utami Hayashishita, Momo Watanabe, & Saki Kashima) - 7.5/10
Great stuff, there wasn't a combination that wasn't great in this match. The obvious pair-up were Hayashishita and Syuri, but once past the Kamitani babyface in peril run, we got some Momo versus Giulia and a fantastic ending run with Natsupoi versus Hayashishita. After some tornado tag stuff went down, it was Hayashishita who got the win over Natsupoi with a German bridge.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Good, fun, and short show, but it really was just a house show that happened to have GP matches and thus I felt obliged to watch it, otherwise I would had skipped it.

Red Block
Giulia - 1-0-2 -- 2
Natsupoi - 1-1-1 -- 3
Himeka - 0-0-0 -- 0
Mayu Iwatani - 1-0-1 -- 2
Koguma - 1-0-0 -- 2
Momo Watanabe - 1-0-1 -- 2
Fukigen Death - 0-0-1 -- 0
Starlight Kid - 1-2-1 -- 3
Saki Kashima - 1-0-2 -- 2
Mina Shirakawa - 2-0-0 -- 4

Blue Block
Utami Hayashishita - 2-0-1 -- 4
Saya Kamitani - 1-0-2 -- 2
AZM - 1-0-2 -- 2
Syuri - 2-0-1 -- 4
Maika - 3-0-1 -- 6
Tam Nakano - 2-0-2 -- 4
Unagi Sayaka - 2-0-2 -- 4
Ruaka - 0-0-2 -- 0
Konami - 1-0-1 -- 2
Takumi Iroha - 0-0-0 -- 0