Cero Reviews STARDOM 5★STAR Grand Prix 2021, 8.13

[cero2k]

STARDOM 5★STAR Grand Prix 2021, day 6
August 13, 2021
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Syuri vs. Hanan vs. Mina Shirakawa vs. Lady C - 5.5/10
This was a weird combination of wrestlers, but with Hanan and C there, it actually allowed Syuri to take it easier and play around a bit, her level is so high that she could. The rest was mostly fun chaos until Shirakawa won with the Glorious Collection Mina.

Queen's Quest (AZM, Hina & Utami Hayashishita) vs. Oedo Tai (Rina, Ruaka & Saki Kashima) - 6/10
Not much to this either, just a fun match, much more serious and with a lot of Oedo Tai shenanigans, but fun nonetheless. AZM surprisingly pinned Saki with Azumi Sushi. I really don't know why Rina couldn't take the pin.

Future Of Stardom Championship Match
Unagi Sayaka (c) vs. Mai Sakurai - 5.5/10
I've brought it up before, but I find having to defend your championship during a round robin tournament to be really unfair for the champion. As a challenger, you could arguably decided whether to go all out and win the title, or save yourself for the tournament and hopefully win and challenge for another title, but in the case of the champion, you're slightly more forced to defend, especially if your opponent is not in the tournament, not even the promotion.

The match was ok, we got to see Sayaka in a more dominant position since she was the defending champion against somewhat of a newcomer. I can't really say that I was super impressed by Sakurai at this point, but I'll reserved my judgement until I see her more as an established member of STARDOM. Sayaka submitted Sakurai with a Dai Fuhen Gatame.

Post-match - Mai Sakurai asked to joined the Cosmic Angels. Sayaka tried to tell her off, but Tam Nakano asked her if she was ready to, pretty much, bring it and work hard, which Sakurai said she would, so she joined them in the Delicious pose at the end. Sayaka looked annoyed, but not in a turn heel way.

5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Red Block Match
Fukigen Death [0] vs. Starlight Kid [3] - 6.5/10
I wasn't expecting much from this match since it was the first of the tournament set, but Death is a high speed wrestler and so is SLK, and so they had a great fast paced match. They only got 5 minutes, but they made use of them. This was yet another match in this SLK story of defeating her own stable mates and putting masks on them after the match. SLK won with a moonsault.

I quite enjoyed the early back and forth smoking taunts between Death and Kid.

5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Blue Block Match
Konami [2] vs. Saya Kamitani [2] - 6.5/10
This got a good 11 minutes, but it was a lot of Konami working over Saya after Oedo Tai helped her cut her off at the start of the match. And then, when it came time for Saya to make a comeback, it was a good flurry of offense, but it wasn't enough to really call it a comeback, it was barely going and working when Saya caught Konami with a Dragonrana and got the win. I don't mind that she one like that since it's really a roll up, but I thought that it could have been less heat and more back and forth.

5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Blue Block Match
Tam Nakano [4] vs. Maika [6] - 7/10
This match really made me think that Maika has a STRONG chance at winning her block, if not the whole thing too, she's looked incredibly strong and zero shenanigans. She lost here because she went against the White belt champion, and even so, it was presented as a bit of an upset roll.

Match saw Maika focus on Nakano's injured arm for half of the match, then Nakano made her small comeback, much like the Kamitani one we just saw, and just like the previous match, the underdog caught their opponent with a roll up and the 1-2-3.

5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Red Block Match
Mayu Iwatani [2] vs. Natsupoi [3] - 9/10
This was my favorite match of the night. The only ever time these two had a singles match was in the 2016 5STAR GP when Natsupoi still went as Nastumi Maki, she would lose to Mayu back then too.

Match was mostly back and forth, with Natsupoi coming way closer to defeating Mayu, she managed to hit the Backlash and other big moves, but Mayu kept coming back. For that matter, Natsupoi also managed to kickout and counter some of Iwatani's moves like the Dragon Suplex. Finish saw Mayu kick out of the Faerial Gift, and pinned Natsupoi with a Dragon Suplex.

5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Red Block Match
Koguma [2] vs. Giulia [2] - 8.5/10
This was great, much better than I anticipated. Giulia has been somewhat vicious during the tournament and has a loss to Koguma from a couple of weeks ago, and so, I expected a match that would put Koguma in either a way more dominant spot, or an underdog spot, but instead, what we got, was a really good back and forth match. Giulia was fantastic and Koguma kept up. I mentioned before that her period to qualify anything as ring rust was over, and this match surely showed that there wasn't any ring rust in there anymore. Giulia ended up winning with a Northern Lights Bomb and got her win back.

Post-match - Giulia cut her winner's promo talking about how she's 2-0-2 and can't afford to take any more loses.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Really good show, every single match was enjoyable for different reasons. This was the last show in a couple of weeks since STARDOM cancelled a couple of shows due to COVID-19 protocols after the announcer came close to a COVID case and STAROM don't play with this thing.

Red Block
Giulia - 2-0-2 -- 4
Natsupoi - 1-1-2 -- 3
Himeka - 0-0-0 -- 0
Mayu Iwatani - 2-0-1 -- 4
Koguma - 1-0-2 -- 2
Momo Watanabe - 1-0-1 -- 2
Fukigen Death - 0-0-2 -- 0
Starlight Kid - 2-2-1 -- 5
Saki Kashima - 1-0-2 -- 2
Mina Shirakawa - 2-0-0 -- 4

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