Cero Reviews STARDOM 5★STAR Grand Prix 2021, 9.6

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Cero Reviews STARDOM 5★STAR Grand Prix 2021, 9.6

Post by cero2k » Sep 10th, '21, 12:32

STARDOM 5★STAR Grand Prix 2021, Day 10
September 6, 2021
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Maika vs. Mai Sakurai - 5.5/10
Ok match, this was somewhat the inverse of Sakurai's matches with Momo or Giulia, in this match, while she did end up losing, she got a lot of offense on Maika who just wanted to have a night off I guess. Maika won with Sazanka, the crossed arm STO.

Future Of Stardom Championship Match
Unagi Sayaka (c) vs. Waka Tsukiyama - 5.5/10
This is Tsukiyama's debut for STARDOM, on her first anniversary of her wrestling debut, and she's challenging for the Future of STARDOM title. She's also debuting new ring gear, she's not a devil anymore. You can tell she's still green, she still has that thing were she prepares to execute a move, instead of simply connection the motions with fluidity, selling is ok, but she didn't really sell any intensity. Little things like those that will start to improve as she gets more and more matches with experienced opponents.

The match may had been a bit long for their level of experience, but I did appreciate that they gave them time to have Tsukiyama do more, try her out to a normal amount of time, and by all means, let Sayaka carry a match. Sayaka got the submission win with Dai Fuhen Gatame.

5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Blue Block Match
Ruaka [0] vs. Saya Kamitani [4] - 5/10
Not that great of a match, it was one of those where Ruaka was just slow and coasted and got a lot of offense over Kamitani until she made her comeback and made things slightly more interesting, but not that much. Final of minutes Ruaka kinda pushed forward, but ended up falling to a Frankensteiner from Saya.

5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Red Block Match
Fukigen Death [2] vs. Momo Watanabe [2] - Dud
Dud because this lasted, in a way, what it should have lasted, but that is just not enough to call it a match. I want a full Death vs Momo match. This started with Death using her tricks on Momo to annoy her and even get a near fall, but as soon as Momo recollected herself, she got a victory roll up and won.

Post-match - After Death lost, Saki Kashima jumped Momo.

5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Red Block Match
Saki Kashima [2] vs. Momo Watanabe [4] - 5/10
Yes, Momo is being forced for some reason to pull double duty back-to-back on a freaking round robin tournament! I can understand arguments to the title matches we've seen, by Momo is literally doing two tournament matches on a single night!

There was nothing to this match. It took a while for the referee to get control of it and get rid of Death, who had been attacking Momo along with Kashima. Once done, the match got better, but it was still just Momo making her comeback, countering what Kashima threw at her, until she got the pin with a Kishikaisei reversal.

It's really annoying that STARDOM, being one of the best promotions of the year and having such a strong tournament, at the same time make a mockery out of it with this booking.

5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Red Block Match
Natsupoi [5] vs. Himeka [2] - 6.5/10
This was considerably longer than I thought they were going to get. The match was an obvious clash of styles, small vs big, speed vs power, and while some stuff here and there was sloppy, the overall match was good. I think the sloppiness comes mostly from Natsupoi not usually doing her spots with someone as tall, and for Himeka having to twist and turn for someone as small as Natsupoi. These two are accustomed to being a tag team, not opponents. At the end, Himeka submitted Natsupoi with an Argentinean Backbreaker.

Post-match - As a proof of the type of friends they are, Natsupoi got a piggyback ride on Himeka to the back.

5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Red Block Match
Giulia [4] vs. Mina Shirakawa [4] - 6/10
Good match. Some stuff was a bit sloppy, but it didn't hurt the match as much, it just made it seem like these two were wildly going at each other. This was one of those matches that Shirakawa leans more toward the strong style than the high speed, so she and Giulia did a lot of striking and teasing each other. Giulia has her neck all taped up, so Shirakawa made it her target, which in hindsight would be kinda weird knowing that Giulia was indeed hurting. Giulia ended up winning with a Northern Lights Bomb.

Not the crispiest of matches, but even with a loss, Shirakawa looked quite competent going against someone like Giulia.

5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Red Block Match
Koguma [2] vs. Starlight Kid [7] - 7/10
This was a really good match. I don't know if time will prove me wrong, but while watching this match and seeing them go all out, I started to think that they wouldn't be doing any title matches soon. When Koguma won, I thought I was wrong, but there still wasn't a title challenge, so they may be thinking that it's not worth having this match so soon after SLK won the title.

Match was mostly back and forth high speed action, a lot of reversing, pin attempts and counters to them. Koguma won with a German Suplex.

Post-match - While I expected Koguma to challenge Starlight Kid for the High Speed title, HZK came out instead and challenged Koguma to a match at the Ota Ward Gymnasium show. This will be HZK's return to STARDOM.

5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Blue Block Match
Syuri [5] vs. Konami [6] - 8.5/10
This was awesome. Just a great exchange of strikes, submissions, and fighting spirit. Both Syuri and Konami have a really similar style, so the match was about it with many mirror spots. The action was back and forth and it really didn't slow down until the last minutes when they both started to heavily sell the struggle. The finish itself was brilliant, with Syuri dominating the last minutes, she locked in a sleeper and roped around the legs on Konami, who's only escape was to lean back and roll Syuri into a roll up for the win. The win helps both women, Konami gets a win over Syuri, and Syuri takes a loss in a fight she was on her way to win, only because she got caught in a hard to escape roll up.

Konami just propelled herself to the top of the block.

5STAR Grand Prix 2021 Blue Block Match
Takumi Iroha [2] vs. Tam Nakano [6] - 9/10
This was a Nakano match to the pace of Iroha, who was in control for most of the match, but as is usual for Nakano, she makes these crazy comebacks, fighting through the pain and never giving up, and that's how she usually wins, in this case, that's how she just managed to come close to defeating Iroha. It was a great showing for Nakano though, because she didn't only recover to come back, but she came back and wrestled an Iroha style and managed to really hurt Iroha in her own game.

Last couple of minutes was a race to hit their signature moves, Iroha at one point did kickout of a weak looking Twilight Dream, which I found interesting, I figured if Nakano was losing, she should avoid hitting it. Iroha at the end won with the Running Three.

There was one particular spot that I liked, that was kinda scary too, where Iroha goes for a superplex, and Nakano counters by using the arm position and locking it into a guillotine on the top turnbuckle, pulling back almost falling over.

Post-match - Iroha cut her winner's promo saying that she beat the White belt champion. She said that being only three matches in has shown her the level of the STARDOM roster and is looking forward to taking on them all. She said that Marvelous is going through some hard times, but she will win the tournament for them and show what they stand for.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
I don't know what it was, but a lot of the wrestlers were not on their game tonight, like nothing went wrong or looked that bad, but I know they could have done better. The show itself was good, we had a couple of matches that were really good, but I'm not going to ignore the annoyances of this show, like Momo getting booked in two tournament matches in one day, that stuff really shouldn't happen if you're trying to sell me that this tournament is legit and prestigious.

NOTE: After this show, it was announced that Giulia will miss the rest of her dates due to injury and thus has forfeit her matches with:

9/11 Natsupoi
9/16 Fukigen Death
9/20 Himeka
9/25 Momo Watanabe

Red Block
Giulia - 3-0-6 -- 6
Natsupoi - 3-1-3 -- 7
Himeka - 3-0-2 -- 6
Mayu Iwatani - 3-0-1 -- 6
Koguma - 2-0-2 -- 4
Momo Watanabe - 4-0-1 -- 8
Fukigen Death - 2-0-4 -- 4
Starlight Kid - 3-2-2 -- 7
Saki Kashima - 1-0-3 -- 2
Mina Shirakawa - 2-0-3 -- 4

Blue Block
Utami Hayashishita - 2-1-1 -- 5
Saya Kamitani - 3-0-2 -- 6
AZM - 1-0-2 -- 2
Syuri - 2-1-2 -- 5
Maika - 3-1-3 -- 7
Tam Nakano - 3-0-3 -- 6
Unagi Sayaka - 2-1-2 -- 5
Ruaka - 0-0-4 -- 0
Konami - 4-0-2 -- 8
Takumi Iroha - 2-0-1 -- 4
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