Cero Reviews STARDOM New Blood 1

[cero2k]

STARDOM New Blood 1
March 11, 2022
Shinagawa Intercity Hall, Tokyo, Japan

New Blood is a new project by STARDOM, where they intend to give show time to the new talent in the industry, not just STARDOM trainees, but trainees from other schools and promotions as well. Best way to describe this could be by comparing it to AEW's DARK. In addition, most of the 'established' wrestlers are also still somewhat young or new to the business, Starlight Kid is the veteran with 6 years, followed by Ruaka with 5, but they're both 20 and 17 years old respectively. As for oldest, it is indeed Unagi Sayaka with 32, but she's only 3 years in to her wrestling career.

Momo Kohgo vs. Sayaka - 6/10
Sayaka is a trainee of Darejo Project dojo with Emi Sakura, and part of the ongoing Gatoh Move and ChocoPro roster.

The match was basic and well wrestled, I think it speaks a lot that Kohgo, who just recently joined STARDOM was given a singles match, where she showed she can carry a match. Sayaka herself also had a pretty decent showing, she doesn't have the intensity of many women, but her execution looks clean enough, she just needs to work on being a bit more tight on them. The match was back and forth, they tried strikes and submissions, but not real story, just a straight contest, with Kohgo getting the win with a bridging Fisherman Suplex.

Ai Houzan & Maria vs. Cosmic Angels (Unagi Sayaka & Waka Tsukiyama) - 5.5/10
Maria and Houzan are Chigusa Nagayo students, part of the Marvelous dojo. Maria has been wrestling for some years, she even got a win last year in a STARDOM show, but Houzan just celebrated her first debut anniversary days prior to this show.

This match was a bit more rough, the lack of experience of Houzan showed, and Tsukiyama's lack of carrying for that matter too. It wasn't a clusterfuck or anything of the like, they got their stuff in, but you could see that the spots were not crisp and that there was A LOT of cooperation with simple stuff like roll ups. The stuff with Sayaka and Maria was considerably better, because Maria is a freaking great wrestler and Sayaka is a good dance partner. Ending sequence came down to Waka and Maria, with the latter targeting the arm until she tapped out with an Octopus Stretch turned into a arm-breaker. Beautiful looking finish.

Post-match - Sayaka and Maria had some words for each other and as usual, Sayaka tried to make it physical.

Queen's Quest (Lady C & Saya Kamitani) vs. Donna del Mondo (Mai Sakurai & MIRAI) - 7.5/10
While all still young in age and in the industry, these are all wrestlers that are fairly established and already part of the STARDOM roster, Kamitani of all things, is the current White belt champion, so it's not surprising that this was incredibly solid and why it went the time limit draw. They could have easily given Kamitani the win here, but given that it was only 15 minutes, I don't see the problem in letting MIRAI and Sakurai got the limit.

Post-match - MIRAI had short heartfelt speech about joining STARDOM.

Aoi & Tomoka Inaba vs. STARS (Hanan & Saya Iida) - 7/10
Aoi and Inaba are both JUST TAP OUT students, recently got some spotlight in this year's TAKATAICHIMANIA. Aoi is still under a year into the industry, while Inaba is on her second year, she is the current Sendai Girls Junior Champion and a former Queen of JTO. Iida and Hanan are also already well established in the STARDOM roster, Hanan is the current Future of STARDOM champion, while Iida is a former champion. This match is actually Saya Iida's return after being injured for some months.

This was really good, Aoi can be carried to a really good match and her offense looks strong. The match was mostly back and forth, with good performances and energy from all four, but I do have to point out that Aoi took the spinning brainbuster finish by Iida right on her head, I'm guessing she had trouble tucking in and not completely breaking the balance of a spinning suplex. She seemed ok afterwards, but she did ice her neck as soon as the match ended.

Post-match - Iida cut a little promo about the JTO challenge, but what ended up happening was that Inaba challenged Hanan for the Future of STARDOM title. That should be a good match.

Haruka Umesaki & Nanami vs. Oedo Tai (Ruaka & Starlight Kid) - 8/10
Umesaki and Nanami are Diana wrestlers, both around their 3rd year wrestling. These are two that I don't have much knowledge of. Umesaki is a current tag champ in both WAVE and Diana. As mentioned before, they're going against the two most experienced wrestlers in the card.

This was freaking great, there is something special about Umesaki. Granted she's in there dancing with one of the best wrestlers in STARDOM, but there were spots that Umesaki overshadowed SLK by how precise her timing is.

Post-match - SLK wants a singles match with Umesaki and I TOTALLY WANT IT TOO! Umesaki responded and she's not just a good wrestler, she's great in the mic and has great charisma. 21 years old, Umesaki Haruka is someone to look out for.

Utami Hayashishita vs. Miyu Amasaki - 8.5/10
Amasaki is a STARDOM dojo student, the second to join the roster after Lady C, and this is indeed, her debut match, where she straight up challenged the top woman in Japan, arguably the world, and someone who was once a prodigy rookie that in a matter of years, turned the world around for STARDOM. Furthermore, Ogawa himself has hyped Amasaki as a talent that could be in the forefront of STARDOM's future.

The match was fantastic, Amasaki can go! She may not have the size to go into a full war with someone like Hayashishita, but her technique is spot on, she has the grappling knowledge to lock in Hayashishita and give us a credible submission tease. She has the agility to perform some big showy moves. At the end, Hayashishita just hit secong gear, went furiosa on Amasaki and that was enough to take her down with a bridging German for the win.

Amasaki is gonna be big!

Post-match - Hayashishita put over Amasaki and invited her to join Queen's Quest. She accepted. Afterwards, tonight's roster came down to close the show.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This was a short and fantastic show, highlighting the future of women's wrestling in Japan, some of the talent we saw tonight is already far superior than most people celebrating their 10th anniversary in western wrestling. This will be a series worth following. It's free on YouTube, so you have no excuse.