Stardom New Years Stars 2017 - Day 1

Stardom New Years Stars 2017 - Day 1Stardom New Years Stars 2017 - Day 1

By GARZA
From January 03, 2017
Discussion

Azumi/Roaka Promos - Bad, but real.

Azumi vs Ruaka - 5/10


Ruaka is 12 yrs old and is a Jazz dancer. Azumi is 14 yrs old and has been wrestling for 4 yrs, she is better than 80% of the WWE, Knockouts, and Women of Honor combined. Some timing and execution was a bit off, but overall this match pretty well wrestled for two young rookies. Finish saw Azumi roll Ruaka, the pin looked weak.

Post-match - Azumi tells Ruaka to get her shit together and wishees every a Happy New Year, little comedy and to the back.

Hiromi Mimura, Saori Anou & Arisu Nanase/Kaori Yoneyama, Konami & Natsuko Tora promos - It's like watching a shoot interview, they're just there, talking, hanging out. It really helps seeing them up close to properly differentiate them inside the ring.

Hiromi Mimura, Saori Anou & Arisu Nanase vs Kaori Yoneyama, Konami & Natsuko Tora - 6.5/10


Yoneyama's team is the heel faction. They started the match pairing up, first match up was between the grapplers (Natsuko and Arisu), who had a great grappling exchange; then came the powerhouses (Yonetama and Saori), which was ok, nothing special; and finally, the strikers, (Hiromi and Konami), who had a good exchange. After that the match went all tornado tag, they didn't do much, but what they did looked well executed. I was particularly amazed by Arisu that picks up her opponent like a Scoop Slam, but then twists her into a German Bridged Fall Away Slam, I had to re-watch it like 5 times to fully understand what was going on. Nanase's team takes the win.

Watanabe/Kagetsu promos - Kagetsu comes off as a fighter, but Watanabe's promo said tons more with less words. She just said "it's my first single's match in a while, I have a lot of anger for her' and walks away. She's little but came off as a killer.

High Speed Challenge
Momo Watanabe vs Kagetsu - 7.5/10 TIME LIMIT DRAW!


They started properly in the ring, a bit of grappling, and then shit hit the fan quickly. They went outside, started brawling around, a broom made an appearance. There was some un-intentional comedy with the ref when he tried to take the broom away, the fans reacted to it and they kinda just went with it and played a bit to the comedy while Kagetsu kept beating the shit out of Momo, so everyone was having fun except Momo.

The match started to get better when Momo made her comeback and the match got competitive and hard hitting. There was a top rope missile dropkick from Kagetsu straight to Momo's face that made me scream and cover my face. The whole second half of this match was awesome actually, tons of fast paced action, and whole not many near falls, but there was one with Kagetsu almost submitting Momo, who fought valiantly as a babyface up until she caught the rope. They kept going with Momo coming quite close to the win, but unfortunately, there was no more time left. Awesome match.

Newell & KLR/Viper & Wolf promos - Cute, both girls and promos.

Nixon Newell & Kay Lee Ray vs Oedo Tai (Kris Wolf & Viper) - 7/10


There were two really awesome dynamics going on in this match. First we have Viper wanting to use Wolf as a weapon and Wolf not being completely up to it. Second was when pairing up, KLR and Newell would try to do synched spots, where KLR had no problem throwing around Wolf, but Newell couldn't move Viper at all. There wasn't many tags, mostly action inside the ring with all 4 women. Finish saw KLR pin Wolf after a senton from the top rope. This is a match everyone should watch to see proper team dynamics and how to play around with the to action in the ring to not always make it seem planned out.

Baszler, Iwatani, & Kyona/Oedo Tai promos - They introduced Sumie Sakai as the new member of Oedo Tai, their third partner was a secret. Baszler on her side felt awkward since she likely had no idea what they were saying.

Shayna Baszler, Mayu Iwatani & Jungle Kyona vs Oedo Tai - 7/10


Oedo Tai is Sakai, Kyoko Kimura, and their secret partner, Kagetsu. Kagetsu wrestling twice makes me think someone no-showed. Match started with the legit pro fighter killer Baszler dominating the veteran Sumie, who unfortunately for her, is much smaller. Iwatani and Kimura made their tags and the heel ladies started cheating and taking control of the match and Iwatani. They all took turns biting, kissing, stretching, and hurting Iwatani, who was a great babyface in peril, perfect expressions and hope spots.

Iwatani, after being tortured for a while, makes a great comeback and hot tags Baszler and while I thought we were gettign Kimura vs Baszler alone, all Oedo Tai got in there. We did get them alone later on, but it was a really short forearm exchange. Iwatani and Kagetsu had a good little fight towards the end, right beore Oedo Tai introduced the containers and hit everyone with them, which left Iwatani open for everyone to destroy her, but she wouldn't give up and would counter a top rope powerbomb into a Frankensteiner for the win. Great match and good debut for Baszler. Iwatani was awesome.

Post-match - Iwatani rubs it in Kagetsu's face that her first 3 count was on her. Iwatani wants another High Speed Fight against Kagetsu, this brings out Momo Watanabe, who challenges Iwatani for the High Speed Championship. Iwatani accepts the challenge. This was a clusterfuck of promos, Iwatani came off as a dick, but a lovable dick. Also somewhere lost in there, Kimura said she is retiring, that her daughter is returning to defend the trios titles, and defended Kagetsu in her loss since it was her second battle tonight.

Queen's Quest/B.Y.Ho promos - It's Hojo's 5th anniversary, Io Shirai gives no fucks about it.

Queen's Quest (HZK & Io Shirai) vs Kairi Hojo & Yoko Bito - 8/10


Hojo and Bito are calling themselves B.Y.Ho. There is definitely something beautiful in watching Io Shirai torture Hojo, but I particularly loved the Io vs Yoko parts of the match. The match was great top to bottom, Hojo wrestled most of the match against both QQ members, both in the offensive and defensive positions, it almost felt like Hojo was babyface in peril on two occasions. Towards the end all action broke loose between all four, Hojo would drop her elbow on HZK for the win.

Post-match - Newell and KLR want a shot at the tag titles. Wolf and Viper came out, Viper challenges Io Shirai for the Red Velvet Title, Io gets in her face and accepts. Io then calls out Kimura and tells her that unless she gets a third member she better throw the towel, before Kimura can answer, Viper grabs the mic from Io's hands and says that she's it.

OVERALL THOUGHTS


Good year opener for Stardom, they definitely built matches for the next NYS shows and the 6th anniversary show, so it's not exactly a must see show, but it will give more sense to the following ones. Wrestling was good, especially the last matches.

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