World Wonder Ring Stardom
Big Summer In Tokyo
July 24, 2019
Korakuen Hall
Tokyo, Japan
Watch: Stardom World
Three titles are on the line as Stardom returns to Korakuen for another loaded event. Hoshiki and Hazuki are sure to deliver a classic while Konami and Jungle Kyona make their first defense of the tag titles while Ace Momo Watanabe looks to take her rightful place as the World Of Stardom Champion.
Queen’s Quest (Leo Onozaki & Hina) Def. Oedo Tai (Natsu Sumire & Natsuko Tora) & Tokyo Cyber Squad (Ruaka & Rina)
A fine opener with Oedo Tai dominating proceedings. Going in I thought this was a guaranteed Oedo Tai victory so Leo picking up the win was a nice surprise as it’s her second straight at Korakuen Hall. Rina and Hina are coming along well and the difference between them on their debut late last year and now is already quite big but they still have a long way to go **
Utami Hayashishita Def. Jamie Hayter & Saya Iida
Saya Iida once again playing the third wheel here at Korakuen, the grudge here was between Utami and Jamie but one would assume they don’t want to give that one away before the 2 meet in the 5 Star GP. For what it was this was ok. Short and sweet. **1/2
STARS (Starlight Kid, Mayu Iwatani, Tam Nakano & Saki Kashima) Def. Tokyo Cyber Squad (Hana Kimura, Death Yama-San, Zoe Lucas & Bobbi Tyler)
A fun high paced tag match that was an entertaining sprint. There was a big focus on building to a Mayu/Hana match as they had an extended singles sequence in the middle of the match. There was also a fun finishing stretch between Starlight Kid and Death Yama-San which led to Kid getting the win to set her up as Yama’s next challenger for the High Speed belt. ***1/4
Post Match: Former Gatoh Move star Riho is introduced by Fuka as a potential challenger for the High-Speed Championship. She announces she will make her Stardom debut at August’s Korakuen Hall show. A whole lot of fresh matches are waiting for Riho now that she’s in Stardom.
Goddesses Of Stardom Championships: Tokyo Cyber Squad (Konami & Jungle Kyona) (C) Def. Oedo Tai (Kagetsu & Andras Miyagi)
This started off slowly but once the heat segment on Kyona finished it got kicking, literally, Konami and Kagetsu got to get in the ring and give us a glimpse of what we’ll get from them in 5 Star and then Kyona and Miyagi finished it off with a battle of powerhouses as they too gave us a glimpse at what we should see from them in 5 star. Konami and Kyona needed a big win to establish themselves as a top tag team and getting their first defense against Kagetsu and Miyagi, Oedo Tai’s most protected members, put them over really well. Another great tag team match from Stardom and another good showing from the team of Konami and JunKyo ***3/4
Wonder Of Stardom Championship
Arisa Hoshiki (C) Def. Hazuki
The match started fairly 50/50 with a test of strength and some grappling. Hazuki took control by taking the match into the crowd. She barely allowed Hoshiki to get her foot in the door for the first ten minutes or so. Hazuki made the mistake of trying to get into a strike exchange with Hoshiki and this allowed Hoshiki to take control and once Hoshiki gains momentum it’s hard to stop her. Thankfully for Hazuki, Hoshiki can be a bit overconfident at times, even stopping her own pin attempt at 2 so she could hit a Brazilian Kick to the head, but this allowed Hazuki some opportunities to try and chip away at Hoshiki including one near fall towards the end that is the closest near fall you will ever see. In the end, Hoshiki managed to put Hazuki away with a Running Knee to the face after a kick to the head. Hazuki losing another title match certifies her place in Stardom’s upper midcard but she gave her all against Hoshiki who has a knack of making her opponents look great in defeat. Slow start to the match takes it down a bit in terms of my enjoyment but another fantastic match from Hoshiki’s White Belt run ****1/4
World Of Stardom Championship
Bea Priestley (C) Def. Momo Watanabe
Bea mentioned the fact that her last pinfall defeat was to Momo back in early 2018, small things like that gave this match some much-needed spice. What became apparent in this match is that Priestley isn’t good enough to main event. Her time working on top killed the crowd and was boring as hell, once Watanabe finally got to make her comeback the crowd came back in because Momo is excellent and towards the stretch Bea hit some cool moves so there is potential there for Bea to be very good she just still hasn’t put it together yet. Workrate aside the crowd doesn’t care about Priestley and why should they? Sure she’s protected from defeat but she didn’t really have any marquee wins or matches before winning the Red Belt and since then she’s been upstaged by Arisa Hoshiki’s white belt run. For what was once the most prestigious belt in Stardom the treatment of The Red Belt since Mayu’s run ended has been pretty bad (Kagetsu tried but they never really gave her a chance) and having it on Priestley isn’t going to change that any time soon. ***1/4
