WORLD WONDER RING STARDOM
5STAR GRAND PRIX 2019 – DAY 5 
September 7, 2019
Shinkiba 1st Ring
Shinkiba, JAPAN

Watch: Stardom-World

We approach the latter stages of the tournament with a clash between the World Of Stardom Champion Bea Priestley and the Wonder Of Stardom Champion Arisa Hoshiki.  The rest of the card sees factions collide as Oedo Tai’s Hazuki faces stablemate Natsu Sumire, Kagetsu faces stablemate Jamie Hayter, the boss of Queen’s Quest AZM faces the group leader Momo Watanabe and STARS leader Mayu Iwatani faces Tam Nakano.

Red Stars: Hazuki Def. Natsu Sumire

The vast majority of this match was Hazuki trying to kill Natsu.  And it was very fun to watch ***

Red Stars: Hana Kimura Def. Avary

This was the best we’ve seen from Avary she really pulled everything out of her bag of tricks for this one.  Kimura just managed to catch her for the submission win but this match saw Avary make a statement. **1/2

Red Stars: Momo Watanabe Def. AZM

A fantastic match between the Ace Of Stardom and someone that wasn’t even meant to be in this tournament.  AZM started out fast and furious because she knew that was the only way she stood a chance against Momo.  Once Momo survived that opening flurry she mercilessly went about kicking the life out of AZM.  AZM did manage to survive that onslaught and fired up for a closing stretch where she threw everything she has at Momo but in the end, Watanabe was able to catch AZM with the sleeper.  A really well-told story that established AZM as a legitimate threat to anyone on the roster after going toe to toe with Momo. ****1/4

Blue Stars: Kagetsu Def. Jamie Hayter

This wasn’t bad but it didn’t really feel like it was paced properly.  Kagetsu started hot and then Hayter slowed it right down before Kagetsu getting the win with two moves.  For a match that was, at most, six minutes this could’ve been a lot better **1/2

Blue Stars: Jungle Kyona Def. Natsuko Tora

These two have history and that played into this one before the bell even rang.  Ever since the demise of JAN (RIP ;'( ) these two former partners have despised one another and have often squared off in tag matches.  This one continued all of the anger and hatred as the two brawled their way out of the arena at one point.  When the match did return to the ring the intensity didn’t drop with Kyona absolutely DECKING Tora with a shot towards the end of the match.  Others will enjoy this style more than me but I can’t deny it was a good use of Tora’s brawling nature. ***

Red Stars: Mayu Iwatani Def. Tam Nakano

A very good match between stablemates.  They briefly spent time working on Mayu’s knee but quickly abandoned that in favor of trading kicks and suplexes, some very beautiful suplexes might I add.  After the story based Momo/AZM match this was just what the doctor ordered. ***1/2

Blue Stars: Arisa Hoshiki Def. Bea Priestley

This match wasn’t paced properly at all.  It went eight minutes but so much of it was spent in submissions.  What could have been a really fun and fast-paced battle of strikers ended up being an underwhelming main event.  Again the main problem is pacing, Priestley worked over the leg of Hoshiki and then the match just kind of ended.  Not a bad match by any means and Hoshiki pulled off some sick looking offense but definitely could have been better.  The other layer to this match is that Hoshiki is the Wonder Of Stardom Champion (traditionally Stardom’s No. 2 title) while Bea is World Of Stardom Champion (Traditionally the top belt) but this result is fitting of the booking of both titles over the past 2 years as the Wonder title has felt like a bigger deal than the World title for a while now. ***

Final Thoughts

The highlight of this show was AZM/Momo which has emerged as one of the best matches of the tournament.  Tam vs Mayu was quite good too and both of those made up for the lackluster main event.  Two matches that can easily be skipped but otherwise a good show as we near the back end of the tournament.