STARDOM
STARDOM GOLD RUSH
NOVEMBER 19, 2022
OSAKA EDION ARENA
OSAKA, JAPAN

One would expect STARDOM to take things easy the day before Historic X-Over but that’s just not how Rossy Ogawa operates. Just 24 hours before their biggest show to date STARDOM heads to the Edion Osaka Arena with Saya Kamitani vs KAIRI and Utami Hayashishita on the docket. Not only that, but they might just let Mayu near some ladders again.

HIGH SPEED CHAMPIONSHIP
AZM (C) DEF. MOMOKA HANAZONO

As someone that’s quite familiar with Momoka Hanazono I had high expectations for this match. I got pretty much everything I could have asked for with bubble shenanigans, Hanazono being Hanazono, and some very creative spots mixed in. AZM’s current run as High Speed Champion has been delightful, long may she reign. ***3/4

MONEYBALL TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND
DONNA DEL MONDO (GIULIA, MAI SAKURAI & THEKLA) DEF. COSMIC ANGELS (TAM NAKANO, NATSUPOI & WAKA TSUKIYAMA

Aside from the brief Giulia and Tam stuff there was nothing to seperate this from a standard house show tag. Waka’s hesitance costing her team would be intriguing if I had any hope it was going anywhere but I won’t hold my breath. ***

MONEYBALL TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND
STARS (HAZUKI, MAYU IWATANI & KOGUMA) DEF. GOD’S EYE (TOMOKA INABA, MIRAI & AMI SOREI)

A much stronger tag than the previous effort, which was expected given the talent level in the ring. Ami taking the pin for her team rather than Inaba is quite interesting to me. STARDOM has protected Inba to some degree ever since bringing her in for New Blood and its continued since joining DDM.  Some of that may have to do with her being the Queen of JTO Champion but I also take it as a nice indication that they like her and want to make her look strong. ***1/2

RED GODDESS
STARLIGHT KID & MOMO WATANABE (3) DEF. FUKIGEN DEATH & SAKI KASHIMA (2)

I’ll admit there was enough juice in this to make me enjoy it way more than I thought I would. There were some clever flash pins down the stretch and the extended Death/Watanabe stuff in the middle was typical Yoneyama goodness. ***

BLUE GODDESS
MAIKA & HIMEKA (6) DEF. YUU & NANAE TAKAHASHI (3)

HOSS. GIRL. SHIT. Loved this match and love what 7Upp have brought to tag league so far. Yuu is fantastic, Nanae is having a career renaissance after injuries slowed her down and MaiHime keep being absolute beasts. Super fun match that was all action and had a very surprising finish when Maika pinned Takahashi. ***3/4

WONDER OF STARDOM CHAMPIONSHIP
SAYA KAMITANI vs KAIRI – DRAW

I have so many thoughts on this one, both positive and negative. To start, this was by far KAIRI’s best performance since making her return to STARDOM. By channeling a slightly more heelish side she found her best form and tormented Kamitani throughout the match. In addition, the chemistry and creativity on display was fantastic and made the 30-minute runtime fly by. It’s rare that a pairing lives up to the hype quite like Kamitani and KAIRI did and I really hope they run it back in the future.

All that said, this match felt like it never got rolling to the level it could have. They wrestled for 30 minutes and they probably had 20 more in them, 10 of which was the finishing stretch that we never fully got in this draw. If they were to run this back then both KAIRI and Kamitani have a full bag of tricks to still dig into even though they went the distance in this outing.

The draw finish also feels very inconclusive to the storyline they were going for in the build-up to the match. A win for either woman would have advanced the story in some meaningful but this is quite the shoulder shrug ending for the time being.

Despite the slight criticisms of the bigger picture stuff, this was such a good match and performance for both women that leaves me hoping we get a sequel before long. ****1/2

WORLD OF STARDOM CHAMPIONSHIP
SYURI DEF. UTAMI HAYASHISHITA

STARDOM’s greatest rivalry of the Bushiroad era delivered once again as Syuri got the better of her rival Hayashishita. Aside from the 5.5-star anomaly that I’m not sure can ever be replicated this was their best effort. Hayashishita especially had a strong performance throughout the match and put herself back in the conversation as one of the best in STARDOM.

The only issue I had with the match is that Syuri was never, I and I mean never, going to lose. This took away from the drama down the stretch and made it difficult to fully buy into any of the near falls because I was just waiting for Syuri to hit her variant of the One Winged Angel to get the win. With the growing chemistry between these two I’m confident the could deliver another generational match if there was less certainty regarding the finish. ****1/2

Moneyball Tournament Final – TLC
STARS (MAYU IWATANI, KOGUMA & HAZUKI) DEF. DONNA DEL MONDO (GIULIA, MAI SAKURAI & THEKLA)

I grew up on WWE and TNA so I’m all but immune to plunder matches at this stage. There’s very few ladder dives, table breaks, or anything of the sort that will get a reaction out of me at this stage. That’s the issue that this match ran into because it moved from high spot to high spot which is enough for some people, but not for me.

The Moneyball breaking is the most STARDOM thing ever and honestly that’s why we love this company ***1/4

FINAL THOUGHTS

While Historic X-Over will take most of the focus this weekend STARDOM Gold Rush is not to be dismissed. Saya Kamitani vs KAIRI and Utami Hayashishita vs Syuri were high-end title matches that rank among the best of both Kamitani and Syuri’s reigns. The rest of the card had some bright spots dotted throughout with 7Upp vs MaiHime and AZM vs Hanazono being two of the stronger matches from the undercard.

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