Review: Stardom – 2018.01.03

Ruaka vs. Shiki Shibusawa vs. Hanan
A fun but pretty basic opener for 2018. There were a couple of nicely worked comedy spots but nothing really notable from a wrestling technique standpoint. Shiki Shibusawa pinned Hanan for the win. 2/5  

Kaori Yoneyama vs. Hiromi Mimura
Another match that was largely comedy-based but this was very good for what it was.  Hiromi Mimura showed she still has plenty of ideas left for the “Shouta” dropkick and Kaori Yoneyama was as versatile as ever as she continued to evade Mimura’s attempts at performing the move. At the end of the match there was a really fun exchange of pin attempts which Kaori Yoneyama won and pinned Hiromi Mimura for the win. 3/5

Konami & Starlight Kid vs. Xia Brookside & Miranda
Xia Brookside returns to Stardom and immediately looks more confident than she did during the majority of her last tour. This is my first time seeing Miranda and while it’s too early to really form an opinion, she did show good movement and some technical ability. Starlight Kid & Konami did not get to show too much in this rather short match, but everything was smooth and looked good. Xia Brookside pinned Starlight Kid for the win. 2.75/5

Rachael Ellering, Kay Lee Ray & Nicole Savoy vs. Jungle Kyona, Natsuko Tora & Mari Apache
A solid match. It’s good to see Kay Lee Ray back and she wasted little time using her incredible chops on Natsuko Tora. There were more glimpses of a lot of potential from Rachael Ellering but unfortunately there was not a lot of action from Nicole Savoy. Natsuko Tora was the star for the other team as she took a whole host of punishment as well as delivering her own strikes and performing a nice reversal of an attempted Gory Bomb from Kay Lee Ray. Though Kay Lee Ray later did manage to hit the Gory Bomb and pinned Natsuko Tora for the win. 3/5

Queen’s Quest (Io Shirai, HZK, Momo Watanabe & AZM) vs. Oedo Tai (Kagetsu, Hana Kimura, Kris Wolf & Sumire Natsu)
A very good match. They did a few of the same spots they have done in recent matches between the two factions but also there were some great moments including a fantastic kicking exchange between Momo & Kagetsu. The entire match was very fast-paced and hard-hitting. Hana Kimura had a new outfit and whilst it certainly looks great, the fact she has to adjust it every few seconds is not going to be good going forward. Momo Watanabe used the now retired Yoko Bito’s B-Driver on Kris Wolf as possibly her new finisher. HZK pinned Kris Wolf for the win. 4/5

After the match it was annnounced that on January 21st at Korakuen Hall Tam Nakano will return to in-ring action and there will be a 5 vs. 5 elimination tag match between Queen’s Quest and Oedo Tai and the last person to lose on either side will have to leave their unit.