Review: Stardom – 2018.02.24 – Evening Show

Tam Nakano vs. Starlight Kid vs. Shiki Shibusawa
There were a couple of nice moments from Starlight Kid but this was a pretty standard opener in all. There was also a couple of spots where people were just standing waiting to get hit which didn’t look good. Tam Nakano pinned Starlight Kid after a spinning heel kick. 2/5

Xia Brookside vs. Natsuko Tora (IPW Women’s Title)  
After a slow opening couple of minutes this really picked up and became a solid match. It was really well paced and both women sold well. None of the offence was spectacular but almost everything looked very good and both worked quite stiff. Xia Brookside pinned Natsuko Tora for the win. 3.25/5

Io Shirai, HZK & Momo Watanabe vs. Bea Priestley, Jenny Rose & Kaori Yoneyama
A solid match. Io was really impressive with some perfectly executed acrobatics. It was also nice to see Kaori Yoneyama able to show a little more of what she is capable of. Nobody else particularly stood out but none of them were bad either. Io Shirai pinned Jenny Rose after a moonsault. 3.5/5

Nicole Savoy vs. Jungle Kyona (SHIMMER Title)
After a slightly slow start this turned into a great match and was probably Savoy’s best match in Stardom so far. She showed great strength and did not rely too much on her suplexes, instead focusing on Kyona’s right arm with some innovative holds. Jungle Kyona was really good too with her usual mix of passion and strength as well as selling her arm very well throughout. Nicole Savoy submitted Jungle Kyona to retain the SHIMMER Title. 4/5

Toni Storm vs. Miranda (SWA Title)
This was Miranda’s last match of her Stardom tour and I think she did well overall. She showed a lot of her ability in this match even if the match itself was not great. Toni dominated the opening exchanges with a lot of ground work. Miranda took over and hit some pretty decent offence but all two soon Toni magically recovered, hit a piledriver and won the match. All of the actual wrestling was good but when the ending is so predictable it is really hard to become invested. 3.5/5

Mayu Iwatani, Hiromi Mimura & Konami vs Oedo Tai (Kagetsu, Hana Kimura & Sumire Natsu)
Great, chaotic fun. There wasn’t a lot of technical excellence but they made up for it with a ton of entertainment. Hiromi is probably the most consistently funny member of the roster and her retirement is going to leave a hole in the card. She showed so much personality here with some new variations on her Shouta! dropkick spot including Kagetsu doing her own version. We did get a glimpse at more “pure” wrestling when Mayu & Kagetsu were in the ring together but this was really all about big moves and dumb spots and it was very good at providing them. Kagetsu pinned Hiromi Mimura after an Oedo Coaster. 4/5