STARDOM 8/13/2023 Stardom X Stardom 2023 Osaka Summer Team

STARDOM 8/13/2023 Stardom X Stardom 2023 Osaka Summer Team

The crowd isn't allowed to cheer for this show and it's in a big arena. Not good.

Osaka Gauntlet Tag Match 

The booking just ruined this one. If you do a gauntlet match, you need a bunch of time, especially when you have as many teams as they had in this one. They only had 22 minutes here and that meant people were getting eliminated quickly and easily which helps nobody. I'm not a battle royale fan, but it would have accomplished the same thing and not have hurt anyone. This wasn't good and had no chance of being good. Mei Sera and Suzu Suzuki ended up winning this.

5STAR Grand Prix 2023 Red Stars - Starlight Kid vs Natsuko Tora

Kid asai moonsaults Tora as she enters then throws her into the seats. Kid hits her with chairs then ddt's her over the middle rope. Kid hits her with a box then 180 rotation splashes her off the top. Tora corner cannonballs her and blocks Kid's armdrag attempt off the top. Kid top rope superplexes her. Kid misses a top rope moonsault and is hit with a stick. Tora then cradle shocks her for 2. Kid hits Tora with the stick then dragon screws her.

Kid puts her in a stretch muffler then top rope moonsaults her. Tora sitout powerbombs her then Kid suplexes her. Tora hits a lariat then does an interesting black hole slam variation. Tora death valley drivers her and misses a top rope swanton. Kid hurricanrana's her into a pin and wins it.

I didn't think it was that good. They didn't put over Tora's size at all nor did they work the angle with them being partners. Kid just worked her like anyone else.

High Speed Title Match - Saki Kashima (c) vs. Koguma

 

Saki avoids Kog's attacks early then is DDT'd. Kog splashes her in the corner then stomps on her back withthe help of the ropes. Kog his forearms on her knees then rolls her up. Kog back rolls into a cradle attempt and they reverse each other on it. Saki then rolls her up and hits a palm strike uppercut. Saki super kicks her then Kog hurts herself more on a 2nd rope cutter than Saki.

Kog top rope dropkicks her then hits a top rope splash. Saki rolls her up off of it though. Saki rolls her up with a crucifix and gets the win out of nowhere.

It was short and rushed. What we saw was not very good.

Goddesses Of Stardom Title Match - Mariah May & Mina Shirakawa (c) vs. Natsupoi & Saori Anou

Poi and Mina grab each other by the hair and Poi throws her. Mina hair throws her and Poi rolls through one. Poi armdrags off a carthweel, Mina armdrags her and they go face to face. May and Anou slap each other then Anou does an indian deathlock and Poi dropkicks May while she's in it. may spinning backbreakers Poi into a basement dropkick by Mina. Mina and May then sandwich basement dropkick Poi for 2.

May handstand headscissors Poi off the buckles then Poi running headhunters her. Anou top rope dropkicks May then Anou does an indian deathlock + northern lights suplex combo on both opponents. May high kicks Anou from the apron then top rope dropkicks her.

Mina throws Anou onto her knees then May basement dropkicks her. Mina strike combos her and puts her in the figure four. Anou fisherman suplexes her and Mina hits a uraken. May gets in and underhook suplexes Poi. May and Mina hit a facekick and dropkick on their opponents in stereo then do a double russian legsweep variation on Poi. May does a nice backdrop onto Poi then slap combos Poi. Poi ducks her spin kick with her own spinning high kick then May takes a superkick + step up enzugiri combo for 2.

Anou top rope dropkicks May then Poi does a cartwheel splash off the top onto May. Poi germans May for 2 then Mina bridging ddt's Poi. May hits a TKO on Mina Poi for 2 then Anou step up enzugiri's Mina. Mina then release backdrops her.

May slaps Poi then sling blades her. Mina step up enzugiri's Poi then puts her in an electric chair. Mina comes off the top with a face buster on Poi. Poi release germans May then May hits her with an angel's wings. Anou deadlift germans her out of the pin then Mina takes a superkick into an Anou german. Anou and Poi then do a double ranhei. Poi then straight jacket germans May and gets the win.

It was fast paced and was a little better than I expected. There wasn't a lot of selling here but being a tag match, it was easy to miss some of it. It went 13 minutes but felt a lot longer.

NJPW STRONG Women's Title Match - Giulia (c) vs. Yuu

G = Giulia

G waistlocks her and gets nowhere. G hooks her arm around the middle rope then slaps her. Yuu chops her and they shoulder battle. G pushes her off then splashes her for 2. Yuu running back elbows her in the corner and armbars her but G ropebreaks. Yuu does a weird move where she teases diving but just rolls under the bottom rope onto her.

They go back in and G basement dropkicks her. G does an octopus stretch to her while she is standing then Yuu swings her out of it in a cool throw. G puts on a triangle and Yuu tries to powerbomb out of it but G holds on. G does a rings of saturn variation on her.

G top rope dropkicks her but Yuu no sells it. Yuu is holding her in the air and goes for a deadlift ddt but G ddt's her out of it. G neckbreakers her and kicks her in the back of the head for 2. G tries to lift Yuu but Yuu just falls on her. G forearms her then Yuu drops her with a chop. G hits forearms then Yuu does a nice spinning side slam. Yuu then sentons her for 2.

Yuu does a nice hipthrow. Yuu goes up top and is stopped then double underhook suplexed. G top rope dropkicks her then backdrops her. They slap each other and G slap flurries her. Yuu then drops her with a single slap. G hits a nasty kick to the side of the head then hits hook punches. G v-triggers her in the back of the head then the face for 2. G runs at her and takes a crossbody.

Yuu corner cannonballs her then splashes her off the 2nd rope. Yuu goes for the last ride but G sunset flips her for 2. G hammerlocks one of her arms with her leg then cranks back the other arm. Yuu then taps out.

I felt they should have respected Yuu's offense more and had Giulia be more of the underdog here. Instead, she nearly went even at her at times. The crowd wasn't too into this which hurt it and it went on longer than it needed to.

IWGP Women's Title Match - Mayu Iwatani (c) vs. Utami Hayashishita

They do some basic wrestling around to start. Utami shoulders Mayu over then Mayu running forearms her in what looked like a botched spot. Mayu hits a stiff chest kick in the corner then slams her. Utami side slams Mayu then slams her. Mayu misses a basement dropkick then Utami crabs her. Mayu ropebreaks.

Mayu runs up the buckles and top rope dropkicks her. Mayu then dropkicks her through the ropes. Mayu goes to tope her but Utami moves and Mayu just nails other people instead. Utami then hits a schwein on the floor on Mayu. Mayu is back up soon after and dragon suplexes her on the apron.

They trade forearms on their knees. They get up and keep trading then Mayu spin kicks her in the gut. Utami forearms her then does a uranage. Utami dropkicks her in the back off the 2nd rope. Mayu puts her in a choke and Mayu ropebreaks. Mayu crucifix bombs her then flying kicks her in the corner.

Mayu escapes a top rope suerplex then running forearms her in the corner. Mayu top rope hurricanrana's her then top rope dropkicks her. Mayu top rope frogsplashes Utami for 2 then rolls her on a dragon suplex. Utami no sells it then release germans her. Mayu no sells it then takes a nasty release german on her head. Utami does another german for 2 then forearms her down.

Mayu slingblades her then Utami hits one back. Utami spinning torture rack bombs her then puts her in a choke. Utami drops her on her knees from the choke position then Utami hits a shocking baszler. Utami goes for a spinning splash mountain but Mayu hurricanrana's her. Utami lariats Mayu then Mayu dragon suplexes her. Mayu then hits a double jump blind poisonrana out of nowhere and wins it.

The finish was insane. What a spot that was. I pretty much hated this otherwise. It went on forever, the crowd couldn't cheer, they didn't sell and they just came up with various ways to break each others necks. The finish was also completely out of the blue. If they wanted to have Mayu as the underdog face here, they did a poor job of it.

World Of Stardom Title Match - Tam Nakano (c) vs. Megan Bayne

 

 

Tam leg kicks her and Meg grabs her throat and pushes her into the corner. Meg then does a big throw on her. Meg throws her overhead by the hair and hits stiff knees to the body. They trade forearms and Tam goes down. Tam runs into her and is knocked over. Meg then puts her on her shoulders and throws her to the floor from the ring.

Meg suplexes her and hits knees to the gut. Meg then stomps her and corner lariats her. Meg hits a short arm clothesline. Tam hits leg kicks then capture suplexes her overhead. Meg throws her on a double underhook suplex. Tam legsweeps her then pumping knees her off the apron. Tam superkicks her off the apron then has her apron crossbody caught. Meg is driven into the post then Tam top rope crossbodies her on the outside.

Tam hits flying knees to the front and back in the ring while she's down. Tam does an octopus to her then Meg flying lariats her when they get back up. Meg goes for a powerbomb but gets hurricanrana'd then Tam rolling armbars her into a pin attempt. Meg does a double chokeslam bomb for 2. Meg goes for an F-5 but Tam turns it into a ddt.

Tam spinning high kicks her then Meg spinning powerbombs her. Meg then hits an F-5 for 2. Tam escapes an F-5 and spinning high kicks her. Tam rebound germans her off the ropes and Meg just collapses on the landing. Tam then tiger suplexes her for the win.

It was a decent big girl vs little girl match. Meg threw her around and Tam eventually made her comeback leading to the victory. It would have been 100x better in front of a crowd that could cheer, but that was not happening here.

Overall thoughts: The show was dead on arrival due to being in front of a crowd that couldn't cheer. It completely ruined everything on this show. I personally like smaller Stardom shows more than the bigger ones. The girls tend to overdo it on the big shows and the matches go a lot longer. On regular shows, they do a lot less and the matches are faster and more compact. They also tend to do more tags and stuff which hide some of the weaknesses of the girls.

I thought the main or the tag title match were the best things on the show. Giulia/Yuu was about in the middle for me and Utami/Mayu, Kid/Tora, the gauntlet match and Saki/Koguma were bad matches.