The Friday night show from the NYC Arena in Jamaica, NY, opened with all the participants coming down to the ring for the introduction. Kagetsu and Mayu Iwatani got the biggest ovation. Momo Watanabe opened the show thanking the fans and hyping them up.
Pacific Rim’s Jim Valley and Fumi Saito were on commentary. Saito had so much interesting points, insights, and trivia throughout the show. Ring introductions were done by Yurie Kozakai, so they were exactly like a normal Stardom show.
Jungle Kyona & Natsuko Tora defeated Violette & Sonya Strong
Kyona and Strong started the match in a power vs. power battle doing shoulder tackle challenges where Strong got the advantage. Violette came in and worked on Kyona’s head with a nice looking guillotine. Jungle slowly started a comeback when she got enough space to gather speed and shoulder tackle Strong down.
Tora came in and both Violette and Strong tried to gang up on her, but took them down with a double spear. Strong regained control of the match on Tora, and she and Violette hit a flurry of kicks until Tora landed a desperation spinebuster on Violette and got the hot tag to Kyona.
Violette hit a codebreaker on Kyona for a close two fall. Strong and Violette hit a kick combo for another two count. Kyona took them out with a double lariat and a sliding clothesline on Violette for a two count. Both Kyona and Tora climbed the ropes and hit stereo Superflies for a two count. Jungle landed a sitdown powerbomb to finally finish off Violette for the win. This was a good kickoff for the show.
Bobbi Tyler & Hana Kimura defeated Dr. Britt Baker & Brittany Blake and Bea Priestley & Konami
The rules are three women in the ring at all times.
Baker, Kimura, and Konami started the match with a three-way test of strength that turned into a quick exchange of arm drags and roll ups. All women got cleared out leaving Hana and Konami with the latter being thrown around by her hair and stomped on. Hana and Tyler locked in a double Romero Special on Konami, but Baker broke it off when she pinned both Kimura-gun girls. Queen’s Quest came in and worked on Kimura until Blake came in to break up the pin.
Kimura (who looked like a superstar) and Konami got into a striking battle that ended with Konami’s signature kicks taking out Kimura for a two count. Konami went for a guillotine, but Kimura powered herself out with a deadlift suplex. They kept trading submission attempts until Priestley interrupted them. Baker got a couple of near falls on Tyler with a Slingblade, but after some miscommunication, Blake hit an Enzugiri on Blake.
Kimura took advantage, hitting a dropkick on Blake for the pin.
High Speed Champion Hazuki defeated Dust to retain
This started with a series of reversals and counters, a quick pace that lived up to the name of the championship. Hazuki gained control of the match early on, stomping Dust out of the ring. Back in the ring, Dust started to level out things with running lariats before starting a striking battle where Hazuki once again got control after a springboard dropkick and running knee for a two count.
Dust hit a DDT on the apron and a top rope plancha for a two count. Dust hit a running knee and a codebreaker for another two count. Dust hit a backstabber for another (almost late) two count. Out of nowhere, Hazuki locked in La Magistral, or, as Hazuki calls it, Hazukistral for the flash pin to finish a good match.
Dust looked really good. I would have liked for an extra five minutes as they were barely hitting second gear when it ended.
Wonder of Stardom Champion Momo Watanabe defeated Utami Hayashishita to retain
I’m surprised that this match didn’t close the show. Utami getting a shot at Momo’s championship and their first time meeting had been hyped and anticipated since the announcement of the match. The crowd was split between both wrestlers.
It started with both women fighting for wrist control with good, crisp reversals. Utami was the first to up the ante and slapped Momo straight in the face, which Momo answered, landing a set of hard kicks to the back and a fake out to the front. From here on, Momo started working on Utami’s torso. Momo would challenge Utami to hit her and quickly cut her off, getting two counts in between.
Utami finally dodged Momo’s offense, locked in the Camel Clutch, and started going after Momo’s back with a series of stomps and a Boston Crab. Whenever Momo would hope for a comeback, Utami would reverse back into the Boston Crab. Utami finally started chasing the Torture Rack while Momo chased the Peach Sunset, but they kept blocking each other.
They went back and struck each other until they simultaneously knocked each other down with slaps. They started exchanging stiff looking dropkicks. Momo hit an Uranage and a double knee for a two count. Momo hit two Meteoras for another two count. Momo went for a chicken wing and Sleeper, but Utami reversed into a judo throw and locked in a sleeper with a body scissors for a near submission, but Momo managed to roll to the ropes.
Utami put Momo in the Torture Rack right before the feed unfortunately went off. Momo would win minutes later with the a Tequila Sunrise. Even with the gap in time, this was easily the match of the night.
In an elimination match, STARS (Mayu Iwatani, Tam Nakano, Saki Kashima & Arisa Hoshiki) defeated Oedo Tai (Kagetsu, Session Moth Martina, Jamie Hayter & Andras Miyagi) w/Hazuki
Oedo Tai did their dance entrance and looked like superstars. Kagetsu and Mayu Iwatani had the biggest pops.
STARS offered the opening handshake, but Oedo Tai ignored and instead jumped the babyfaces to start the match. Both teams brawled around the arena with Kagetsu and Mayu making it all the way into the crowd. When they made it back to the ring, Oedo Tai had taken control of Iwatani, who they worked on for a while with a series of quick tags and quick moves. Andras did her headbanging spot and a DDT for a two count. Mayu hit a quick Slingblade to get the tag to Saki who ran wild on all the Oedo Tai women, hitting a couple of Angel’s Wings on both Kagetsu and Andras. Oedo Tai hit their running combo on Saki, and after a spinning piledriver by Andras, Saki was eliminated.
Arisa came in against Martina, who hit her with the beer mist. Martina hit a lariat and went for the Electric Chair, but was rolled into a two count. All of Oedo Tai got suplexed by the remaining STARS, leaving Session Moth opened for a STARS combo of sentons that ended with a triple dropkick and one of Hoshiki’s killer kicks to be eliminated.
Kagetsu called out Tam Nakano next. They got into a strikefest that ended with a cutter by Nakano on Kagetsu. Nakano hit a great German Suplex Pin for a two count. When Nakano went for the kill, Jazuki hit her with a chair, giving Kagetsu the opening for the Oedo Coaster and a DVD to eliminate Nakano.
Andras went against Mayu and Arisa. Andras got a near fall on Mayu before Mayu hit a top rope Frankensteiner on her. Andras set up a powerbomb to eliminate Mayu with an over the top rope elimination, but Mayu caught the ropes, headscissored Andras, and pulled her out the ring for the elimination.
Kagetsu and Hoshiki started kicking each other, but at the end, it was Hoshiki that landed the final kick for a two count. Hoshiki went for the flying kick, but all of Oedo Tai came back to stop her, leaving an opening for Kagetsu to throw water on her. As she went to throw her out of the ring, they ended up eliminating each other.
That left Hayter and Iwatani as the final two. Kagetsu hit the green mist on Hayter by mistake, giving Iwatani the opening for the moonsault and pin for the STARS win. This was a pretty great match as all women got to shine even if it was just for a few minutes.
STARS closed the show thanking the fans and saying goodbye. Jungle Kyona invited all the factions to come out to close out the show. Momo, Jungle, Kagetsu, and Mayu all agreed that tonight’s it was about STARDOM. Oedo Tai obviously didn’t comply.
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This was a great, easy to watch and short show by Stardom. They had a good debut in the United States, showing what they bring to the table in terms of wrestling. The show itself didn’t fully feel like a normal Stardom show since there were no pre-match promos or the younger talent, but when it came to the everything inside the ring, it was just like watching a show on Stardom World.