The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom Edition, 2023-04-28)
I didn’t expect this, but being on the picket line all day has not put me in a great headspace to watch much wrestling, therefore this will essentially be a Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom review, plus one other match from our weekly Joshi Night watches.
I want to briefly touch on the matches from the show I didn’t rate. From the pre-show, there were two fun matches, but they were not good enough for the spreadsheet. The Yokohama Rumble was the classic get-everyone-onto-the-show deal but with fun moments. Especially nice to see Momoe Nakanishi again! The Oedi Tai vs Gaijin tag was also fun, with Mariah May really looking like she’s a future star.
The only match that didn’t make the list from the main show was the Goddess of Stardom Championship match. It sounds like there was some politics and they didn’t want to work together. It had a lot of potential, but it wasn’t happening. I will really miss Nanae & Yuu as champions!
#9
Fuwa-chan & Hazuki vs Miyu Amasaki & Utami Hayashishita
“Artist of Stardom Championship”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
If you are not aware, Fuwa-chan is a massive celebrity in Japan. So much so, that this match aired on National Television.
What makes it even more wild is that Fuwa-chan is such a natural. If you had no idea, you probably couldn’t even tell who was the celebrity in this match. She looked great and made an awesome team with Hazuki. Utami is the right person to be across from her, as she is the natural star of Stardom and looked great. That lariat spot has millions of views already. A fun match.
Rating: 7/10
#8
Prominence (Hiragi Kurumi, Risa Sera, & Suzu Suzuki)
vs
REstart (KAIRI, Natsupoi, & Saori Anou)
“Artist of Stardom Championship”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
Saori Anou is pretty new to me, but she looks great, especially with the exchanges with Suzuki and the finishing sequence. It will be sad to see Prominence leave, but it looks like Suzuki will be staying which is amazing news. With REstart winning the belts, I do wonder how many shows KAIRI will be appearing on, because she looked great as always in this one!
Rating: 7/10
#7
AZM & Mei Suruga vs Mei Seira & Starlight Kid
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
Seeing Mei Seira, formerly Mei Hoshizuki, return and look so great brought me so much joy. All four of these people rule and they had an amazing High Speed match to open the show. Perfect booking. I can’t wait to see Seira in Stardom full-time and take over the High Speed division!
Rating: 7.75/10
#6
Himeka vs Maika
“Himeka’s Retirement Match”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
A very emotional and hard-hitting match for Himeka’s retirement. I loved the ending of taking previous retirement matches and improving upon them. I hope we get a Maika push out of this, but it’s sad to see Himeka go.
Rating: 8/10
#5
Mercedes Mone’ vs Mayu Iwatani
“IWGP Women’s Championship”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
I did love this match, but they clearly have a much better match in them for the future as they were saving things. Mone’ is an all-time great seller. Iwatani hit all kinds of levels of viciousness, especially with her kicks. It was kept short, but very exciting and gave a different element to the card.
Rating: 8.5/10
#4
Chihiro Hashimoto vs Syuri
“Knockout or Submission”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
A classic wrestler vs kickboxer in a brutal Inokism battle. This was a stiff war.
Rating: 8.5/10
#2
Saya Kamitani vs Mina Shirakawa
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
The growth of Shirakawa over the last few years has been shocking. I have to admit she was getting decent at some point a few years back, but then she got injured. She came back from injury and was never the same and was kind of bad. She slowly got okay again, but just okay with some highlights. Back in November, her face got broken by Kamitani’s Phoenix Splash, and upon returning Shirakawa just felt different and like a star. Also note, Kamitani would not do the Phoenix Splash anymore until this match, after struggling with that choice. Not only because of the previous injury but because Shirakawa had destroyed her leg with amazing legwork.
The comeback from there and the finishing sequence was great and what a wonderful story with Shirakawa winning the White Belt! Easily the best match of her career too.
Rating: 9/10
#2
Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue
“WWWA World Championship”
AJW G*Top 2nd
May 7, 1995
I had never seen this very famous hour-long draw before, so I was very hyped for this to appear at my weekly Joshi Nigh watch party and it turns out it was worth the wait.
The pace they worked for an hour is really unmatched. They both have unreal movesets all in full display here. For about 40 minutes this match ruled and was headed to the greatest of all-time territory. Then they just kind of stopped, wandered around, and try to figure out how to kill time, until the ten minutes remaining announcement. Then the match kind of ruled again. That makes it really hard to rate, but overall a classic.
Rating: 9/10
“Match of the Week”
Giulia vs Tam Nakano
“World of Stardom Championship”
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom
April 23, 2023
This may be my favourite feud of all time now. It’s gone on for years and has had many classics and this one may have been my favourite of the bunch. It did feel the most violent as their hatred had grown and grown over time. I loved that they saw red and didn’t even try to wrestle at the start before they realized they had a title to win. The snapmare from the top to the table looked so vicious, I was dying! By the end, they both tried everything, before the Steiner Screwdriver by Tam finished Giulia off.
Years of Stardom booking long reigns really made Tam’s victory feel special and since Tam is my favourite, this was a very joyful moment for me!
Rating: 9.25/10
Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom was their largest show with over six thousand in attendance. It also may have been the best! Having all five titles change hands was a cool choice, and breaks up the pattern of changes Stardom sometimes falls into. What a great time to be a fan or to hop on board!
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The Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-03-31)
Now that 2001 is out of the way I was able to spend this week getting caught up on current wrestling and spending some time focussing on my next year of doing top 25s, 2019.
#12
Wasteland War Party vs 121000000
“Princess Tag Team Championship”
TJPW Grand Princess
March 18, 2023
An entertaining tag match with an amazing cast of characters! Max always tugs at my enby heart, but Maki Itoh was the star here. The War Party was dominant early and it told a great story of the TJPW super team overcoming the pure power of the War Party.
Rating: 7/10
#11
Aja Kong vs Yuki Arai
TJPW Grand Princess
March 18, 2023
This was a blast and hits my favourite type of match, young underdog vs dominant veteran. Arai used axe kicks to try to counteract Kong’s power and it worked, mostly. It was dramatic and another great Kong performance!
Rating: 7/10
#10
KARMA & Starlight Kid vs. MIRAI & Tomoka Inaba
“New Blood Tag Team Title Tournament Finals”
Stardom New Blood Premium
March 25, 2023
This was an excellent tag match that built up the drama and excitement as it reached its climax. SLK was on fire and seemed to be the focus of the match and she brought a lot of the High Speed elements into this match. Exactly what you want from the finals of a tournament.
Rating: 7.25/10
#9
Giulia vs Himeka
“Himeka Retirement Road”
Stardom
March 16, 2023
An emotional stop on the Himeka retirement tour as she faces her stablemate Giulia. It was a strike-heavy match and both were putting in maximum effort for a smaller show. An emotional post-match put this over the top for me.
Rating: 7.5/10
#8
Aja Kong & Kyoko Inoue vs Blizzard Yuki & Manami Toyota
Bridge of Dreams ~ Dome Spring Full Bloom
April 2, 1995
AJW represents at the Tokyo Dome with an excellent showcase match. Each had awesome moments and Kong looked especially brutal with her slams. Toyota and Kong work hard to make up for their disappointing title change a few weeks before this match.
Rating: 7.75/10
#7
Miu Watanabe vs Rika Tatsumi
“TJPW International Princess Championship”
TJPW Grand Princess
March 18, 2023
This match had a lot of elements I loved, but some I rather disliked. Watanabe has some of my favourite offences and I love the way she sells, I think she did a great job carrying this one. Tatsumi I had issues with it, I am not sure if it was the character or the too much comedy of the style, but it was rather distracting. The story of working on Watanabe’s legs to prevent her big offence later made sense. How can you not enjoy a match with a Spinning Dragon Sleeper?
Rating: 7.75/10
#6
Asuka vs Becky Lynch
“WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship”
WWE Royal Rumble
January 29, 2019
I am not sure how I missed putting this match in 2019, but it’s pretty darn good. The crowd is really hot as two top stars are very even trying to put the other away. They had tremendous transitions and both were really going for the submissions. The vicious bump off the apron elevates this, along with the great finishing sequence.
Rating: 8/10
#5
Miyu Amasaki vs Nanae Takahashi
“Passion Injection Match”
Stardom Miyu Amasaki Triumphal Return
March 19, 2023
The one-year anniversary of Miyu Amasaki’s debut and she is facing the legendary Takahashi in her hometown in the gorgeous KBS Hall and it’s a great match. Takahashi beats the passion into Amasaki it looks like it could be a legendary feud brewing. Amasaki has great leg submissions and focuses on offence, she’s rather smooth for someone so young in her career and Takahashi is great as the veteran bully. Great hope spots and a great match.
Post-match, Takahashi says the referee is on the take but she overcame. They set up future matches and I am very excited about that.
Rating: 8/10
#4
Chihiro Hashimto vs Mio Momono
Marvelous
March 15, 2023
A classic power vs speed match-up that started slowly, but built up to get more and more exciting until a great finishing sequence. Momono is such a cool wrestler watching her try to evade as much of Hashimoto’s power offence as possible.
Rating: 8.25/10
#3
Bayley & Sasha Banks vs Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair
WWE Raw
September 9, 2019
The Four Horsewomen collide live in MSG in a tremendous tag team match! They felt like they were on a mission to upstage everyone and the crowd was really hot for it. My favourite moment was when Charlotte had the Figure-8 on Sasha and Bayley broke that up by rolling Becky Lynch up into it! Classic tag wrestling here!
Rating: 8.25/10
#2
KAIRI & Nanae Takahashi vs Tam Nakano & Waka Tsukiyama
Stardom New Blood Premium
March 25, 2023
After years of never getting a win in Stardom, Waka Tsukiyama has one last chance to win or she will be kicked out of Comsic Angels and she’s facing two legends. It’s a perfect story and it had a perfect ending.
Waka had her serious face on, and was overpowered, but fought and fought before she rolled up the legend in the end. The KAIRI and Tam parts ruled as well. It was very dramatic with the story throughout. The post-match was perfect too.
This is pro-wrestling!
Rating: 8.25/10
“Fan Favourite”
The Giant vs Lex Luger
WCW Starrcade
December 29, 1996
This one comes from Elliott on the discord and, weirdly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Starrcade 1996.
You could tell this was going to be a great one from the very hot crowd and with the amazing lock-up start to the match. It played the classic formula of seeing if the powerful man is strong enough to overcome the giant man. The Giant did a great job being the giant man early on and the hope spots by Luger were awesome. We get to a referee bump and Luger has it, but then nWo shenanigans. Thankfully it all ends with much better Sting shenanigans and an excellent finish.
Rating: 7.25/10
“Match of the Week”
Chigusa Nagayo & Dynamite Kansai vs Devil Masami & Mayumi Ozaki
GAEA Memorial First Gong In Korakuen
April 15, 1995
This is the main event of the very first GAEA show and it’s the perfect way to establish a promotion!
I find it really interesting that Kansai and Nagayo are dressed normally, but Masami is dressed as Super Heel Masami and Ozaki is dressed for a street fight. Ozaki knew what was up because this was one of the most violent wild bloody brawls I have ever seen.
It was so out of control the ring crew started taking apart the ring mid-match and the wrenches they used became a weapon for Ozaki. The sight of a half-destroyed ring with brawling everywhere is a great sight!
The match keeps escalating and many times you think it is over, but it instead, just gets more violent! All of this leads up to an all-time great finish, where Nagayo goes for the Running Three on Ozaki, but Masami on the outside just stabs Nagayo with a sword, allowing Ozaki to counter into a rollup.
This is an all-time classic that will be on my greatest match-ever list!
Rating: 9.5/10
Thoughts
What did you think of these matches? What matches do you want to recommend me to watch? Preferably hit me up with those 2019 suggestions. You can do that with the info below!
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Best Matches I’ve Watched This Week (2023-03-10)
Here are the best matches I watched the last week! From March 4 to March 10, 2023. It was kind of a light week since I started a new position at work and you know how that is.
#9
Roxanne Perez vs Meiko Satomura
“NXT Women’s Championship”
NXT Roadblock
March 7, 2023
I’ve loved these two in the past, so I had to check this out and it was pretty good. A classic teacher/veteran vs student/youngster match, but with the twist of the youngster as the champion. Well laid out with Meiko being the dominant badass she is. Based on the sudden finish, I’d hope for a bigger rematch where they could put on a truly great match.
Rating: 7/10
#8
Aja Kong & Mariko Yoshida vs Kyoko Inoue vs Takako Inoue
“WWWA Tag Team Title Tournament Semi-Final”
AJW Wrestling Queendom 1995 Success
March 21, 1995
Aja Kong was in full beast mode in this one and Yoshida offered a great contrast to her. Double Inoue was on a mission to regain the titles they forfeited because they were the 99th champions and wanted to be the 100th. That led to an exciting tag match!
Rating: 7/10
#7
Kumiko Maekawa vs Nanae Takahashi
AJW Garage Show
November 11, 2001
These two different heavy hitters had a very fun 15-minute draw. It took place at some festival, where there were tents around the ringside. They took great advantage of the setting and brawled to those areas, plus to the street and used a variety of weapons in fun ways. A draw, that didn’t feel like a draw and a very exciting rush to get the pin at the end.
Rating: 7/10
#6
Chihiro Hashimoto vs Himeka
Stardom Triangle Derby I
March 4, 20223
Not only is this a good hoss battle, but it’s perfect booking. Hashimoto has come to Stardom to destroy Syuri and along the way she is building herself up by taking out the biggest hoss in Stardom, Himeka. They battle and battle hard!
Rating: 7/10
#5
Blizzard Yuki & Manami Toyota vs Kyoko Inoue & Takako Inoue
“WWWA Tag Team Title Tournament Final”
AJW Wrestling Queendom 1995 Success
March 21, 1995
The finals of the tournament to crown the 100th WWWA Tag Team Champions was very nearfall heavy which normally would have brought it down a lot, but it being the finals of a tournament weakened the blow a little. An exciting, all-action tag match!
Rating: 7.25
#4
Ami Sourei, MIRAI, & Syuri vs. Hiragi Kurumi, Risa Sera, & Suzu Suzuki
“Triangle Derby Finals”
Stardom Triangle Derby I
March 4, 20223
This tournament has made one of the most stagnant and boring times in Stardom since I started following it closely, but the final show was amazing including the finals of the tournament. I love how strong Prominence has been booked in Stardom, especially Suzu Suzuki. Suzuki and MIRAI have awesome chemistry and their finishing sequence was tremendous.
Rating: 7.5/10
#3
Giulia vs Maya Yukihi
“World of Stardom Championship”
Stardom Triangle Derby I
March 4, 20223
I haven’t seen Yukihi before, but she is from Giulia’s Ice Ribbon past. Based on this match, they have a lot of beef. This focussed a lot more on brawling on the outside and trying to put the other out than your typical Stardom title match, so this was a nice contrast. I dug the ending as Giulia hit the knockout blow on the outside, which would make Akira Hokuto happy, but is too hurt to enter herself. Looking forward to them continuing this one!
Rating: 8.25/10
#2
AZM vs Starlight Kid
“High Speed Championship”
Stardom Triangle Derby I ~Championship Battle~
March 4, 2023
Watching these two feels like you are watching the future of wrestling. While current people are focussing on huge spots, more flips, and fast action, these two focus on fast action built around going for wins with submissions and roll-ups. It feels so much better and natural! There were some huge spots in this one though, but they felt more impactful and more going for the win.
Although this was great, the match they had last year felt a bit better.
Rating: 8.5/10
“Fan Favourite”
Kazuyuki Fujita & Kendo Kashin vs Manabu Nakanishi & Shinsuke Nakamura
NJPW Toukon Festival
November 13, 2004
RoseGold saw how much I enjoyed the Fujita-Nagata shoot fight last week, so tried to see if I would enjoy it more. If you have a match you want me to watch next week, hit me up on Twitter or the discord.
It is so strange seeing Nakamura be so normal here. It’s also a very nice nostalgia hit when I see Kashin. Back in high school I never watched him but was somehow a big fan. He had a mask and did cool armbars, that’s all I needed!
The highlights of this match were when Fujita was beating the shit out of dudes, especially Nakanishi who was a giant punching bag. Nakanishi is so big he also had a few cool moments. Nakamura was just there, like he was a solid dude, but was not a stand-out in any way. Kashin hit a cool armbar off the top rope, so major bonus points for that.
Altogether, there were some fun moments, but mostly it was an okay tag that didn’t do a whole lot for me. Fujita and Don Frye seem to be my favourite shoot-style dudes, but that’s mostly for the MMA punching and not caring about their opponent’s attitude. It doesn’t always translate to a good match.
Rating: fun in parts/10
“Match of the Week”
Saya Kamitani vs Hazuki
“Wonder of Stardom Championship”
Stardom Triangle Derby I ~Championship Battle~
March 4, 2023
When Saya Kamitani is on, she’s really on. Even better when there is someone in there who keeps her on track and from going too far. Hazuki was just that person and her desperation to win at all costs made was unreal. Every time Kamitani started to drag this down, Hazuki brought it right back on track. It was frantic, and exciting, and had me on the edge of my seat.
Rating: 8.5/10
You can discuss this on Twitter!
Discord
We also have a lovely discord community to discuss the greatest wrestler ever project and anything else under the sun. It’s an open and welcoming group and I am very proud of it. Everyone is welcome:
Join:
We also do weekly watch-along parties with chat!
Trans Rights!
It’s a horrible time to be trans right now, so please donate to the lovely folks here, who save lives!
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