Mathew brings us more Stardom coverage! This will catch you up nicely if you planned on going to their American Dream show April 5th in Queens, NY!

Welcome back to Stardom! This is their last big show before they head on over to the United States for WrestleMania Weekend, Dream Slam.

The show is stacked with five championship matches, a retirement ceremony, and some great matches on top of it. This will also be my last Stardom show to cover as of right now until All Japan’s Champion Carnival is all done with at the end of April.

We got a lot to cover and no time to waste as we…dive right in.

Rating System:

• 0 Stars: Dave Meltzer
• 1 Star: Vince Russo
• 2 Stars: Tony Schiavone
• 3 Stars: Eric Bischoff
• 4 Stars: Bruce Prichard
• 5 Stars: Jim Cornette

Battle Royal
Hina vs. Rina vs. Leo Onozaki vs. Jungle Kyona vs. Hanan vs. Saya Iida vs. Natsu Sumire

Review: Our first match is a battle royal with some of the rookies like Hanan, Hina, Rina, Leo Onozaki, and Saya Iida while we have some vets like Jungle Kyona and Natsu Sumire in the match. Originally Hana Kimura was supposed to be in this match but due to her having a health issue, she was pulled from the match. The rookies have a lot to prove in this match if they wanna move forward with their progression. Which one of these seven will win?

All of them are circling around the ring until six of them would face Natsu as the rookies would charge as her while she gave them all a hip toss, except for Jungle who would power out of it. This one was a little bit all over the place but they did have some cool combinations with all of them doing a Figure-Four Choke Hold with Sumire at the end as Nao Yamaguchi would go to the bottom of it to flip them all over like a Boston Crab which almost worked, but Nao tripped once she turned them over. After this though is when eliminations would start to happen as Leo was first eliminated when Hana flipped her over into a pin with help from her sisters, but Hina and Rina get her with a Gedo Clutch and a bridge to eliminate her as well. Hina and Rina would start to fight Jungle and had her down for a pin but she kicked out and applies the Boston Crab on both of them to make them tap out as we’re now down to three. Sumire would have some help from Nao again as Jungle got flipped over and Nao held her still while Sumire Dropkicked her to eliminate Kyona. Saya is the last one left and tries to knock Sumire down with Dropkicks but she wouldn’t budge. Sumire would hold Saya in place as Nao attempts to go for the Ax Bomber but Saya ducked and hits Sumire by accident, leading to Saya rolling Sumire up for the pin as she gets the surprise victory! What a win for Iida.

Now on https://t.co/q8dHnF58vW from last night at Korakuen Hall, it's the opening match Battle Royal! pic.twitter.com/KAG5mSASng

— We Are Stardom (@we_are_stardom) March 29, 2019

Rating: Tony Schiavone and a quarter

Eight Man Tag Team Match
Queen’s Quest (AZM, Bea Priestley, Konami, & Viper) vs. STARS (Arisa Hoshiki, Saki Kashima, Starlight Kid, & Tam Nakano)

Review: Our next match is an eight-man tag match with Queen’s Quest members, AZM, Bea Priestley, Konami, and Viper taking on STARS members, Arisa Hoshiki, Saki Kashima, Starlight Kid, and Tam Nakano. Viper has recently signed to the WWE as apart of the NXT UK Division, so it makes sense why she lost her titles recently and this could be apart of her farewell tour before she leaves for good. Gonna miss her in Stardom, but people move on and get experience elsewhere. Will she be able to get her team win or will STARS get the victory?

Viper and Starlight start it off as Starlight would try to tag in her teammates but no avail as they wanted nothing to do with Viper. She did hold her off fairly well when she could though, so I will give her that. I thought the match was rather sloppy at the beginning with some of them having no sense of direction and Saki botching a little bit with the Hurricanrana onto Bea where she almost fell before it landed. After that though, it was much more crisp with everything being coherent. Arisa and Tam seem to be having a little bit of an issue with each other as Tam kicked Arisa and slammed her on top of Bea and stood on them to dance, Arisa didn’t like that so she decided to do the same to Tam and didn’t fall over this time, even did a Springboard Knee Drop onto Bea for good measure, good girl. AZM and Starlight are in the ring and they once again make magic with them going back and forth in the ring and she would give AZM a 619, which Tam topped with a German Suplex hold as Starlight flipped over them to hold the pinfall as Viper broke the count. STARS would try to hit the Dropkick onto their opponents but they got up and Dropkicked them back and had them into the turnbuckles so Viper could hit them with a Cannonball. AZM hits Starlight with a Suplex, Konami hits a PK, and AZM is on the top rope to hit a Double Stomp as AZM kicked out. AZM would apply a Fujiwara Armbar as Starlight rolled her for the pin and AZM kicked out, but AZM looked like she was gonna do the La Magistral but pinned her before she rolled and gets the victory in a solid match.

Rating: Eric Bischoff

– Shiki Shibusawa was in the ring now as she has announced that she was leaving professional wrestling. She was out of action after their Goddesses of Stardom Tag League with a minor injury but during that time, she would be met with some criticism from the fans as they would bully her about her ability in the ring while some did defend her. It looked like it was too much since she started to doubt herself and lead to where we are now and her retirement. Unfortunately, some wrestlers get attacked by fans online and some can take it and even bark back at them, but there are some that can’t handle it. Wrestling is a hard business to get into as not everyone is going to like you and some will but it’s also not for everyone either. Everyone on the roster would come in to give her flowers, hug her, take a picture with her, and just wish her luck in her next journey. She would thank everyone for a great three years and knows that she’ll always be family in Stardom. All I can say to you Shiki is good luck to whatever it is you do next.

SWA Undisputed World Women’s Title Match
Utami Hayashishita (c) vs. Rebel Kel

Review: Now that the exhibition matches are out of the way, it’s time for our title matches for the remainder of the show as Utami Hayashishita is up first to defend her SWA Undisputed World Women’s Championship against Rebel Kel. This match is fairly new as Rebel made the challenge on March 21st to fight Utami for one of the four belts she has under her waist. Will Utami will have all her belts or will Rebel win her first title?

Rebel…I have nothing to say that is anything positive…maybe that she’s tall, but that’s really it. Nothing that she has done in this match was anything exciting or good. Her hits were super light and very noticeable that you think it was Great Khali hitting you or something, also anything she would execute overall was just half-assed. Utami is literally the only saving grace in this match as she tried so hard to make it work or even tolerable but no matter how good Utami is in the ring, she wasn’t even able to save the match and that’s a bad sign when one of your top stars can’t make someone else look good. I really don’t know why Rebel got this match but she didn’t deserve it. Rebel would give her an average Chokeslam as Utami would kick out of it and when she picked her up, Utami would get her for the Torture Rack Bomb and she pinned her to retain the title. Just skip this one, save the eight minutes for a better match. I would rather watch Kelly Klein and Mayu Iwatani fight again.

Rating: Vince Russo and a half

High Speed Title Match
Hazuki (c) vs. Xia Brookside

Review: Our next title match is Hazuki defending the High Speed Championship against Xia Brookside. This will be Hazuki’s fourth title defense during this reign and while she has a heated rivalry with Arisa Hoshiki, she’s gonna put that to the side so she can focus on her match. Xia is also someone that has signed a WWE deal and will also be apart of the NXT UK Division as well with Viper, so this will actually be her final match with Stardom. Will it be better than the last title match? Will Hazuki retain or will Xia take the belt with her?

Xia really has come a long way since I’ve first started following her about a year ago and the progress she has made since then shows. She was able to surprisingly match up with Hazuki pretty well here and Hazuki is someone who can work with almost anybody too. I loved the little exchange where Hazuki would try a Lung Blower as Xia caught her and tried to do it back to her but Hazuki caught her and had Xia by the ropes as Xia would turn it into a DDT. The match may be about four minutes, but it was enough to keep the fans very satisfied with their performances here. Xia would have her up on her shoulders but Hazuki would get off her to only eat a Neckbreaker right away. The two would go back and forth with the Sunset Flip and counter to break the hold to try and pin each other as it would only be less than one count for the majority of it. Hazuki would have her in the Hazukistral and got the win to retain her title. Good luck to you, Xia as I wish you the best in your next chapter.

Hazuki defends the High Speed title vs Xia Brookside, and it's on https://t.co/q8dHnF58vW now! pic.twitter.com/G4W1mAxm7Q

— We Are Stardom (@we_are_stardom) March 30, 2019

Rating: Eric Bischoff

ROH Women of Honor World Title Match
Mayu Iwatani (c) vs. Natsuko Tora

Review: Up next is another title match with a division that I despise and the company that is called a major turn-off these days. We have Mayu Iwatani defending the ROH Women of Honor World Championship against Natsuko Tora. While ROH did a terrible job with their WOH Division and how they booked the title, Stardom has done a better job with it when they made Mayu the champion. The winner of this match would be going to Madison Square Garden to defend the title at the G1 Supercard, so one of these women will walk into the legendary arena as the champion, but the question is who?

It appears as if Mayu’s knee is a bit bandaged up and Natsuko notices that as she would use that as her opening target for the match. It’s probably just me and I’m sure it’s nothing, but it did seem like Mayu’s selling was a little bit off at the beginning of the match and it’s weird because she’s a fantastic seller. There were times where she would either no sell her leg getting hurt by Natsuko or do it very little but she does start doing it more as the match goes on but again, still a bit weird. Me personally, I was hoping for Jungle Kyona to be the one involved in this match since she’s better than Natsuko but at the same time, I wouldn’t wanna give her another big loss since she was defeated by both Kagetsu and Momo already and this would’ve been a little too much to take three big losses in a row. Natsuko did still do the job she had to do with giving Mayu someone easy to work with before the Garden.

Mayu did pull off some neat maneuvers in the match like her Missle Dropkick being a thing of beauty alone and then a nice Crossbody to the outside as she gets some air. Mayu went for a Diving Moonsault as Natsuko would roll out of the way to hit a Shining Wizard as Mayu sold it like a champ. Natsuko would hit a very poor Dragon Suplex to mock Mayu a little bit and does a Frog Splash off the top rope and tops it off by climbing again for a Double Stomp and Mayu kicked out of it at two. Natsuko would pick her up again and hits the Swinging Side Slam and Mayu was still able to kick out of it, but Natsuko gets to the top rope and Leg Drops her injured knee for good measure. Mayu would eventually hit the Diving Moonsault which looks beautiful and hits her Dragon Suplex Hold to retain her title. Mayu will be defending the title at Madison Square Garden against…Kelly Klein..damn, ROH really doesn’t have anyone else to use? Either way, I’m happy to see Mayu getting a chance to shine on the big stage despite wishing she fought someone better as she’s earned this.

Rating: Eric Bischoff and a half

World of Stardom Title Match
Kagetsu (c) vs. Goya Kong

Review: Our next match is the World of Stardom Championship, who is not main eventing again as Kagetsu defends the belt against Goya Kong. oya made her Stardom debut on the March 9th show and after the main event, she would make her challenge to Kagetsu for the title but Kagetsu would first decline the challenge. However, she would have a change of heart when she figured Stardom’s President, Rossy Owaga thought it was a good idea to bring her to Stardom for a big match, so she would give in and accept the challenge. Kagetsu has had a rather odd title run thus far and a win here would make her the champion leading to their show in NYC. Will Kagetsu retain the belt or will it be Goya that takes it?

Okay Stardom, I understand that Momo Watanabe is your new ace of the company and I fully support that decision, but could you maybe throw Kagetsu a bone and start giving her more credible opponents? I mean, I know you occasionally give her some big matches but she does deserve to fight bigger and better names at this point as well instead of just random scraps. Anyway, I will say that I was not fully invested in Goya Kong but still not Rebel Kel bad, so that’s a plus. One thing that irked me a little bit was that this didn’t feel like a World of Stardom Championship match and just another random exhibition, so it made it hard to care about it fully. Kagetsu did try her best and would do what she could to pull some stops such as the red mist at the beginning and trying to take out her leg to make her tap out, which is smart since that’s what you wanna do to someone that is bigger than you.

Kagetsu would hit the first Oedo Coaster but Goya would kick out of it, leaving our Prime Minister shocked and would try to pick her up for the Michinoku Driver but was unable to lift her up and Goya would have her in a Wheel Barrel position to German Suplex her and that actually looked good, not gonna lie. Goya goes to the top ropes and Kagetsu would push the referee into the corner so she could spit green mist into her eyes to blind her as she was finally able to pick her up for a Samoan Drop. Instead of pinning her, she would go up to hit the Oedo Coaster but wait, she goes up top to hit it a second time and then a third! Three Oedo Coasters in a row and she pins her to retain the title. Mediocre match but a nice ending to give it some points.

After the match, Kagetsu would talk to the crowd and would ask them why she won today but she answered that it’s because they were in Japan, which is her home along with Stardom. She did give Goy some credit and said she would like to do it again in Mexico as the two shook hands before Goya left the ring. She would then call Nao Yamaguchi to the ring and would give her some praise for dealing with Oedo for almost a year now as the other members came into the ring with her now as they gave her flowers while thanking her for everything. So why are they doing this you ask? Well, while Shiki has announced her retirement, it’s also the end of Nao’s career in wrestling as this was her last day in the company as well. She still hasn’t fully recovered from her concussion from what I’ve heard and it looks like she wants to move on, which I can respect since concussions are no joke and her body wasn’t able to keep up with the wrestling. Whatever you do, Nao, I wish you the best of luck and going to miss you.

Rating: Tony Schiavone and a half

Wonder of Stardom Title Match
Momo Watanabe (c) vs. Andras Miyagi

Review: It’s now time for our main event as Momo Watanabe will defend her title against Oedo Tai’s, Andras Miyagi. On March 9th, their respective units were in a tag team match where Andras would actually pin the champion and she would officially make a challenge for both the Goddesses of Stardom and Wonder of Stardom Championships. Andras would fail to capture the Goddesses of Stardom Championship with Natsu Sumire when they fought both Momo and Utami Hayashishita on the March 21st show, but Andras has a chance to defeat Momo to take her white belt this time around. This is known to be Momo’s toughest challenge as she fights the former star of Sendai Girls. Will Momo overcome the odds or will someone finally put her reign to an end?

How does Andras get the top part of her hair to stay up and keep it that way until the very end of the match, I’ll never know. Momo giving Andras the disrespect when she spits water into her face but don’t worry, she would eventually do it back to her once they fought on the outside of the ring. Andras is a great choice to fight Momo since she has wrestled from another company as a lot of experience that she can share with Momo to help get her to that next level and she does that quite well for herself. Andras doing great work on working Momo’s neck since it’s taped up and would manipulate it as much as she could, even making her headbang like a rock star is still enough to move the neck around to make it more uncomfortable for her. Momo would catch Andras when she tried to springboard from the ropes as she tried to hit the Package Driver but Andras would wrap her legs around her neck to choke her down and the champion is stunned.

Momo would give Andras a Roundhouse Kick to the face and would get her down for the Package Driver to hit it this time around and then gives her one more kick to the head for good measure as the two are both laying on the mat. The two were going blow for blow once they got up and Momo would win that battle when she gets Andras to the ropes but wait, Andras drags the referee in front of Momo and hits her with a chair when the ref wasn’t looking! Andras has her right where she wants her now as she goes to the top rope to hit a Swanton Bomb and it looks like we have a new champion but Momo kicked out at two! Andras would pick her up for the Piledriver but would drop her down Tombstone style and this could be it but Momo still kicked out of it. Momo would somehow find a way to roll her up for a two count and would quickly hit a Tequila Sunrise to stun her. Momo picked her back up to hit the Peach Sunrise as it connects and gets the pinfall to retain the title!

I thought this would’ve been the right time for Momo to drop the title as Momo already broke the record for most title defenses with the Wonder of Stardom Championship and could go feud with Kagetsu next to get the top title while Andras gets fresh new opponents while being the new champion. However, it looks like they still plan on Momo still being the top of the company with the second tier belt which has a lot more prestige now. After the match, Momo would call her partner, Utami Hayashishita into the ring and now challenges her as her next opponent. Utami would accept it as this match will be the main event of their show when they come to New York on Friday! Very interesting to see them do this now since now is the time for Momo to drop the title, I feel like Utami winning a fifth belt so early will also be a bit too much. We’ll see how this plays out and I’m excited about it either way.

Now on https://t.co/q8dHnF58vW from Korakuen Hall! Momo Watanabe defends her Wonder of Stardom title against Andras Miyagi! pic.twitter.com/7PioU2gLMY

— We Are Stardom (@we_are_stardom) March 31, 2019

Rating: Bruce Prichard

Overall: I honestly thought the show was pretty weak except for the main event being the only saving grace of the show with two of the title matches being lackluster. Not all shows are going to be winners and I’m excited for when they come to New York on Friday, be sure to watch it on FITE.

Favorite Match: Momo Watanabe vs. Andras Miyagi

Least Favorite Match: Utami Hayashishita vs. Rebel Kel

Score: 6/10