High Speed Title Match: AZM (c) vs. Natsupoi
Excellent High Speed title match. It was exactly what you'd expect and done really well. Hot, fast paced action reliant on technique and skill. There weren't many mid-steps, so everything came off as smooth and exciting. AZM had an excellent nearfall after she sat down on Natsupoi’s chest after teasing an arm-trapped inside cradle. ***
Goddesses Of Stardom Title Match: Donna del Mondo (Himeka & Maika) (c) vs. Oedo Tai (Natsuko Tora & Saki Kashima)
Not a bad way to spend seven minutes, but this is one match that's probably going to be skipped by a few people that want to watch this show. No one stands out as everyone does their thing quickly. A few cool spots here and there and they go to the finish. **1/2
All-Star Rumble Match
I skipped the Rumble as I don’t really like them. Everything that was worth watching I already saw with gifs, anyway. Although it was nice to fring some older heads and legends such as Momoe Nakanishi, Chigusa Nagayo and Yuzuki Aikawa, the original ace in Stardom.
Nanae Takahashi vs. Momo Watanabe
So Momo Watanabe bites the bullet for the inter-promotional losses. Well that was to be expected as I don't expect Nanae Takahashi to lose regardless of the situation. I think we all knew the result so how was the match? It was pretty good. It didn't attempt to be the main event or MOTN, they went out and had a match that was both paced quickly, with the aim to win, with a lot of hard strikes. They captured the dislike and pettiness of the feud really well which is great. Matches on the undercard need spice every now and again. The finish was a standard bomb-throw until you got the win closing stretch - and that’s okay on its own - but some of the spots didn't look great and that hurt the climax a tad. But the build of the match was the true bright sparks of the match. ***1/2
SWA Undisputed World Women's Title Match: Syuri (c) vs. Konami
A match that might be better on a lower level show as it would likely be the main event but unfortunately it's the lowest of the big title matches of the night so we are not given a lot of time to have a great match that we know these two could have while still having some quality. What we got was a decent submission showcase for the two. Syuri stood out as the champion and Konami was strong as champion. It flowed well from bell to bell but it needed more fleshing out. ***
Mayu Iwatani vs. Yoshiko
The dream match of the show. And it definitely delivered. There is a lot of history between Yoshiko and Stardom but she made it a point to put that behind her once and for all and channel her efforts into a great performance. Yoshiko was in full monster mode, pummelling Mayu with her raw power and vicious offence. Mayu did what she does best, selling excellently with her wild bumping while building to a great comeback. Great high-impact, main event quality match. ***3/4
World Of Stardom Title Match: Utami Hayashishita (c) vs. Saya Kamitani
These two have quite incredible rises in the promotion. Utami came on the scene in 2018 and was immediately a natural, which allowed her an immediate main event spot while Saya Kamitani was a tad more gradual but still a rise that most people never get in a short while. In fact, a year ago, this was the main event for a Future Of Stardom Title Match at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. From that to the semi main event of Budokan Hall is impressive. Saya Kamitani is still rather raw, but she is very talented and is only a few steps away from truly deserving the World Title in my opinion. Coming into this, she already proved that she could beat her fellow teammate so she had momentum behind her. Okay, I feel like I'm just talking about Saya. She is great, okay. Utami Hayashishita is great too and she's having a decent title run coming into the match herself, but the match is mostly about making Saya come off as a great wrestler and a main event act. And I think she really delivered when called upon. Saya used her athleticism absolutely perfectly to score some great nearfall and flurries of offence. Not only that, Saya’s bumping made Utami’s relative strength advantage stand out even more so. Utami put in a strong effort to highlight her opponent above herself while not being a total afterthought. Great title match. ***3/4
Wonder Of Stardom Title Hair Vs. Hair Match: Giulia (c) vs. Tam Nakano
Hair Vs Hair matches are historically significant in Joshi history - Chigusa Nagayo/Dump Matsumoto and Manami Toyota/Toshiyo Yamada come to mind - so it’s natural that this main evented the Nippon Budokan over some of the other matches on the show. However this really failed to captivate me to that degree. The work itself was decent and fluid, but they didn't really capture the weight of the stipulation in the way that I would've liked. This perhaps would've worked better as a standard main event, with the near falls, but they didn't take that extra step up to make it a classic encounter similar to the aforementioned hair v Hair matches. Unfortunately it's up there with the Nanae Takahashi v Arisa Nakajima Hair v Hair match by being thoroughly disappointing emotionally despite the solid wrestling. My rating? Tough. This is probably where star ratings can be stupid because this wasn't a great match due to the reasons I've stated, but it's not terrible either. A Gentleman's three? ***
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