Stardom Review And Analysis: January 6 in Osaka

Kagetsu & Natsu Sumire vs Hana Kimura & Mary Apache

The post-match brawl of the opening match continued into the opening of this one as all four women brawled throughout the building. Not to be left out of the festivities, Hayter, Gibbs, and Tyler continued to fight amongst the crowd.

Once back in the ring, Natsu bounced back from a vicious chop from Apache with a clothesline bringing both wrestlers to the mat. With Apache down and rolling to the safety of the corner, Natsu set her up for and delivered a Bronco Buster with the type of gusto only Natsu Sumire can muster up.

It wasn’t enough to keep Apache down, though, who stood up in the corner with Natsu on her shoulders to deliver a thunderous powerbomb in the center of the ring. Apache and Kimura added insult to injury with a pair of stereo surfboards.

Natsu would eventually go back to the well and use a double clothesline on her opponents to give herself enough breathing room to tag Kagetsu into the match. The champion went straight for the attack on Apache but found herself unable to lift her onto her shoulders allowing Apache to catch her breath and plan a comeback.

Abandoning the attempted fireman’s carry, Kagetsu hit the ropes but was met with a spinning heel kick from Apache who then tagged in Kimura. The bad blood was evident between Kagetsu and Kimura who pounded each other with forearms and kicks before Kimura was able to gain the advantage.

After a quick round of double-teaming on Kagetsu, Kimura made the cover but Jamie Hayter charged the ring to break things up. This brought Gibbs, Tyler, Hazuki, and basically everyone else at ringside into the ring with the match devolving into a pull-apart brawl. Just as quickly as it had started, it ended in a no-contest.

Thoughts: Super fun and quick fight between two teams with a bone to pick with one another. I don’t think I’ve seen a match start quite this way since I started watching Stardom last year and it was a fun change of pace to go from one match right into another with a couple spoonfuls of mayhem mixed in.

Kimura has looked way more on point the past couple of shows than she has since returning from Mexico. Something seemed off or lacking in her performances straight off of her return, but that spark has been lit and she looked like a killer here.