[5.0] "A pretty mediocre show, with only one truly good match and almost everything else simply being there. The pre-match 5-way was pretty terrible, even by Stardom's pre-show standards. Kohgo was focussed on as the loveable face-in-peril, but all the in-ring work was extremely limited and uncoordinated, and Kohgo's win by only eliminating 2 of her 4 opponents made no sense. 1/2*. Hanan vs Lady C was decent for its time. Lady C did well utilising her height and flexibility, while Hanan had some pretty cool Judo-based attacks. They didn't always have the cleanest moves or set-ups, but I very much appreciated their efforts to show some styles of offence you don't usually see, especially from rookies. **1/2. Suzu and Prominence's appearance was definitely interesting, and I was super impressed with Suzu's genuine emotion as she called out Giulia (tears on command! damnnnn). Such a simple segment that immediately interested me in this feud, since I believed that the wrestlers believed everything they said. Great work! AZM & Utami vs Momo & Kid was decent. Everyone seemed to offer something unique: AZM had lots of impressive speed, agility, and slickness as usual; Momo had good kicks and heelish arrogance )though some of her moves could look pretty awkward at times); Kid had decent acrobatics and good energy (though she's still difficult to take seriously as a threat); and Utami had some mostly unspectacular but still good power moves. The match didn't have any real story apart from the generic Oedo Tai shenanigans, but the action itself was decent. ***. Mina vs Thekla was alright. Thekla's constant 'quirky' theatre-kid character work was extremely off-putting for how forced and 'in your face' it was. In contrast, Mina showed a lot of personality but without it feeling especially forced or 'loud'. Their various 50/50 exchanges were fine, albeit often relying more on speed and obvious cooperation to cover up their weaker technique and impact. Both had some nice individual spots in the 2nd half. **3/4. Hazuki & Koguma vs Himeka & Maika was decent. There was nice powerhouse and beatdown work from the challengers all match-long. Hazuki had decent energy and a fine all-rounder offence, but she wasn't as believable as her opponents, since she had the speed but not the the necessary power. Koguma is basically just a slower, schtick-ier Hazuki, so she was even less impressive, though still okay. Her few big power moves and strikes were good, at least. Himeka bulldozing with her massive strikes was always great, but damn, what an absolute joke the finish was, as Koguma somehow small-packaged Himeka right after flipping onto her neck from Himeka's monstrous lariat. ***. Kamitani vs Unagi was another alright match. Neither woman is very good, as Kamitani wants to be far flashier and 'cooler' than she's physically capable of being, while Unagi is just painfully simplistic in every way. They didn't have the best chemistry but still managed to be mostly decent here. The one big positive was that despite their mostly underwhelming sequences and individual spots, both still showed good determination each time they interacted, and to Kamitani's individual credit I thought she had some nice aggressive displays and did well bumping for Unagi's otherwise forgettable moves. They then picked things up quite a bit at the end with their generic but still finely executed big moves and near falls, with Kamitani's power moves being the standout (she needs to do way more of those instead of her dorky acrobatics and aerial attacks). ***. Mayu vs Giulia was unsurprisingly MOTN. I enjoyed the clash of styles here, as Mayu was the flashy speed-and-strikes-based athlete, while Giulia was less polished with her offence and set-ups but still quite compelling with her submission focus and her general displays of gritty charisma. Mayu sold really well when stuck in Giulia's various submissions, and she did well selling the short-term effects of Giulia's arm-targeting once she got her comeback. I didn't even really mind that she eventually dropped her arm-selling in the 2nd half because Giulia's targeting of it hadn't been *too* extensive anyways, though that was still a missed opportunity to make the match more compelling. Their rapid big-move trades and no-selling were very cheesy but at least very well-executed, as Giulia impressed with her various submissions and big strikes and power moves, while Mayu impressed with her desperate struggles to survive and her fiery comebacks. It did get a bit absurd just how much offence Mayu was able to survive, and I didn't like us getting the 'Stardom Special' (tm) of yet another time-limit draw, but the rest of the match was really good. ***1/2. The set-up with both Mayu and Giulia getting title-shots is definitely interesting, but that set-u[ would've been more special if Stardom didn't have so many time-limit draws already. Syuri vs Mirai was the 2nd best MOTN, though that isn't saying much when the vast majority of the show was merely decent. My first impressions of Mirai here is that she doesn't exactly scream 'star', though she was still decent and did have a few impressive moments. They started the match slowly but soon picked up to some more energetic and aggressive work. Syuri impressed with her usual submissions and of course her great stiff kicks, but Mirai's offence in contrast was far more generic and lacking in explosiveness. Even her technique wasn't especially impressive there. She at least showed decent fire with her selling, but she mostly failed to capitalise on that with her comebacks. She did finally impress me towards the end with a few key power moves and strikes, plus her arm-targeting was usually pretty good, but consistency remained her issue, and Syuri just easily overshadowed her in basically every area. Their rapid 50/50 trades in the final 1/4th were sadly pretty mindless but still decent enough by Stardom 'epic match' standards. ***1/4"

[8.0] "Strong second half with Mayu vs Giulia being the standout. Props to Tall Saya for doing a botch that looked better than the move she was actually attempting. The non-Mayu vs Giulia matches in the second half were too long though."

[8.0] "The wrestling festival was presented to us by the girls from Stardom! The matches were on the rise, from medium to three great fights. Saya Kamitani is an asterisk and my favorite! Giulia and Mayu Iwatani are punchy women who will reach the main titles. I wonder why extras come up during the jumps, as for me, it spoils the moment of the jump, it doesn't seem so special (The only claim for the whole show)."

[9.0] "The wrestling show of January 2022. You must seek out the Goddesses of Stardom title match, Giulia vs Mayu, and the main event. The entire show is real good, but those 3 are top notch."

[9.0] "Really great show that exceeded my expectations, and they were high as fuck! All matches entertained me and even though I don't know much about the girls from Prominence, I'm looking forward to watch them wrestle. Once again: Great show. 9/10"

[9.0] "The appearance of Prominence and Giulia vs Iwatani match are two of the great moments of this show. Everything else was at a decent level or even better, only the main event was lower then avarage one, which was expected."

[8.0] "A good PPV that had some really good things in it, including a MOTY candidate, but also some clear flaws. Hanan vs Lady C was pretty nice but really short, and Utami/AZM vs. Momo and Starlight Kid was also shorter than expected, with tons of interference on top of that. Whereas those two matches needed more time, the final three matches went a combined 76 minutes, which is overkill and poor pacing. I have zero complaints about Mayu vs Giulia going long, but Syuri needing 27 minutes to beat Mirai is a joke, and Saya vs Unagi going 19 is overkill. The middle portion of this card was really nice, as Thekla vs Mina was a hoot and exactly what it needed to be, and FWC vs MaiHime was the exact very good quality one would expect for it to be. The Prominence girls coming out to the ring and Risa challenging Giulia was a big surprise, but the brawl felt New Japan like to me, and not exactly in a good way. Saya and Unagi had a match that was abysmally long for what happened, and while the second half had some crazy things, this match dragged heading into that final stretch and the finish was rough. Mayu vs Giulia was the best match I've seen this month. I usually have issue with draws, but this match gets an exception for a few reasons. One is that it was supposed to be a triple threat before Tam was deemed unable to wrestle, and having it go the distance gives us two big matches for the back-to-back Ryugoku PPVs in March: Syuri vs Giulia on March 26th, and the winner against Mayu the next night. The main event had a really good second half, but the first half was just going through the motions to make this a long match. I understand wanting to make Mirai a legit threat, but maybe they could have, you know, built her up for a bit instead of having her challenge for the title a month into her Stardom tenure' It felt hollow and needlessly long to me. The post match was hilarious. This was a 7 and a half show to a tee. A seven feels too low for a show with several good matches and one great one, and an 8 feels high for the faults that it had. I have to give it a number, so I will give it an 8, but I understand if people give it less."

[9.0] "Another awesome Stardom show. Great matches including a MOTYC and a shock Prominence invasion. I cannot wait for their matches vs DDM and PLEASE give us Suzu vs Giulia singles at Sumo Hall, I'm on my knees."