[8.0] "Maybe I missed the boat on this match but I just don't get what everyone sees in it. It was a good match but not something I'm going to remember in a year."
[10.0] "There's no wrestler in the world that can strike the opponent like Watanabe can, and that's beautiful to think knowing that she had only 25 years old. So much else to improve and to learn, specially after that match with one of the greatest ever. That match was a lot of fun and I really thought in a moment that her title reign was over, made me impressed and emotional even with the tons of interruption that we had by H.A.T.E, but I can understand why in this match the interferences were special. If they executed that same interferences and cheats in the match Saya did with Tam this year, the match will suck, but in this context, for that title, against that opponent and without a career on the line as well, made sense. This is NOT a five stars match for me but it's a match that I truly enjoyed, Iwatani is the best and Momo surely will be."
[9.0] "Awesome match. Momo's striking abilities are off charts - i'm really surprised she wasn't World Of Stardom Champion yet but i definitely see it coming. Mayu was typical her here - amazing on every level. HATE interfering the match wasn't much needed if i'm being honest - Watanabe and Iwatani are so good they don't need people outside to help. Overall it was incredible match. ****, 5"
[10.0] "Holy, echt Mayu hält jetzt den Titel schon über 2 Jahre und irgendwann wird es doch mal wieder Zeit für eine weitere Verteidigung. Ja also das hier war fast Perfekt. Das war einfach nur ein Weltklasse IWGP Women's Title Match, welches ich auch schon letztes Jahr sehen wollte. Ich gebe hier (****3/4)."
[8.0] "(8.3) Great match between 2 of the best current womens wrestlers. Some insane kicks throught the match with the biggest being against Mayu in the Tree Of Woe, the Dragon suplex on the apron was nuts as well. Felt there were a few too many false finishes near the end. As someone who is new to Stardom I was pleasently surprised by the quality of wrestling."
[10.0] "Amazing, simply amazing. Another crazy match for IWGP Mayu reign. The match is top tier level, Mayu is one of the best ever, no doubts. Momo loss another world title match after giving another top performance, the moment when she refuses to use the bat is amazing, she start to spam diabolical kicks, Mayu is not human, she eats every type of moves and she is kicking out everything. Very close to the 5 star level, is one of the best matches of 2024. ****/75"
[7.0] "Good match between iwatani and watanabe. I enjoyed their kicking exchanges but I think the match would've been better if they had kicked each other less. I don't watch stardom very often so I imagine if I did I would've enjoyed this match more even with that flaw. *** 3/4"
[10.0] "Fantastic match, incredible wrestlers. Even without knowing the details of the feud, you sense the tension and animosity between the girls. A very tough match with hard hitting strikes, in the best joshi tradition of the 90's."
[8.0] "Incredible match, this is only my second Mayu match I've watched and I'm already a big fan. Even without knowing the history between these two, the match did a very good job in displaying the story to any new viewers like myself. The hard-hitting action and amazing nearfalls definitely make this one of the best matches of 2024, that I've seen."
[10.0] "A MOTY contender, as expected from Momo and Mayu. They've had great matches for years and I loved the story in this one. Momo teasing a face turn, throwing the bat away to fight Mayu fairly. But it was to her own undoing. Loved it though, best match on the show and honestly best womens match i've seen in weeks. God I love Momo, I hope this is the start of a big push for her."
[9.0] "Great match. Hard hitting, good methodical pace that showcases the striking talents of Momo and Mayu although Momo easily takes the striking advantage in this match. Mayu took Momo's cruel kicks like a champ and the way she sold those kicks, man, as if she was completely out of it, I love the way Mayu shook her hand as if there were some spinal or neuro damage after the punishment Momo gave her. It wasn't just Momo though, Mayu also mounted plenty of offense and these two were able to properly mesh their styles against each other, Momo's lethal striking and power against Mayu's speed and flashy moveset. Momo took control most of the match with help from HATE, and she did a fantastic job of dictating the pace and showcasing her talents here, Mayu fought from underneath after seemingly legitimately being completely dissected by the challenger with her overwhelming striking abilities but Zombie Mayu managed to upset the challenger more than once throughout the match. Great action, excellent pace and good story even though the build up wasn't too significant. Momo Watanabe is a top level contender and she prove it here by holding her own supremely well against an all timer like Mayu Iwatani. Watanabe deserves her breakout moment sooner than later. ****1/2"
[8.0] "The HATE stuff felt like an unnecessary distraction from what was otherwise an exceptional match. I get what they were trying to do with Momo and the bat but it didn't add to the match for me and I felt the finish maybe came out of nowhere, which seems crazy to say given the amount of false finishes. Enjoyable match but just a little flat in spots."
[6.0] "Subpar in most ways. Take no joy from that as Mayu is one of my all time favourites but a match that just never clicked with me. The HATE stuff is awful and an even worse version of a problem Stardom has had for a long time. Also think Watanabe is very overrated"
[9.0] "I was excited for the whole Historic X-Over event, but this match right there stole the whole show. Mayu was always one of my favorites, but this year, it might be the best of her career, so many good matches. Momo was great too, and I hope that she get some singles gold soon, she deserves very much. That was a Match Of The Year Candidate, for men or women. (****3/4)."
[10.0] "Easily one of the best matches of 2024. Almost nobody in current STARDOM has more chemistry than Momo and Mayu, and this might be their best work against each other. Iwatani's ace performance is excellent here and Momo matches her intensity every step of the way. Great escalation as they get deeper into the match as well. Two of the best wrestlers in the world today deliver again."
[10.0] "For 8 years now, since Momo was 16 years old, she has been doing battle with Stardom's last remaining founding member, the legendary Mayu Iwatani. Momo has defeated Iwatani before but her star has never managed to surpass the legend, but with the prestigious IWGP women's title on the line it could be her chance to show she has reached the pinnacle. Basically, this match was incredibly sick, first and foremost because of the truly insane kicks these two women were throwing. I thought Momo was going to literally put Mayu's head into the balcony on that one tree of woe kick, it looked like a damn field goal attempt. These two did their very best to blow each other away with crazy offense, almost to the point of going overboard but I think they stayed just on the right side of it. This was an amazing match, my only minor complaint is the ending was a bit anti-climactic, despite I think Momo giving the better showing the finish was Mayu pinning her with a bridging dragon suplex, and the execution was not the best unlike pretty much everything else in the match. Even so, this match ranks in my top 30 for the year, great stuff."
[6.0] "I love Momo and Mayu's chemistry, they have a bunch of amazing matches, but this one wasn't that amazing. It was still not bad, and the moves were really great, and when they had a goal to impress with the kicks, they did it. But it was a typical big match formula when they did TOO much, stiff move after stiff move after stiff move, and I didn't feel the impact from them, because even after finishers they continued to move like they are still fresh, just because they needed to show more moves (though they tried). And the finish was bad, not because of a little botch, but because of the structure that could be done, yes, and I can imagine when finisher-finisher exchange can be necessary for one of the wrestlers, but again, the formula hampered me to feel it was the last thing left to do because Mayu hadn't got enough strength to continue and it was her last hope. So for me this match is pretty overrated, unfortunately."
[10.0] "This might well be my favourite match of the year, you can FEEL every single moment of this match in your soul. When Momo drops the bat and decides to just kick the everloving hell out of Mayu instead is one of my favourite wrestling moments of the year. And then the finish, absolutely masterful."
[9.0] "I'm not super knowledgeable on STARDOM or the inner workings of the wrestlers or feuds going on, but both workers managed to get the point of their match and their history across pretty well without having to rely on telling it via words. I loved this match though. Super hard hitting match with some great chemistry and a lot of great moments throughout."
[6.0] "I don't entirely get moved by the Bushiroad formula, so I can acknowledge my bias right here. There are some wonderfully stiff kicks from the two, but yet, it's a rekindling of the familiar feud with the similar result to come to expect, with Momo playing second fiddle for a Mayu title reign. Mayu's title reign is fantastic, but I feel like I could've lived without a few of the nearfall spots & the Bee Driver on the apron for the German on the apron to happen about 30 seconds later. It's a good match, of course. I just don't feel the same as most people about this match."
[9.0] "Very very good, definitely a women's MOTY contender. Probably closer to a 10 than a 9, really only this low because I'm just not a big interference fan, even if its generally minimal like it is here. (**** 1/2)"
[10.0] "A great display of what joshi wrestling right now is all about. Stiff kicks, great wow moves and resilience from both women who have a lot of history together. Momo will have to wait to have her big moment against Mayu. ****3/4"
[7.0] "[***1/2] Very good, stiff at times match with some cool spots, but a sloppy finish and surprisingly disappointing given the average rating. I am rarely the low man on Mayi Iwatani but this never got to the top gear for me. Still really enjoyable and worth your time to check out for yourself."
[9.0] "This match had a *lot* to live up to with all the buzz around it online, so I was prepared to be slightly disappointed. For my money, though, it largely lived up to it, with brutally stiff action and amazing in-ring storytelling."
[10.0] "Amazing match, ineterferences weren't a lot and the strikes and bumps in the second half seemed to be absolutely brutal. Peach Thunder kick-out was great but Iwatani shouldn't have won so quickly after eating that. Other than this incredible bout. ****3/4"
[8.0] "****3/4 a very great match, another top defense from Mayu, the only bad thing was the interventions but it was a tough match, with great exchanges, great chemistry, some tremendous kick-outs, tremendous sequences and reversals and a very great ending"
[6.0] "This match sure took a while to really get going. 80% of the match happened to be (Drop-)Kicks which was relatively tiring at some point, some more variety would have been nice. The second half of the match was better, but they also did not vary the match much with the same sort of Suplex over and over again. The interferences were fine, well dosed I am not bothered by them. Technically it was a good match but not just very diversified"
[8.0] "This was Brutal. The intensity of this was match was absolutely through the roof from the second the bell rang. The aggression behind Momo Watanabe throwing Miyu Iwatani into those chairs really set the tone well. Through the match you get devastating apron moves, brutal kick exchanges and some really well executed near falls. The one key component of the match that I wasn't overtly happy with was the interference from the members of HATE outside the ring as it felt very improvised and sloppy in a distracting way and the notable interference that set up the key storyline point of the match was a bit messy. Luckily from this interference we got Momo opting to throw away her bat in favor of kicking the absolute shit out of Miyu instead, made for a great moment, saying that Momo didn't need to stoop that low but it's also arguable that that was why she didn't walk away with the belt this time. Yea I don't know if this is a match of the year contender but it's definitely a great bout that really deserved to go on last. I know you want ZSJ in the main event but this felt way more important"
[7.0] "Dont get me wrong. I do think there is quite a good match in here. And the stiff kicks are obviously quite impressive. However all the interference spots took me out of it quite a bit. Some interference can be fine but with it being so prevelent here it does end up hurting the match."
[10.0] "What a match between Mayu and Mom, which starts off rather slowly with some interference that I don't really like, but STARS quickly come in to make the save. Most importantly, all of this leads to Momo wanting to fight fairly by throwing away her bat instead of hitting Mayu with it. Great storytelling, and on top of that, the match ends beautifully. It's really a shame it wasn't the main event."
[9.0] "Momo should've won, especially if you're gonna have AZM as the next challenger (and in the fucking Tokyo Dome). It should be obvious at this point, Mayu and Momo have great chemistry and always deliver unique matches that never cease to amaze us. This one is no exception. A lot of amazing spots, awesome sequences and tremendous selling by both women, with some great storytelling being displayed, especially when Momo refused to appeal to her dirty antics.Sadly, Iwatani is slowly becoming STARDOM's Kento Miyahara, and this is frustrating. ****1/2"
[7.0] "Hmm...I think this is overrated. It was an amazing match. But not that good. Too much the same at the end and Momo and also Hazuki are probably the both girls STARDOM will never pull the trigger. Just like Ishii & Suzuki. Good match but not great and one of the best. ***3/4"
[9.0] "Joshi-Wrestling ist nicht mein Gebiet dieses Match wollte ich aber trotzdem sehen. Nach den ersten Minuten, in denen es auch direkt raus ging, verlor das Match etwas an Fahrt. Die Wrestlerinnen neben dem Ring waren mir nicht bekannt, ich konnte aber die Handlung natürlich nachvollziehen. Der Mittelpart nahm dann mehr Fahrt auf. Die Story entwickelte sich und mit ihr auch eine gewisse Psychologie. Die Härte nahm zu und man hatte das Gefühl, dass bei jedem Kick ein Stück von Iwatanis Seele den Körper verließ. Besonders die letzten rund 5 bis 7 Minuten waren sehr spannend und einfach in ihrer Form Weltklasse"
[8.0] "Mayu Iwatani is my choice for MVP in Japanese wrestling in 2024, and this match is further proof of that and the legendary reign she has been having, another great defense in a great match and on a great stage as it is a joint show with NJPW, but as much as this is a good match, the first 10 minutes are disappointing due to the excessive number of interferences from HATE, the end of the match is very good with great false finishes, good interference, but the end is a bit abrupt, Mayu comes out of a nearfall and applies the move and wins soon after, for this and other reasons this match is below defenses like against Sareee and especially Syuri (****1/4)"
[7.0] "Probably a personal and not logical thing but Im not aboard with the special feeling this 2024 Iwatani IWGP defenses seem to generate in the debate about the great bouts of the year. Yeah, good kickouts and stiff kicks but not a real sensation of greatness along the match (the crowd didnt help) plus the minimum interferences where regular executed and the ref look like a stupid. Again, good title match, but nothing to be bewitched by."
[10.0] "Every time Mayu and Momo meet in the ring you already know that the match will be a masterpiece. This time they were able to surpass themselves. Without a doubt this was the best match of the year. Stardom and New Japan should be ashamed for not putting this in the main event"
[9.0] "As close to a 10 without being a 10. I wouldve liked more time, but I feel like this isn't the end between the two. Holy Shit! What an amazing, technically, fast paced match. very brutal and a very interesting story dynamic. Its clearly rookie Vs veteran/icon, but the fact they are both clearly still getting better and just starting their primes is a nice story. The commentary team did an amazing job at giving emotion to the match even if you don't watch Stardom all the time. It's a must watch. 4.5*"
[7.0] "As someone who grew up watching early-90s joshi puro, I'll always find the lack of crowd noise for these big Stardom matches jarring. And to that end, the heat-seeking interference here was really poorly executed, making the ref seem like a total sap. Much of the bout was excellent - they worked super-stiff and sold the brutal strikes brilliantly. Business picked up after the shenanigans with the ref and Iwatani's subsequent kickouts finally sparked the fans to life, but they capped things with some scrappy back-and-forth shit, including the finish where Momo had to pin herself ***1/2"
[10.0] "If you take away the one god-awful, overdone spot of pulling the ref out of the ring, this was one of the five best matches of the year. Mayu and Momo left nothing on the shelf, pushing each other much further than they ever have before. It's the best match either wrestler has ever had. From the way they laid it out, and from how they reacted after the match, it felt like they thought this was the last singles match they would have. Mayu's contract is coming due, after all. ****3/4"
[10.0] "I thought I had my women's MOTY se, bbut this has to be in the conversation. My expectations for this were very high given the history and skill of both ladies and thankfully it more than met them. This had everything I wanted to see in a match between these two and Momo really had me believing she might get the win. An easy MOTY contender for me, and might actually be my MOTY for women after I rewatch it. Go out of your way to see this one."
[10.0] "Unbelievable match! A bona fide MOTY contender full of drama, stiff strikes and borderline dangerous bumps (i.e. the perfect Mayu match). Genuinely might be the best match of this all-timer Mayu reign, that's how great this was! Momo absolutely fucking brought it with her thudding kicks, and Mayu responded in kind with the kind of crazy babyface fire only Mayu really captures. Insanely good match, I cannot recommend it highly enough!"
[9.0] "Super good match between the two, Mayu is such a masterful seller. A very stiff and intense affair with a couple of REALLY gnarly spots, particularly the apron dragon suplex where Momo got pie faced with the apron. Thought the match started a bit iffy and wasn't a huge fan of Joshi Gargano (i know that's kind of Mayu's thing, but not the biggest fan of those types of wrestlers). Very good near falls and I must admit I really bit on the one where HATE pulled out the ref. Didn't really care for the HATE outside spots too much but they were kept low at least. Tremendous performance from both wrestlers. Even though I wasn't familiar with the story between these two it was nicely explained by the commentary which is why I was into the whole "Momo still has a shred of honor" thing. [9, 3/10]"
[10.0] "These two have an unbelievable chemistry together. They simply never miss, but this match may be the best singles match that they've had. This was the best STARDOM match of the year, the best women's match of the year, and one of the best matches of the year overall. An usual great Mayu Iwatani performance, but also a top tier Momo Watanabe performance, reminding the world that she's one of world's best women's wrestler when given the opportunity, a showing that matches her Queen's Quest days. *****"
[10.0] "Amazing performance from both Mayu and Momo. This is probably the best Momo match in years. The interference at the start of the match actually played into the story. As the match starts off you think it's going to be the typical HoT/H.A.T.E. style match, but actually as it goes on, you realise Momo wants to do this the right way - when she takes on the status of icon, she wants it to mean something, that she earned it. This was reflected in her choice of gear for the match too. As the match continues and Momo gets more desperate, Momo actually throws away more and more of the H.A.T.E. rather than embracing it. My favourite part was when Momo just kept kicking the shit out of Mayu hoping to put her away, relying on her strengths rather than dirty tactics. Mayu's selling as always is out of this world. It's weird because it's only for the IWGP title, but it feels like this is what Momo's heel arc has been building to. Her performance here was miles better than her red belt match with Maika for example. I gave this 4.75 stars, it's one of my most favourite matches of 2024, but I felt it still had another gear left in it to take it up to an all-timer, "perfect" level."
[10.0] "Tremendous match, one of the best of the Mayu reign or the best. The 2024 year of Mayu is better then most wrestler's output on the best year of their life. The best to ever do it."
[10.0] "Fantastic, Mayu and momo had their working boots here and they showed out. The match started simply enough with a sweet but short technical exchange which we don't really see much of in women's wrestling today, then things escalated nicely leading into some brutal striking exchanges then the action took to the outside where things slowed down quite a bit with the H. A. T. E shenanigans going on which admittedly I wasn't much of a fan and the referee blatantly ignoring the interferences didn't really sit well with me but those are nitpicks in an otherwise excellent matchup. Mayu continues to impress me and at this point I'm convinced that not only is she the best women's wrestler going today she may be the best women to ever do it, her selling in this bout was as good as it has ever been, great facial expressions and body control which sold the exhaustion and damage she took as the match progressed very well, her fighting spirit moments are the best in my opinion because all of the great selling she does and her having a sudden burst of energy and throwing massive bombs then immediately selling her exhaustion is simply perfect chef's kiss. Momo was great here too and played her role as the heel perfectly and her selling was great too but when you're in the ring with mayu the contrast in selling ability is noticeable. My favorite bit from this bout was mayu trembling after hitting the dragon suplex on the apron because her arm came into contact with the hard apron that's the sort of attention to the small details you just don't see in pro wrestling these days the spot where momo refuses to use the bat and kicks mayu's chest in is a close second. The match isn't without it's flaws but it's as close to perfect as it gets and for that it doesn't get the full five stars from me because I feel like there's an extra 10 minute sprint like okada-omega at wk11 that could have elevated this match higher in my top 10 matches of the year. (4.75 stars)"
[9.0] "Fantastic match, probably 2nd or 3rd best of this Mayu reign. The level of intensity they achieved as the match went on was out of this world. Momo throwing away the bat and just kicking the hell out of Mayu instead was so beast, loved that spot. Two of the best ever at this point and Momo needs to win the Red Belt or IWGP eventually, I know I'm not saying anything groundbreaking when it comes to that but it gets to a point where we're denying a generational talent of claiming the top spot of the promotion for too long. ****1/2"
[10.0] "This will probably go down to the history as the greatest Momo-Mayu match, considering the quality, the event and the stakes. Even though, Red Belt is definitely a priority for Momo, this match was more about the status of icon. But of course the fact that Momo hadn't won a singles title in over 5 years also added pressure. Not my favourite match between Mayu and Momo. Probably second favorite after 5STAR Grand Prix 2022, which was on a small venue and had a lot of fun things. But this one just felt like a big glistening match, the most important one in both careers. The moment when Momo kept wrestling on her own, got a Moonsault, was saved by Oedo Tai, got a bet and just threw it away, was such a rollercoaster of emotions, that worked 100% as we've already seen how Momo succeeds in 5STAR by giving up her heel habits and simply relying on herself. So she tried to act like a true icon, but in the end she broke down when instead of finishing Maya off, she started arguing with the referee. The perfect summation of how the HATE mentality played a cruel joke on her. As a Watanabe fan, I didn't want Momo to win right now for a lot of reasons, but I think it was still a bit of a heartbreaking ending for every Stardom fan, which is what makes this match so great."
