Stardom at Okinawa “Fight Collection” on 3/27/16 Review

Event: Fight Collection in Okinawa
Date: March 27th, 2016
Location: Okinawa Convention Center in Okinawa, Japan
Announced Attendance: Unknown

I try to review all the Stardom matches, which leads us to this event. The “Fight Collection in Okinawa” was an event put on that had pro wrestling, Shooto, and kick boxing matches. It had a festival feel, as the rings were set up next to each other and multiple matches took place at the same time. As part of the show, Stardom put on two matches, which were:

• Jungle Kyouna, Mayu Iwatani, and Momo Watanabe vs. Kairi Hojo, Hiromi Mimura, and Alpha Female
• Io Shirai vs. Kaitlin Diemond

Obviously this will be a short review, but seeing Alpha Female team with Hiromi and Hojo should be amusing.

Jungle Kyouna, Mayu Iwatani, and Watanabe vs. Kairi Hojo, Mimura, and Alpha Female
The matches on this show won’t really have a storyline reason since they are just for fun. Mimura and Hojo are a semi-regular team of sorts, but Alpha Female is not their friend and even during the pre-match didn’t seem overly amused. On the other side are three wrestlers that generally face off against each other, even though none are necessarily enemies. Still, they are not a regular tag team. Both teams have a rookie, so it is anyone’s match to win.

Alpha Female tells Mimura to start so she does, pairing off against Kyouna. They start with wristlocks and hammerlocks, shoulderblocks by Kyouna and she covers Mimura for two. She goes for a slam but Mimura reverses it, both tag out as Iwatani and Hojo enter the ring. Armdrags by Iwatani and both wrestlers flip back to their feet to face off again before tagging in Alpha and Watanabe. Elbows by Watanabe but they have no impact, and Alpha levels Watanabe with a lariat. Scoop slam by Alpha and she puts Watanabe in a stretch hold before holding her in the ropes. Hojo and Mimura come over and they chop Watanabe, Hojo stays in as legal and she gives Watanabe another hard chop. Crab hold by Hojo but Watanabe crawls to the ropes and forces a break. Mimura is tagged back in, she dropkicks Watanabe before tagged Alpha. Watanabe slides away from Alpha and hits a dropkick, giving her time to tag in Iwatani. Iwatani tries dropkicking Alpha with no luck as Alpha doesn’t go down, Alpha sends Iwatani into the corner but Iwatani slides out to the apron. Kyouna runs in with Watanabe and they attack Alpha in the corner, Iwatani goes up top and she hits a missile dropkick which finally sends Alpha to the mat.

Hojo and Iwatani come in but Iwatani sends them out of the ring with a double split-legged armdrag, Alpha returns with Kyouna as Alpha shoulderblocks Kyouna down. Alpha slams Kyouna to the mat and clubs her repeatedly in the chest, she tags in Hojo and Hojo chops Kyouna in the chest. Spear by Hojo, she covers Kyouna but it only gets two. Hojo goes up top and she hits a jumping elbow smash, elbows by Hojo but Kyouna catches her with a lariat. Another lariat by Kyouna but Hojo chops her in the chest, Alpha and Mimura come in but Hojo and Mimura dropkick Alpha by accident. She rams their heads together, then gets dropkicked by all three of her opponents. Kyouna powerslams Hojo, superkick by Iwatani and Watanabe hits the Somato. Diving footstomp by Iwatani to Hojo, Kyouna goes up top and delivers a diving body press, but Mimura breaks up the cover. Outside of the ring, Watanabe goes for a diving crossbody but she hits Iwatani on accident. Back in the ring, Hojo reverses Kyouna’s Alabama Slam into a roll-up, Alpha comes in the ring and she kicks Kyouna in the head. Alpha tells Hojo to go up top, she slams Kyouna on the mat and Hojo nails the diving elbow drop for the three count! Hojo, Mimura, and Alpha Female are your winners!

This match was fun, I enjoyed it. They played up the fact Alpha Female had two partners she wasn’t friends with a couple times but it didn’t impede the match any, and she did help Hojo win at the end. Once the feeling out process was done it was non-stop to the final bell, and they had some shockingly good drama for a throwaway match. Even though it would have been odd for Hojo to get pinned by Kyouna, during the end stretch it really felt like she was in a desperate situation and they did a job of making it feel like it was anyone’s game. A solid six wrestler tag match.  Mildly Recommended

Io Shirai vs. Kaitlin Diemond
Like the last match, there is not a lot of backstory here as these two do not have a rivalry even though they have wrestled against each other a few times in tag matches. Io of course is the ace of Stardom so she needed to have a match on a showcase-style show, and Diemond is a respectable opponent.

After locking up, the pair trade wristlocks until Shirai dropkicks Diemond to the mat. Diemond avoids the next dropkick and catapults Shirai up into the bottom rope before covering her for two. Side Russian Leg Sweep by Diemond, she picks up Shirai and tosses her out of the ring to the floor. Diemond goes out after her and beats Shirai around the ring before rolling her back in, backbreaker by Diemond and she covers Shirai for a two count. DDT by Diemond, she elbows Shirai into the corner but Shirai avoids her charge and snaps Diemond’s neck over the top rope. Space Rolling Elbow by Shirai and she dropkicks Diemond in the head for a two count. Octopus Hold by Shirai but Diemond gets to the ropes, sunset flip by Shirai but Diemond kicks out. Shirai goes up top and delivers a missile dropkick, Tiger Feint Kick by Shirai and she hits a swandive missile dropkick. Diemond fights back with elbows, she goes off the ropes but Diemond hits a big boot. Lariat by Diemond, she covers Shirai but she only gets two. The side slam by Diemond is next, but it gets a two count as well. Diemond goes for another big boot but Shirai ducks it this time, Irish whip by Diemond but Shirai does a backflip and dropkicks Diemond. Diemond falls out of the ring, Shirai goes up to the top turnbuckle and hits a moonsault down to the floor (well, she hit poor Hojo who was at ringside more than she hit Diemond). Shirai slides Diemond back in and hits a German Suplex, she goes up top and she nails the moonsault for the three count! Io Shirai wins the match.

This was basically a condensed version of a normal Io Shirai match. It had all her normal spots, but since they had less time they were a bit too rushed. No singles match with Io Shirai is going to be bad, she is just too good in the ring, and Diemond was perfectly fine in her role. But it was more of a spot-spot-spot exhibition, especially towards the end, so a step down from the high bar that Io Shirai has set for herself.