The Five Star Radar is the Five Star Network’s weekly series highlighting the best matches from all of pro wrestling throughout the week. This week’s edition takes a look at NOAH, AJPW, NJPW, DRAGONGATE & STARDOM!
Kento Miyahara vs. Yuji Nagata — AJPW (2/19/23)
Kento Miyahara has been the standard of professional wrestling to kick off 2023 and that didn’t end when he went one-on-one with Yuji Nagata. The Triple Crown Championship was on the line in the main event of a rocking Korakuen Hall — magic was guaranteed to happen.
Nagata turned back the clock while Miyahara arguably had his best singles match of the year to this point. The drama in the closing minutes of the champion trying to stomp out “Blue Justice’s” chance at history was what made this match all the better. It was Nagata who managed to finish off Miyahara to win the Triple Crown Championship but it was the now-former champion who only continued his claim to be the Wrestler of the Year through the first two months of the year.
STARS vs. Queen’s Quest — STARDOM (2/19/23)
STARDOM has rarely been featured in the Five Star Radar as it has been a rather quiet start to the year but last Sunday provided us with one of the best house show matches in a long time. Perhaps it was the crowd being able to cheer them on or it was the fact that Hazuki is trying to destroy Saya Kamitani ahead of their Wonder of Stardom Championship match — no matter what it is, they killed it in this match.
STARS and Queen’s Quest is about as good a combination as you can get! When the match starts off with Utami Hayashishita giving Mayu Iwatani a rose for her birthday before throwing her across the ring with a German Suplex, you had to know it’d be worth your time.
STARDOM is about to take off this coming Saturday so the preview of Hazuki and Kamitani was perfect to get you hyped.
AJPW vs. NOAH — Keiji Muto ‘Last’ Love (2/21/23)
Kento Miyahara has his name in the Five Star Radar twice this week and for good reason.
When the AJPW ace was opposing his former Kensuke Office mate Katsuhiko Nakajima, the world was happily watching. Their history is cloudy, to say the least, but it created greatness in the ring and was the first match of multiple to stand out from the Keiji Muto retirement show.
Aside from the Miyahara-Nakajima nonsense, the rest of the crew managed to shine as well. Suwama’s destruction of Manabu Soya was honestly hysterical while Yuma Aoyagi playing to the crowd and getting booed for mocking Muto was one of the best moments of the entire show.
Watch this as it feels AJPW vs. NOAH is only just getting started.
The AJPW vs. Kongo Match was centered around the history of Katsuhiko Nakajima and Kento Miyahara and it worked perfectly. From the entrances on, the crowd’s energy was electric, with everyone seemingly being aware of the backstory of the Kensuke Office boys. The intense interactions between Nakajima and Miyahara were particularly noteworthy and the best part about this match, though all three pairings in this match (Kenoh/Aoyagi, Soya/Suwama, Nakajima/Kento) were great and delivered non-stop action for 15 minutes that drove the crowd wild the whole time. This match made me not only hyped for a possible Kento vs Katsuhiko singles match in the future, but also the AJPW/NOAH Partnership that seems to kick off now. – Peps (@P__Wrestling)
Kazuchika Okada vs. Kaito Kiyomiya — Keiji Muto ‘Last’ Love (2/21/23)
The most highly anticipated match of 2023 not only delivered but went down a path not everyone could have expected. IWGP World Heavyweight Champion vs. GHC Heavyweight Champion certainly doesn’t happen every day so when it does happen, all eyes are on them Kazuchika Okada was not going to be disrespected, and Kaito Kiyomiya was not going to let his dream match be nothing. We learned quickly that Okada was not going to respect the GHC Heavyweight Champion so Kiyomiya had to earn it by being resurgent.
“The Supernova” gave it his all but “The Rainmaker” was not having any of it. A Landslide, Rainmaker, Enziguiri, Emerald Flowsion, and another Rainmaker spelled the end of Kiyomiya’s attempt to upset Okada in the most humiliating fashion.
The way this match ended means there must be more between these two down the line. Kiyomiya needs redemption because this story is far from finished. But for a first-time match, it was everything you could have asked for.
Kaito has come far in his career after tapping out Muto and winning the GHC Heavyweight Championship, but he’s no match for Okada right now. He not only got beaten but also humiliated in front of 30,000 NOAH fans. There’s going to come a day when Kaito beats Okada, and it’s going to be bigger than what they did here. If NOAH and NJPW can continue to get along, they’re onto something special. – Peps from his review of the show
Keiji Muto vs. Tetsuya Naito & Keiji Muto vs. Masahiro Chono — Keiji Muto ‘Last’ Love (2/21/23)
Keiji Muto not only treated us to the show of the year up until this point but one of the most magical combinations of matches to mark his retirement. After his near 30-minute masterclass match where he teased doing the Moonsault but could not against Tetsuya Naito, he shocked the world all over again when he challenged the retired Masahiro Chono to an impromptu match that had the Tokyo Dome in a frenzy.
Thank you, Keiji Muto.
Keiji Muto, for wrestling fans, has always been one of the most prolific, incredible, and popular wrestlers of all time. Seeing him retire is a special moment for many of us after he had his match with Tetsuya Naito.
But then, the biggest shock of the night happened – he called out Masahiro Chono, and asked him to have a match with him in the Tokyo Dome.
Something that Chono, another legendary figure, was unable to have was a proper retirement, not even in the Tokyo Dome. Tiger Hattori came out to referee the match too.
Not a long match by any means but a very emotional and special one. I didn’t expect to be crying, but to see Chono have the retirement match he deserved – the main event of the Tokyo Dome – against Keiji Muto who was also retiring.
There are many people who are bigger fans of the golden age of puroresu than me, but regardless of that, I knew the significance of that moment, what it meant, and why it was so important.
Professional wrestling is unlike another other piece of entertainment in the world, and that is what makes it special. – James Carlin (@jamessetradio)
Jacky Funky Kamei & Jason Lee vs. Madoka Kikuta & Yuki Yoshioka — DRAGONGATE (2/21/23)
Rey de Parejas has continued to be one of the best parts of pro wrestling over the last month with the duo of Jacky Funky Kamei and Jason Lee being a major highlight. Their match with D’Courage was another special match from the tournament by the Natural Vibes duo.
One of the best matches so far in an overall very good Rey de Parejas, these four put together a compelling face vs face match with an interesting structure. The usual underdogs Natural Vibes began on top for a change, working over Yoshioka’s arm to set up for Lee’s “Lee Wings” Kimura finisher. Once Kikuta got in though, the tide quickly shifted. Lee was taken out of the match for minutes while Kamei was back to being his usual underdog self as he tried to survive Kikuta’s offense. Some awesome teamwork was on display for the D’Courage duo, one of the teams who’ve quietly been making a case for a Twin Gate run of their own in this tournament. In the end, Lee was able to get a flash pin on Yoshioka using the worked-over arm less than 1 minute before the time limit kicked in and was able to claim 2 points for the Natural Vibes duo.
D’Courage now have to beat the Mochizuki’s (my personal MVP team this tournament) in order to have a chance of making the semi-finals. Should they do that, and Jacky and Jason beat HYO and ISHIN, we could see this fantastic match run back in front of a hot Korakuen crowd next week. It sounds weird saying that this great, nearly 20-minute match could be a preview of what’s to come, but if it’s run back, expect them to level up on this! – Amy (@amyhay___)
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