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 NJPW, Sendai Girls, AEW, and TJPW!
Mika Iwata vs. Saori Anou — Sendai Girls (11/20/22, PUBLISHED: 2/10/23)
The Five Star Radar was made to highlight the best of the best from the whole world of wrestling and nothing fits that better than a hidden gem… from the end of last year? Sendai Girls and their publishing schedule when it comes to their shows is all out of wack to the point we are just getting to shows from November, but this one is certainly worth checking out.
Mika Iwata and Saori Anou battled in singles action as part of the Queen of the Ring show that Sendai Girls ran and they did not disappoint. There’s something special about the roll Anou has been on in the past year, specifically as the ICExInfinity Champion, so seeing her go head-to-head with someone of Iwata’s caliber is always a treat.
Mika Iwata spent 2022 honing the art of the sprint. With a 15-minute time limit to work against, she became quite the master at packing as much impactful wrestling into her matches as possible. This encounter with Saori Anou was another in Iwata’s long list of great matches.
Anou was her usual stoic self which complemented the fiery Iwata like a charm. Iwata was ready to bring the fight to Anou from the moment the bell rang while Anou was content to wait for her moment to counter.
In just 15 minutes these two had a hard-hitting match with some fluid counter-wrestling that got across Iwata’s fighting spirit in the face of a championship-tier opponent. — Alex Richards (@LWOSPWAlexR)
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tomohiro Ishii — NJPW (2/5/23)
The NJPW World TV Championship has been the best creation New Japan has come up with since creating the IWGP Intercontinental Championship over a decade ago. Not only does the idea that every match that happens will be uploaded for free to NJPW World and YouTube, but it’s the fact that the 15-minute time limit gives the title a sort of freshness no other title has in NJPW.
You can imagine that when Tomohiro Ishii and Zack Sabre Jr. going head-to-head for 15 minutes leads to greatness and, well, it did.
When you see a match between ZSJ and Ishii, you know you’re going to get an absolute banger of a contest, and this absolutely delivered and more. Of course, you know Zack will bring the “tekkers” and Ishii will embrace the strong style, but when the roles get flipped throughout the match, you know it’s a special contest. Plus the crescendo in the final five minutes of the match, as the time limit got nearer, was absolutely thrilling and enjoyable. Putting the TV title on ZSJ has rejuvenated the English wrestler as he adapts his style to the “high speed” equivalent in NJPW, and it is exciting to see his title reign develop. A must-watch, and one George Michael would appreciate. — The Ninety Fourth (@The94thMin)
RUSH vs. Bryan Danielson — AEW (2/8/23)
Remember when RUSH was signed by AEW and people questioned that choice? That isn’t happening anymore. Not only has RUSH been a fantastic signing who has done nothing but become one of the best heels in the company but he has some great matches in the meantime with none being better than this one against Bryan Danielson.
There’s a reason the latter is called the greatest of all time by many and it’s because, after weeks of grueling matches, he saved his best for last. This was the all-out war people would want out of these two men. It was the match that really highlighted why Danielson has said on many occasions he’d like to go to Mexico to wrestle that style. Not only is he great at it, but he’s putting on classics while doing so. The matches against Bandido and RUSH may go down as two of the best in Dynamite’s history, but this match should go down as one of the best in AEW’s history.
From the start where RUSH beats down Danielson, this match is full-on speed and brutality and it keeps ramping up and up in one of the best-phased matches this year. RUSH does his best heel performance of his career in being this unstoppable force that keeps bloodying Danielson, he is on a mission, “To make sure Danielson can’t make it to Revolution at any cost.”
The picture-in-picture break is used the way it’s supposed to be used by having RUSH toy with the crowd and making them get back Danielson even more than they already are. RUSH keeps dominating and taunting Danielson after the break, but of course, “The American Dragon” does what he does best: come back with a fiery babyface performance that encapsulates you so much in his wrestling.
In the finishing stretch, this match becomes just special, chop/kick exchanges, awesome near-falls, and even a gnarly headbutt exchange.In the build to this RUSH on paper was just a footnote on the build to Danielson vs. MJF at Revolution but in this match RUSH showed out and showed why he is more than just someone Danisleon has to beat, Danielson had to survive “El Toro Blanco”. RUSH did something incredible as a heel in a story where he is just the miniboss, this is why this match is so special for me. It could have been just a normal match but no, Danielson and RUSH wanted to create something that would last in everyone’s memory.
This was a classic lucha bloodbath brawl on national TV, something that is very rare, and it should be looked back on as one of the best Dynamite matches of all time. — Sondre Bjorn (@SondreBjorn)
The Elite vs. AR Fox & Top Flight — AEW (2/8/23)
The Elite, The, The Elite. Few things are as certain as these three men going out there and putting on a show. After Top Flight managed to defeat the Young Bucks a few weeks ago, a title shot was on its way with AR Fox joining them.
If you don’t enjoy matches with tons of high spots, near falls, and overall good time then maybe you didn’t like this but for the majority of AEW fans, they can agree that another killer trios is always appreciated. It’s what The Elite does.
After winning perhaps the best Best of 7 series in wrestling history, nobody should’ve been in any doubt that the Elite would bring their magic to the Trios division as they have done to the AEW Tag and World Title divisions before. Their second title defense was just that: magic! Established after Top Flight upset the Young Bucks in tag team competition, the addition of AR Fox and Kenny Omega, two of the most innovative and creative wrestlers on the roster, made this match even more electric. While it may only be a standalone trios defense, you would be insane if you didn’t want to see Omega and Fox go at it in singles action in the future. Above all though, Top Flight continues to add another match onto their case of perhaps being the greatest up-and-coming tag team in wrestling and have firmly made their case with Fox for a future trios title reign of their own. — Amy (@amyhay___)
Miyu Yamashita & Maki Itoh vs. Shoko Nakajima & Hyper Misao — TJPW (2/11/23)
When Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling (TJPW) does it right, few things in wrestling are better. Doubt can be created for non-TJPW loyalists when they look at one of these two teams, but the fact of the matter is that more often than not a big match featuring Miyu Yamashita is going to live up to the moment. Add in that Maki Itoh and Yamashita have become an unbelievable tag team and the duo of Hyper Misao and Shoko Nakajima bring the best out of each other to know that this match was going to be great.
Some have called it an instant classic, and others have called it the TJPW Match of the Year thus far. Ultimately what most can all agree that this was capital G Great! It exemplifies why TJPW has so many fans and if you followed the story, the match was only that much better.
The rocking Korakuen Hall crowd enhanced the match to the top degree as Maki Itoh made Shoko Nakajima tap out to get the win. A must-watch from the world of TJPW!
Kazuchika Okada vs. Shingo Takagi — NJPW (2/11/23)
Kazuchika Okada with a chip on his shoulder is the best wrestler in the world. And we are in the midst of Okada with a chip on his shoulder, giving us one of the best matches of the year in the process. The IWGP World Heavyweight Champion is aware of the doubt NJPW received after a more than difficult run through the clap crowd era of the promotion so the moment cheering returned, Okada put the promotion on his back. Many will overlook his title win against Jay White at Wrestle Kingdom because of the semi-main event of Omega vs. Ospreay, but even if they did, his match with Shingo Takagi made sure to make fans take notice of what this title reign is on it’s way to being.
Takagi in a world title main event isn’t something we’ve had the chance to say for over a year so you know that “The Dragon” was going to put on a show as he always does. These two men wrestled for over 30 minutes, providing pro wrestling fans with one of the best matches of the year to this point.
Takagi hitting Last of the Dragon for the nearest of near falls was the highlight of the match before Okada was able to just survive and get the victory. Go out of your way to see this if you haven’t already or have been wanting to see NJPW back in the glory days again!
With Okada’s upcoming 10 days, we expect his name to be all over the Five Star Radar again and again.
You can check out last week’s Five Star Radar here.
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