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My wrestling watching has changed recently. It's more limited and therefore a little more pressurised in terms of my own expectations. I became a father a year ago and unsurprisingly that means your spare time shrinks, rather drastically.
Contrary to what you may expect, the guy who collates wrestling statistics has other interests. In stereotype busting fashion, I enjoy recording wrestling matches via stats as well as hill-walking, football and reading! However that means when I watch wrestling I have high expectations of it. I'm spending my now very limited time watching it. If it's rubbish, I can't just shrug my shoulders and find something better to watch.
Due to excellent matches put on by Stardom recently; Utami vs Syuri 2, AZM vs Starlight Kid and Giulia vs Iwatani, I was expecting big things for this excellent looking card. However, I was a little disappointed. I didn't find any of the matches on this card lived up the the pace set by the afore mentioned matches in this paragraph.
With all that being said, there is always a lot to be gleaned from complex wrestling matches that are being rated anywhere between 3.75* and 4.75* based on who you ask. In this article I have stats for KAIRI vs Starlight Kid, Giulia vs Syuri and Syuri vs Iwatani.
At the end of this article, you will also find overarching analysis of the four matches and comparisons with both Stardom and other promotions.
KAIRI vs Starlight Kid
Notes:
- Starlight Kid won the strike battle despite the devastating backhand possessed by KAIRI.
- KAIRI was, however, more efficient in her use of strikes with a 46% strikedown rate.
- SLK's fouls underpinned her position in this match. KAIRI had to rely on reversals.
Syuri vs Giulia - World of Stardom Championship
Notes:
- Syuri demolished Giulia in the striking battle. Doubling her opponent's strikedowns.
- The only offensive metric won by Giulia was submission time.
- That submission time was key in underpinning Giulia's slight advantage in offence.
Notes:
- Syuri had a 4 minute spell in this match without any offence; minute 8-12.
- Syuri achieved 4 of the 5 highest offensive minutes of the match.
- Giulia achieved 13 advantages in comparison to Syuri's 10, for each minute of the match.
- However it was Syuri's ability to get on top of Giulia for larger chunks of the match with 6 of the 3 minute chunks being dominated by her; Giulia managed 2.
Mayu Iwatani vs Syuri - World of Stardom Championship
Notes:
- Syuri achieved over 1.5x Iwatani's offence.
- Iwatani was unable to win the advantage in any offensive category.
- Iwatani's reversals went a long way to maintaining her threat in this match.
Notes:
- Iwatani managed to inflict the biggest offensive flurry on Syuri in the 10th minute.
- However, Syuri achieved 6 of the 7 highest minutes of offence.
- Despite Iwatani's struggle in overall offence she spread her own offence out well and even won 14-12, in terms of minute-by-minute totals.
- Syuri's big numbers mean that when you chunk this match into 3 minute sections she achieved the advantage in 6 of the 10; including the last 2 minutes as a chunk.
Comparison with 2022 Stardom Matches
Notes:
- Iwatani and Giulia use strikes sparingly in comparison to the other competitors.
- Giulia relies on submissions to pad out her offence.
- Syuri's strikedown rate is metronomic.
Notes:
- Iwatani's matches feature one big offence spike in this sample.
- Note the scales on the 'y-axis', Giulia and Syuri's match had more small spikes than most but lacked the larger offensive flurries.
- Syuri and Giulia was the only match with a zero offence minute.
Comparing with TJPW and AEW
Notes:
- Joshi wrestling seems to build matches around strikedowns; in this small sample.
- Stardom's matches relied slightly less on submission time to pad out matches.
- Stardom matches utilised reversals to create a feeling of intense struggle.
Thank you for reading. Please leave any observations or reactions to our findings in the comments below.