The annual Cinderella Tournament kicked off, where the winner will receive a “wish” that leads to them challenging for a championship of their choosing, which has been the Wonder of Stardom Championship in recent years. This year 24 Wrestlers are competing to win the second biggest annual tournament in Stardom’s schedule.
Today’s show featured the first-round matches of the tournament. This year the match layouts changed compared to the past few years, where the Wrestlers had more sprint matches, instead of douzon of double elimination finishes. The biggest upset of the first night was Sayaka Kurara picking up her first career victory after defeating Natsuko Tora via disqualification. Tora was so mad at Kurara’s fighting spirit that she pushed away the referee, who tried to stop her from beating up the Cosmic Angels Rookie.
Aside from the Cinderella Tournament matches, the show features a couple of matches, including a Future of Stardom Championship match, where Rina defended against Miran from Diana, and it was good for a Future Title match. Rina is great at leading a match at such a young age, while Miran is a standout of the 2022-2023 Rookie Generation at the age of 14. Miran looked good, and got her offense in, including multiple close near falls. In the end, Rina retained for the seventh time.
The final three matches are the ones to check out from this show. The preview tag for the STRONG Women’s Championship match was a lot of fun, with Giulia & Stephanie Vaquer having great chemistry. They will burn the Korakuen down tomorrow.
The highlight of the show was the return match of Natsupoi, who teamed together with Saori Anou to face Chihiro Hashimoto of Sendai Girls and the reigning SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Champion Sareee, who will be making her STARDOM debut in this match. Sareee & Natsupoi have been friends for a long time, and the match was built around them. Sareee & Hashimoto just destroyed Poi with nasty suplexes and throws. Anou & Natsupoi showed great underdog fire and were close to coming back, but Sareee finished the job and defeated Natsupoi in an outstanding match.
In the main event of the show, Maika & Mina Shirakawa defeated Saya Kamitani & AZM and Mayu Iwatani & Tam Nakano in a really fun three-way tag team match, when Maika pinned AZM with the Michinoku Driver II. After the match, Sareee came out and challenged Mayu Iwatani for the IWGP Women’s Championship at Yokohama Buntai on April 27th. It’s a dream match that Joshi fans have been waiting for, for a long time. It was originally set for February 2020, before Sareee got ill, and the match never got rescheduled again with Covid hitting and Sareee joining WWE. Now, four years later, it’s finally happening. On top, Maika called out her rival Utami Hayashishita, who has been missing the show due to an illness, and announced that she will defend her World of Stardom Championship against Hayashishita on the Cinderella final show on March 20th. It’s been a match that was inevitable when Maika won the Red Belt in December and is now happening.
The full results of the show are below:
STARDOM Cinderella Tournament Day 1 Results (03/09/24)
- Suzu Suzuki def. AZM, Mai Sakurai, Ami Sohrei, MIRAI, Hazuki, Mei Seira, & Waka Tsukiyama
- Rina (c) def. Miran to retain the Future of Stardom Championship
- Starlight Kid def. Yuzuki to advance in the Cinderella Tournament
- Sayaka Kurara def. Natsuko Tora via DQ to advance in the Cinderella Tournament
- Yuna Mizumori def. Lady C to advance in the Cinderella Tournament
- Xena def. Momo Kohgo to advance in the Cinderella Tournament
- Ruaka def. Koguma to advance in the Cinderella Tournament
- Saya Iida def. Saki Kashima to advance in the Cinderella Tournament
- Hanan def. HANAKO to advance in the Cinderella Tournament
- God’s Eye (Syuri & Konami) & Giulia def. Oedo Tai (Momo Watanabe & Fukigen Death) & Stephanie Vaquer
- Sareee & Chihiro Hashimoto def. Cosmic Angels (Natsupoi & Saori Anou)
- E-neXus-V (Maika & Mina Shirakawa) def. Queen’s Quest (Saya Kamitani & AZM) and Mayu Iwatani & Tam Nakano
