Stardom Cinderella Tournament 2021 5.14

[cero2k]

Stardom Cinderella Tournament 2021, Day 2
May 14, 2021
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Future Of Stardom Title Tournament First Round Match
Ruaka vs. Mina Shirakawa - 5/10
Saya Iida vacated the title after suffering an injury, so we have a seven person tournament to crown a new champion.

Good showing for Shirakawa, she's been working on her strong style and intensity, and going against someone like Ruaka, who is not all that experienced, but has size over Shirakawa, allowed her to put some weight on her offense. Shirakawa won with a diving forearm and advances in the tournament.

Natsupoi vs. Tam Nakano vs. Hanan vs. Lady C - 6.5/10
This was mostly built around Natsupoi vs Nakano, with Hanan and C either pairing up for a minute or two, or coming to interrupt the other two and break up pins and such. A lot of the match was fast paced, which did expose some spots from everyone, but mostly Hanan and C just having trouble keeping up. At the end, Natsupoi won with a scissors rollup on Lady C.

This really felt like they may want to do more with Nakano and Natsupoi. High Speed champion was the one that got the pin, and not the White belt champion.

Queen's Quest (AZM, Hina & Momo Watanabe) vs. Oedo Tai (Fukigen Death, Konami & Natsuko Tora) - 6.5/10
Fukigen Death is still being dragged around by Oedo Tai, but is perfectly fine wrestling along with them, maybe it's just some Stockholm Syndrome.

Match was fun, Konami was just amazing against anyone in there. I could have taken a couple more minutes of these 6 going at it. Match saw AZM get worked on at the start after Oedo Tai jumped QQs, then Momo got the hot tag, and Hina came in for the tornado tag stuff until she got pinned by FD after a chairshot while the referee recovered from a small stumble.

Cinderella Tournament 2021 Second Round Match
Starlight Kid vs. Saya Kamitani - 8.5/10
Damn! This was brutal! These two went at each other with everything, tons of energy and some of the moeves even looked stiff, but I guess we can blame gravity for that. These two were just hot on each other and from bell to bell, they didn't stop trying to hurt each other, from strikes to slams. There wasn't much of a story other than two high speed high flyers really urging to get the win over the other.

A great bunch of near falls too, some with Kid almost eliminating Saya over the top rope, a couple of roll up reversals, which after two rounds of them, Kamitani got the win over Kid.

Saya Kamitani advances all the way to the quarter finals with this win.

Cinderella Tournament 2021 Second Round Match
Giulia vs. Maika - 8/10
Giulia came out with a long black and silver wig. She didn't mention anything about it on the pre-match promos, so I'm not sure if I missed anything in-between shows that provoked her. Long hair, short hair, she looks fantastic nonetheless. Maybe she's mocking Maika since Maika probably has the best hair in Donna del Mondo. Maike pulled the wig off during introductions and Giulia looked so sad, I wanted to hug her.

This is a match between stablemates, a first one-on-one between each other, but Giulia along with Syuri, did defeat Maika and Himeka for the tag titles not long ago. Because of them being stablemates, the match was a combination of going all out on each other, but at the same time trying to make sure the other wouldn't play dirty on the other.

Flow of the match felt back and forward, but each women's offense segment took over a longer chunk of the match, with Maika going for submissions, and Giulia trying to eliminate Maika by pin at first, later over the top rope. Finish finally came after some really violent spots on the top rope teasing falls, Maika straight up tried to eliminate Giulia by Superplexing her to the floor, instead they had a nasty fall over the turnbuckle, giving Giulia some gnarly gratuitous blood before Maika kicked her off the ring altogether.

Maika advances all the way to the quarter finals with this win.

Cinderella Tournament 2021 Second Round Match
Syuri vs. Utami Hayashishita - 7/10
These two want to fight each other for the Red Title regardless of this match, Hayashishita has promised to win and nominate Syuri, and Syuri has promised to win the whole thing and challenge Hayashishita. I think they're both losing eventually and still going at it at the Tokyo Dream Cinderella.

Given the circumstances of their feud, it just made sense to have Syuri win the first match, and by over the top rope elimination. Even if not by pin or submission, it sets the record that Syuri has a win over Hayashishita, that wasn't accidental or anything, Syuri knocked Hayashishita off the apron hard with a running knee.

The match itself was smartly paced, giving us six minutes that consisted of mostly mat work, a couple of big spots, and then into the apron sequence that led to the finish. This way, they didn't really spoil much for the actual title match, it mostly felt like the first minutes of a bigger match. It did however, establish that Syuri has an advantage in technical mat work over Hayashishita, while Hayashishita has an advantage in big move wrestling.

Post-match - Syuri cut a promo telling Hayashishita that she won and is one step closer. She wondered if this win was enough to challenge for the Red title. Hayashishita said that a loss is a loss, she'll put it up, but she won't accept the challenge until she sees who wins the tournament. I think this year is Syuri's, not only has she been amazing for over a year now, she seems like the strongest and has the biggest challenge already up in the air.

Cinderella Tournament 2021 Quarter Final Match
Mayu Iwatani vs. Himeka - 7/10
Rina is out of action, so she forfeited her match with Iwatani, and thus Iwatani advances to her next match against Himeka, who had a pass on the second round.

This was weird, they started with great energy, Iwatani was all seriousness and Himeka was using her size advantage to take it to her, but then about 3 minutes in, Oedo Tai interfered and tried to eliminate Iwatani, actually pulling her off the ring. Since Oedo Tai attacked both women, referee instead told Oedo Tai to screw off and let Himeka and Iwatani restart the match, but at that point, Iwatani had lost some momentum, Himeka got hers and started dominating Iwatani.

Finish saw Iwatani make a desperate comeback, she tried every pin and desperation superkick she could land until she got the opening for the moonsault, but once agian Tora attacked Iwatani, and this time, she was open for Himeka to push her off the apron. I was really close to giving this a dud after that early spot with Oedo Tai, but they did save the match, even if it wasn't that long.

It's gonna be Himeka vs Saya Kamitani in the Semifinals.

Post-match - Oedo Tai attacked Iwatani. They also attacked Himeka and Natsupoi to clear the ring. Tora cut a promo saying that this war is not over and she would break Iwatani's neck. Suddenly, a new member for STARS joined the fight, Koguma, who took out all of Oedo Tai.

Koguma has been with Stardom before. She is a former High Speed Champion after defeating Io Shirai in 2015, and former Artist champion along with Chelsea and Kairi Hojo, also around 2015. She's only 23 years old, but with 7 years experience. Really strong addition to the team.

They made some body shaming jokes that were unnecessary.

Cinderella Tournament 2021 Quarter Final Match
Syuri vs. Unagi Sayaka - 7/10
Well, this was interesting. With Syuri's challenge and win over Hayashishita already in the books, they actually gave Sayaka a win, an actual strong win, over the top rope, but strong nonetheless.

Story of the match was that Sakaya, being the rookie here, jumped Syuri and desperately tried to get the upset win, she knew if she allowed Syuri to gain momentum, it be a hard chance to win. Syuri did eventually regain herself and turn the match around, but she couldn't put Sayaka down for good. The match eventually spilled to the apron where Syuri kept control, but as Sayaka is getting kicked left and right, she reacts, dodges, and Syuri ends up kicking the ring post. With Syuri hurt and a couple more spots, Sayaka delivered a kick that threw Syuri off the apron.

I do wonder if Hayashishita will make it harder for Syuri to get her match now that she lost, but it be really out of character for Hayashishita to do so.

It's gonna be Unagi Sayaka vs Maika in the Semifinals

Post-match - Sayaka cut a promo celebrating her win. This is her biggest win in Stardom and she got to do it in the main event of the night. I believe Sayaka is also in the Future of Stardom tournament, so she could end up and win two tournaments at the same time.

Shirakawa and Nakano also had some words about winning and defending titles, but it was Sayaka who closed the show announcing that she has officially signed with Stardom as of April 1st.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This was a great show from Stardom, tournament or not, the card was full with good wrestling. Definitely a show worth checking out.

It's really interesting to see who the final four are at this point, it feels like a Future of Stardom tournament by itself, it's four women that are still, in a way, starting their careers with Stardom.