Less than a week after hosting a big two-night soiree at Sumo Hall, the Stardom gang kicked off April embarking on the annual Cinderella Tournament, a 32-woman single elimination challenge with a twist: all matches have 10-minute time limits and you can advance by throwing your opponent over the top rope. The possibilities… they varied. The last three matches of the 2022 edition were held in Ota City, alongside title defenses from Syuri and AZM.
0. 3-Way Battle: Mai Sakurai vs. Waka Tsukiyama vs. Ami Sorei
The 5-minute 3-Way Battle is just how Stardom wants to start their PPVs — let them do it. Waka teed off on Mai right at the bell, and over the next five minutes there was a triple chinlock and some kicks and a head-spike version of Liv Morgan’s finisher from Waka. It wasn’t much of a match, but compared to all the other 5-minute 3-way Battles it was one of the best. **
1. Future of Stardom Title: Hanan [c] vs. Hina
WWE gets all the press, but Stardom has way too many single-named wrestlers. Like 25% of a roster can reasonably have a single name at most; otherwise you’re just willingly confusing people. Hanan, full of youthful enthusiasm, gets right to taking an ass-kicking from Hina, full of such an aggression that sometimes she does a suplex where she DDT’s herself. The match is short, but worked at such a pace that it doesn’t seem so ridiculous when they are exhausted 45-seconds or 5-minutes in. Hanan made a comeback with a Fameaser to end an energetic if not well-executed defense. **1/2
2. Cinderella Tournament – Semi Final: Koguma vs. Hazuki
Koguma and Hazuki spent the early part of 2022 as Tag Team Champions and in the Cinderella got past no less than Giulia, Saya Iida, AZM and a Quarter Final Bye. The story of their semi-finals match was rooted mostly in Koguma trying to keep up, or at least I read it that way. She wrestles like somebody’s poor mom or friend dragged into the ring to defend their life, though she’ll also sometimes try to get everyone to chant for her in an unappealing way so everything is just more confusing.
A strangely impressive spot happened when Hazuki caught a Koguma crossbody in the ropes and dead-lifted her over the top rope onto the apron, and then they threw elbows before a series of cradles surprisingly sent Koguma to the finals. ***
3. Cinderella Tournament – Semi Final: Natsupoi vs. MIRAI
Saki Kashima, Unagi Sayaka, Mina Shirakawa and Starlight Kid all fell to this match’s participants: Natsupoi and MIRAI. Each is filled with a different type of babyface charisma, MIRAI relying on her strength and Natsupoi her will to go on. Natsupoi also pulled out a nasty bow-and-arrow stretch and incredible attack by way of a skin-the-cat, so she has that going for her too. After some jockeying for position, Natsupoi was trapped in a keylock she couldn’t escape. As with the last three matches, a fun sprint with some impressive moves. ***
4. Gauntlet Match: Tam Nakano, Mina Shirakawa & Unagi Sayaka vs. Giulia, Maika & Thekla vs. Utami Hayashishita, Saya Kamitani & Lady C vs. Momo Watanabe, Starlight Kid & Ruaka vs. Mayu Iwatani, Saya Iida & Momo Kohgo vs. Saki Kashima, Rina & Fukigen Death ★
Six teams of three having five four-minute matches, some of them ending by over-the-top rope elimination – pro wrestling is already a bit much, why make it more? This went Team Iwatani vs. Team Hayashishita, Team Oedo Tai vs. Team Iwatani, Oedo Tai vs. Team Kashima, Oedo Tai vs. Team Giulia, and finally Team Giulia vs. Team Nakano – which got an entire seven minutes and ended with Giulia getting suplexed on the apron and falling to the floor. There was enough talent – literally almost all the talent – to keep the wrestling neat-o and cool, but just too much everything else. **1/2
5. High Speed Title: AZM [c] vs. Mei Suruga
Mei Suruga, who had a couple matches on AEW Dark last year though spends most of her time in TJPW, enters with a big red cape to challenge AZM, who won the High Speed Title at the end of February and is carrying herself like a goddamn champion. So Mei opens the match doing armbars and dancing shtick before revealing that she, too, can go when it comes to the high-speed rope-running, jumping, and other little bits of wonder. She more or less kept up the shtick too, and at some point the ability to keep that going while still delivering on the match style became downright impressive. They even managed one of the more seamless ref-becomes-apart-of-the-action spots in years, which only worked because of the weird context they had built.
Mei continued being outrageous on the floor by grabbing a headset and mouthing off on commentary, though otherwise AZM started to bring the pain and back inside the ring Suruga’s wry smile had disappeared. The shtick prior was vibing so well that the match kind of lost a little momentum once they got serious, though a few excellent near falls and Mei desperately trying to escape AZM’s submission delivered an epic close to what in less than 15-minutes provided a better story than many matches that’ve gone 20+. Bravo! BRAVO!!! ****1/4
6. Cinderella Tournament – Final: MIRAI vs. Koguma
If I were a betting man, I would not have called these two as the final two out of thirty-two. It’s nothing against them; they just haven’t stood out on a roster that’s freaking brimming with talent. Stardom however just has a fearlessness of pushing their folks into a spot and letting them swim. They were generous enough to keep it to around 10 minutes, so it had less time than the standard Stardom semi-main even though it felt fresher and had more energy per minute. Koguma once again managed to keep up against the power of MIRAI, sometimes inexplicably so, withstanding a keylock and other maneuvers before her Cinderella story came to a close. ***1/2
7. World of Stardom Title: Syuri [c] vs. Himeka
Himeka took Syuri to a 10-minute draw in the Cinderella Tournament, and then they were here and about to double it. Four defenses into her reign, Syuri continues to toe the line between stoic and a little unreadable. The match stayed quality and competitive throughout, but never seemed to lock in until they were trading near falls at the end – and even some of those felt forced. Syuri freaked everybody out with a well-placed kick to the face en route to another successful title defense. ***1/2
Happy Thoughts: Despite another outstanding High Speed Title match and a pretty consistent undercard, the two last matches — while good! — didn’t deliver enough to steer clear of this being a lower-end Stardom PPV. Koguma making it to the Cinderella Finals was a good bit, but did not make for a great show. 3.0 / 5.0
