Cero Reviews STARDOM 10th Anniversary ~Hinamatsuri All-Star Dream Cinderella~

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Cero Reviews STARDOM 10th Anniversary ~Hinamatsuri All-Star Dream Cinderella~

Post by cero2k » Mar 3rd, '21, 18:14

STARDOM 10th Anniversary ~Hinamatsuri All-Star Dream Cinderella~
March 3rd, 2021
Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan

** Prologue **

High Speed Championship Match
AZM (C) vs Natsupoi - 8/10
It's a crime that this is opening the show as a pre-show match, while people are still getting to their seats. I think this is the match that most people agreed that had potential to steal the show. The match didn't get much time either, but it lived up to the 'high speed' title and these two went at a fast pace with tons of reversals early on. They both hit a couple of high flying high risk spots.

Match saw Natsupoi work on the body, while AZM the arm. Story was that Natsupoi couldn't keep AZM down, she hit all her signature moves, and AZM kept kicking out, and so Natsupoi had to start spamming Germans, and AZM still kicked out, forcing Natsupoi to rely on a straightjacket German for the win. Great match that really deserved more time.

If all of Donna del Mondo retain their titles, they'll end the night with all the women holding gold.

Goddess of Stardom Championship Match
Donna del Mondo (Himeka & Maika) (C) vs Oedo Tai (Natsuko Tora & Saki Kashima) - 7.5/10
Really good match, it's always great seeing a motivated Kashima and Tora, their efforts were noticeable, and their heat sequence over Maika was really good. Himeka's hot tag wasn't anything special, but the finishing sequence with both DdM women double teaming Kashima was cool. Maika pinned Kashima at the end with a Michinoku Driver.

**Main Show **

Announcer introduction - Milano Collection AT will be the special guest announcer tonight. Nice!

Congratulations videos - We had Io Shirai and Kairi Hojo which were meh, Hojo should had been there live. Tanahashi was great.

Stardom All-Star Rumble
Starlight Kid vs Mei Hoshizuki vs Gokigen Death vs Momoe Nakanishi vs Koguma vs Unagi Sayaka vs Saya Iida vs Mina Shirakawa vs Yuna Manase vs Emi Sakura (w/Gatoh Move!) vs Lady C vs Kyoko Inoue vs Ruaka vs Rin Kadokura vs Hiroyo Matsumoto! vs Miho Wakizawa vs Mima Shimoda vs Bea Priestley vs Yuuri Haruka vs Hiromi Mimura vs Yoko Bito vs Yuzuki Aikawa vs Chigusa Nagayo vs Kikutaro - 4/10

Emi Sakura's entrance was the greatest thing in the world, she came out with the whole Gatoh Move roster as her seconds, she looked like a total superstar with that entrance.

Lady C was the first eliminated at the hands of Inoue, but she actually got to drop Inoue with a chokeslam (more like Uranage) before being eliminated, so good for her. Ruaka got also eliminated by Inoue, but didn't get a big spot like C. Inoue was later eliminated after Sakura betrayed her and the whole ring helped on the pin.

With Matsumoto, the story was that she couldn't get in the ring because all the ladies blocked her out of fear. It was until Wakizawa that they entered together and started playing around with weapons.

Mima Shimoda looked in great shape, some of her movement looked expectedly older, but she took good bumps, even eliminated Manase. Bea came in next and as the first heel in the match, everyone ganged up on her. At this point, a lot of the women started to get eliminated.

Crush Gal herself, Chigusa Nagayo, entered the rumble last. Iida immediately went after her Iida and Nagayo actually did some spots before IIda tapped out to a Kimura from Nagayo. Wait, no, there is someone else.....Kikutaro!?

We got a pair up with Nagayo and Aikawa were everyone legit sat and watched in silence, it ended with B.Y.HO reuniting to take her down, only for Cosmic Angels to roll Nagayo up for the elimination.

At this point Kikutaro finally made it to the ring and fucked everything up, he started acting like a pervert and slapping the ladies, ending with him grabbing Nagayo's breast, which led to all the women attacking him and eliminating him. May get over with some people, but it was really bad taste for me.

At the end, it came down to the Cosmic Angels vs Aikawa. Mina and Aikawa got into a slap fest. Aikawa eliminated Mina with a Tiger Suplex, leaving Sayaka, how has been on a losing streak in her 7 match trial, but like a Cinderella story, she finally got her win, eliminating Aikawa, winning the whole Rumble.

Overall, it was a bad rumble, if you paid attention to the action, there was a LOT of sloppiness from a lot of the women, a lot of miscommunication, that makes me think that it was mostly called on the spot. As with most rumbles, the value of this was seeing the surprises and entrances and some new and unique match-ups, but that was it. I liked the final stuff with Aikawa vs Cosmic Angels the most in terms of wrestling, and I HATED the Kikutaro spot. So in a way, I enjoyed it for what it was, but could never give it a high rating.

Post-match - Sayaka pulled in Aikawa and Mina to celebrate with them and put them over.

Momo Watanabe vs Nanae Takahashi - 8.5/10
Honestly, I was expecting Momo to win this one, not just because of the storyline of Momo fighting her old senior, but because between this SEAdLINNNG vs Stardom feud, it made more sense to me for Yoshiko to be the one picking up the win and chasing a title, and then having Takahashi take this loss to balance things out. This definitely feeds into Momo failing to win the Red title, and now failing to defeat Takahashi, which could be building to a strong comeback or a heel turn later down the road.

The match was great, fast paced and back and forward. A lot of striking between the two, at least until the final sequence with both women going for the B-Driver on each other, ending with a Nana☆Racka and the One Second EX for the win. Momo looked 100% at the level of Takahashi, but just wasn't the strongest tonight.

SWA Undisputed World Women's Championship Match
Syuri (C) vs Konami - 8/10
Another story about senior and pupils, now with Konami trying to surpass her senior from many years ago, Syuri. This was a match of respect for Konami, to the point that she even told Tora and the rest of Oedo Tai to stay out of her match.

The match was awesome, and I can't complain about the lack of time because of the nature of the match and how it played out, it was just one of those that went about 8 minutes and you just wanna keep seeing these wrestlers fight more and more. In a complete change of style from the previous matches, this was all based on submission, Konami chasing the arm, Syuri the leg, which ended up being the method she finished Konami, locking in a Stretch Muffler, and using her leg to pull Konami's arm in, almost like a Fujiwara with her leg.

Post-match - Konami and Syuri embraced.

Mayu Iwatani vs Yoshiko - 9.5/10
The second of the SEAdLINNNG matches, another match going back 10 years when Stardom started and young Iwatani and Yoshiko found themselves wrestling. Iwatani went and become the top female wrestler in Japan, while Yoshiko was casted out, retired at one point, and is now back wishing to claim her spot on top of Joshi wrestling.

I think Iwatani's entrance gear may be making reference to all 10 years of Stardom history, because that thing is all over the place. Yoshiko has lost a lot of weight, and has nice pink stands on her hair, but is still as scary as ever, unless she's cooking.

This was awesome, it was brutal, they went at each other with everything they had, just tons of energy. A lot of stiff looking strikes from Yoshiko vs a lot of kicking from Iwatani, they both slammed each other with everything they had, and at the end, they were kicking out of each other's signature moves with desperation. The selling from both was top notch, but I don't have to mention that Iwatani's was still universes away from anyone's. At the end, after Yoshiko had destroyed Iwatani with lariats, forearms, an AA, and the top rope Senton, Iwatani made a strong comeback, superkicked Yoshiko over and over and over, hit the Bridging Dragon Suplex and finished her with the moonsault for the win.

There was a really scary spot where Iwatani went for a tope suicida on Yoshiko and her seconds and she kinda landed on Yoshiko, but with enough force that the momentum kept her going and pretty much powerbombed herself on the floor. It was scary and I hope she is ok, she continued wrestling seconds later.

Post-match - Both women had some speeches for each other, thanking each other.

Show announcements - We're getting Yokohama Dream Cinderella in April and July, Tokyo Dream Cinderella in May.

World Of Stardom Championship Match
Utami Hayashishita (c) vs. Saya Kamitani - 9/10
Story of the match was that Utami is stronger and a better well-rounded wrestler, and even when they're similarly experienced, she is just better than Kamitani, but what Kamitani has, is a unique high flying arsenal, and right on the anniversary of Hayabusa's passing, she has a Phoenix Splash that Utami has never experienced. Utami was already been pinned by Kamitani's arsenal, so now she just needs to be able to land a move and keep Utami down.

The way the match played out was that Utami would have control, then get interrupted by a flurry of offense from Kamitani, that would damage Utami, only to get cut off again. This went on and on, but as the match progressed, Kamitani kept getting closer and closer to the win. Unfortunately for her, she was never able to land the Phoenix Splash on her, as Utami dodged her only opportunity, and at the end, it was Utami destroying Kamitani with a huge BT Bomb.

Post-match - Bea Priestley came out and challenged Utami for the title at the Yokohama show.

Wonder Of Stardom Championship Hair Vs. Hair Match
Giulia (c) vs. Tam Nakano - 9.25/10
Even if they took a break later last year for Nakano to do her thing with Iwatani, this has been brewing for almost a year since Giulia and Nakano started feuding. It all comes down to this match, the underdog idol versus the most dominant woman in Stardom. This is one of the hardest match to call, on one side, EVERYTHING was built for Nakano to finally defeat Giulia, win the championship, and establish her new stable as a legit contender, justify that her decision to leave STARS was the right one. On the other hand, saying this from my experience with Lucha Libre, Giulia's hair right now had to be the most valuable in Joshi, not many come to mind in terms of value. I think Stardom did the right thing here.

Match lived up to the hype. We saw an incredibly vicious Giulia from the start, Nakano had promised to break Giulia's neck (I mean, she tried, look at that Steiner Screwdriver!), and so Giulia decided to try and break it first, and she surely tried. Somewhat early in the match, she hit a draping neckbreaker on the apron, followed by a piledriver on a table, but Tam kept fighting. The match at this point was making you believe that Nakano stood no chance and would end up getting killed, and this was also when Giulia made her biggest mistake, not taking the 10 count knockout win and wanting to hurt Nakano, because it was here that Nakano rested and recovered and made a comeback. Nakano's comeback was strong, but she was too hurt, so it was hard for her to keep the momentum and capitalize. Nakano didn't give up though, and with a scary Steiner Screwdriver and the Twilight Dream, finally defeated Giulia. This was amazing.

Interestingly enough, as I mentioned in the beginning, it was a matter of Donna del Mondo retaining and they'd end the night with titles, but instead, Giulia is the only one who lost hers, and with an extra weight of humiliation, as she also lost her hair. If anything else, I think Giulia is one of few women in Joshi wrestling that can pull off pixie cut and look fantastic.

Post-match - This was super emotional. Giulia initially was all in tears, but then accepted her loss and her fate and told Nakano to get it over with and shave her head. When Nakano had the clippers in one hand and Giulia's hair in another, she broke, she just couldn't do it. I hoped for Giulia to do it herself, but instead Nakano was helped by some dude there. Afterwards, both women said some words to each other, Nakano thanked the fans before leaving.

Nakano and Giulia put each other over. It was really interesting to see both women's emotions and reactions to the result.

Enter the era of the Cosmic Angels and "Furiosa" Giulia!

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This was a fantastic show, the biggest show in Stardom history, I had high hopes and they were all exceeded. Put that Kikutaro bullshit out and this was close to being the perfect show. It felt like a big celebration with matches calling back to events from 10 years ago, with the representation of SEAdLINNNG, Marvelous, and Gatoh Move. It kinda felt like a Wrestle Kingdom from 10 years back where people from all over the world would come in and represent.
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