Cero Reviews STARDOM Tokyo Dream Cinderella 2021 Special Edition

[cero2k]

STARDOM Tokyo Dream Cinderella 2021 Special Edition
June 12, 2021
Ota City General Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan

Cinderella Tournament 2021 Semi Final Match
Unagi Sayaka vs. Maika - 7/10
Good match. The winner was somewhat predictable coming in, Sayaka had a great tournament up to here, she earned her wins, but realistically, we knew there was no way she was making it to the finals, maybe one day she'll do it in a year or two, but not now. The story with Maika here, was that she came in with an injured leg, which Sayaka targeted in order to get some offense on Maika. After her comeback, they went a couple of minutes back and forward until Maika won with a Michinoku Driver II.

Cinderella Tournament 2021 Semi Final Match
Himeka vs. Saya Kamitani - 6.5/10
This was a power vs speed match, but that story wasn't as heavily pushed, it just showed on their styles and how they both approached the match. Kamitani did a lot of high flying here, for the over the top rope elimination, but she never actually hit the big guns. At the end, saya won with a Fisherman Buster. Himeka looked good, but similar to Sayaka, there was no way she was making it to the finals, especially knowing that her stablemate was waiting for her.

It's Maika vs Saya Kamitani for the finals.

AZM & Natsupoi vs. Giulia & Tam Nakano vs. Mina Shirakawa & Momo Watanabe - 8/10
If this match looks weird at this point, it's because this was a randomized parejas increibles match. The three original teams of Queen's Quest, Donna del Mondo, and Cosmic Angels came out, but once in the ring, all participants had to blindly choose from 3 sets of chopsticks with color coding, and the new pair ups would come from whoever got matchings sticks.

The match didn't only have great wrestling, but it was crazy fun, seeing all the different tag team interactions, and the new inter-stable confrontations. AZM and Natsupoi, both high speed wrestlers, were a perfect pair for each other, they complemented themselves in such an amazing way, that everyone surely walked away this match hoping for an NatZM tag team run. Tam and Giulia couldn't stop fighting each other, given that they JUST climaxed a blood feud a couple of months ago, and Shirakawa and Watanabe were quite in the middle, not fully in the same page, but not fighting each other, it was actually Shirakawa that was having more influence on Momo and not the other way around.

Finish saw AZM go for La Mistica on Shirakawa, but she rolled over and so AZM followed with a Crucifix pin for the win.

Post-match - AZM teased Natsupoi with becoming a team, then Tam and Giulia kept antagonizing each other. Giulia and Natsu made up after having fought in the match.

Elimination Match, Loser must join the opponent's group
Rin Kadokura & STARS (Hanan, Koguma, Mayu Iwatani & Starlight Kid) vs. Oedo Tai (Fukigen Death, Konami, Natsuko Tora, Ruaka & Saki Kashima) - 7.5/10
This was another 5-on-5 elimination match with the same stipulation as the Yokohama Dream Cinderella a couple of months ago. It's was a controversial thing to do so, but I think it worked as a catalyst for a bigger angle going on. In the first one, STARS and Iwatani lost Gokigen Death, which people didn't see as a big thing, but it was just another notch in Iwatani's downward spiral. Coming in to this match, STARS had to ask for help from someone who hadn't been in the promotion in years, and from someone that is not even part of this promotion at all. By all means, this felt like a return match that could bring back some balance to the stables, but alas, I was wrong, and if I was a Disney nerd, I'd relate this to The Empire Strikes Back, but fuck Star Wars.

I didn't think the match was a good as the last one, mainly because there were less credible options here to change teams. I wasn't really expecting for Kadokura to lose, or for Fukigen Death to simply come back. The wrestling itself was good and I liked some of the eliminations, like Iwatani sacrificing Kadokura in order to eliminate Death, or Kashima's little run at the end eliminating Iwatani again.

At the end, it came down to Starlight Kid eliminating Kashima and bring it down to her versus Natsuko Tora. They traded some near falls, at one point Oedo Tai ran in to interfere, but also did Iwatani, which ended with Iwatani tied up on the corner, as Tora made her watch how she pinned SLK and brought her to Oedo Tai by force.

Post-match - Tora cut a promo, telling Iwatani that she once again failed and that she's taking SLK.

Cinderella Tournament 2021 Final Match
Maika vs. Saya Kamitani - 8.5/10
Really good finals. I felt this was the right choice of finalists, both Maika and Kamitani are on that line before joining the top echelon of wrestlers in the promotion, both have already challenged for championships, and so giving them matches, and wins like this in the case of Kamitani, elevates them to a point where we can feel comfortable seeing them on main events.

The match was heavily focused on working on each other's legs. Maika because she's a submission wrestler and wants to ground Kamitani, and Kaminati taking advantage of Maika's injured leg, which Sayaka already worked on earlier tonight. As the match progressed, Kamitani got more aerial and that style started to make it hard for Maika to counter, ending with her hitting a running Spanish Fly counter, a Fisherman Driver, and ending it with her beautiful Corkscrew 450 for the win.

World Of Stardom Championship Match
Utami Hayashishita (c) vs. Syuri - 10/10!
This was the most amazing of matches I've seen in soo long, current MOTY and it actually beats the MOTYs of the last years too.

This was two women, that don't hate each other or anything like that, but that will stop at nothing to hold the red championship. The action was back and forward, from submission work to big impact moves to striking exchanges and back to submission struggles.

STARDOM title matches always have a 30 minute time limit, and so they reached that point with a lot left in the tank. While this would had been it for them, Syuri asked Hayashishita and STARDOM for more time, Hayashishita backed that request, and so they were given 30 more minutes.

They went back into the match with everything they had left and fought until both women laid on the mat at the 43 minute mark, without able to move, not even to answer the 10 count, and thus for a second time this match, we had a draw.

I think under many circumstances like other promotions, stories, angles, and even match performance, this would had been seen as a bad ending because people, especially western fans, tend to be programmed to wanting a clean finish or else, but for this specific match, it worked perfectly given the rivalry that started some time ago, the type of match they were having prior and post restarting the match, and the promotion historically letting you know that restarting a match after a time limit draw is not often.

Post-match - Hayashishita was barely about to put over Syuri and most likely propose a second match, but she was interrupted by Natsuko Tora, SLK's mask in hand, and she made a challenge for the red title.

Cinderella Tournament 2021 Crowning - Saya Kamitani came out again, now wearing the full Cinderella gown, looking fantastic. She was given her trophy by Ogawa before Kamitani cut her winner's promo, in which she eventually challenged Tam Nakano, who came out to acknowledge, but didn't take the spotlight from Kamitani.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
There is zero doubt in my mind that STARDOM is the best promotion now a days and sans 4 names from TJPW and a couple in the Japanese independents, they have the best women wrestlers in the world. This show was completely butchered a couple of weeks ago when COVID forced STARDOM to shift and moved around all of their shows leading up to the Cinderella finals and this show; yet, they managed to set up an great show top to bottom.