wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s STARDOM Cinderella Tournament 2024 Night 2 Review
Image Credit: STARDOM
Loading...STARDOM Cinderella Tournament Night 2
March 10th, 2024 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 1,34
After falling behind on the New Japan Cup and the Cinderella Tournament (and with March Madness looking to take up a lot of my time in the next couple of weeks), I’m opting to only cover the most important matches on these STARDOM shows. In this case, that means the four tournament matches and the main event.
Cinderella Tournament Second Round: Mei Seira vs. Saya Iida
This was kind of the quintessential Cinderella Tournament match. It was short, sweet, and to point featuring two wrestlers who can work a good sprint. Saya more than kept up with Mei and used her power to add a different element to this than you’d get from a lot of Mei matches. Things like rapid-fire chops had the crowd really into this. We got the expected battle of flash pin attempts as they rolled around and picked up near fall after near fall. It’s a staple of these short STARDOM bouts. That was followed by yet another pin attempt by Saya, which Mei turned into one of her own to win in 4:45. A very good, fun sprint that made the best use of the short timeframe. [***]
Cinderella Tournament Second Round: Ami Sourei vs. Yuna Mizumori
Yuna is a fun little undercard worker while Ami is someone who this company is big on pushing, even if she doesn’t feel quite there yet. Like the previous match, this was kept relatively short and felt like a sprint, it just lacked the energy and frantic pace of that one. I appreciate how Ami has been showing off more power in recent matches. She hoisted Yuna up for a pretty sweet Torture Rack style move at one point and threw some solid looking lariats. Yuna put up a valiant fight but never felt like she was ever a true threat. Ami put her down in 6:09 with a move that I believe is called Lightning Strike. It was solid all around. [**½]
Cinderella Tournament Second Round: Hanan vs. MIRAI
I’ve questioned the push of Ami Sourei but the 2024 surge of Hanan is one that I’m all in for. She impressed greatly in the Grand Prix last year and has been even better to start this year. A win over MIRAI, who won this tournament in 2022 and 2023, would be huge. The action was strong here from the start and I liked the way they teased the over the top finish. You could totally see Hanan using that method of winning to beat an established star like MIRAI, so it worked for dramatic fashion. MIRAI survived and wrapped Hanan in a submission that Hanan sold extremely well. You could feel the agony and desperation on her. In fact, Hanan was on point with every bit of emotion shown throughout this match. The final few minutes were filled with close calls and the fans were on the edge of the seats. It felt like Hanan would come close but just fall short until she hit a Backdrop Driver to advance in 10:12, giving us a legitimate upset. A pretty great match to boot too and the best of Hanan’s young career. [****]
Cinderella Tournament Second Round: Starlight Kid vs. Suzu Suzuki
They had two really good match last year (***¼ and ***½) and are two of my favorites. It feels like they have something great in them and is a matter of time before it happens. They opened with some brawling and kept up a level of aggression throughout. That included brawling outside and throwing big shots at one another. It was right up the alley of Oedo Tai’s SLK. She had the speed advantage while Suzu had strength, tossing her around with surprising ease. They kept up the intensity level throughout and some of their exchanges really stood out. The 619 sequence was dope and I love the way SLK turned a pin attempt into the Stretch Muffler. It was so fluid. My favorite thing here was the finish. Just as things were picking up, SLK sent Suzu over the top and to the apron, where she pounced and knocked her to the floor, winning in 12:30. You need to have that kind of finish in this tournament so that people buy it. It also protects Suzu and gives SLK a notable win. Very good stuff here. [***½]
NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship: Giulia [c] vs. Stephanie Vaquer
Probably the last chance to get the title off of Giulia before her contract is up. As was the case in the tags leading up to this, they came out ready for a fight. Giulia has always been good at making you believe she wants to murder an opponent whether it’s here or against Tam Nakano, SLK, Syuri, etc. They hit each other with stiff shots, fought both in and outside of the ring, and neither really gave much of an edge to the other. At one point late, they were trading headbutts in the center of the ring until Stephanie tried for a bigger move only to have it blocked. The exchange was good but it ended with a Vaquer dropkick and that felt like a lackluster way to do so. It needed a more impactful move for both to fall down after. Giulia picked it up with a Bret’s Rope suplex soon after and she remained the aggressor for the final few minutes. She called for what seemed like a finisher but had it countered into a DDT. Stephanie then pulled him into a rollup for the win in 11:03. That was an anticlimactic finish. As a match, it was good but not great and while she was aggressive throughout, it felt like maybe Giulia wasn’t totally into it. [***¼]
