Pantoja’s STARDOM Cinderella Tournament 2026 Night 2 Review

STARDOM Cinderella Tournament Night 2

March 7^th, 2026 | Chunichi Hall in Nagoya, Aichi | Attendance: 560

This tournament is moving right along. We’ve already got night two and night three is just another 24 hours later so I have to get on this.

Cinderella Tournament First Round: Anne Kanaya vs. Tomoka Inaba

This one is intriguing on paper. Tomoka is one of the most consistently impressive younger girls in STARDOM, while Anne feels like she might have the most potential from her era of rookies. Anne exploded out of the gates with a dropkick, getting us off to a strong start. From there, we got a technically sound match that showed how far both ladies have come since arriving in STARDOM. Tomoka is already doing a solid job of leading a match, while Anne continues to look good out there. There was some good counter wrestling in here, especially on submissions. That led to the finish where Tomoka made Anne tap to an armbar after 7:12. A good opener. [***]

Cinderella Tournament First Round: Azusa Inaba vs. Lady C

Lady C is typically at her best in tags, while Azusa is another of the very talented teens in STARDOM. They worked well together here, with Lady C using her size for the upper hand and Azusa having to fight back with her quickness and by doing underhanded things like throwing Lady C into a bunch of chairs. The Giant Swing looked great here as Lady C was really whipping Azusa around for a long time. In the end, Saya Kamitani tripped up Lady C, allowing Azusa to pull her into a pin and steal this in 8:07. They told a simple story and it worked well enough. [**¾]

Cinderella Tournament First Round: Kiyoka Kotatsu vs. Saya Iida

Here’s a match where the result feels pretty obvious given each person’s spot on the card. That said, they still went out and had a solid little match. The main idea was the battle of Kotatsu throwing some stiffer kicks than I’m used to from her and Saya responding with stiff chops. I’m much more used to those. Kotatsu has shown promise but she doesn’t have something yet that allows her to stand out. Maybe she’ll find it if she keeps this kind of kicking up. She missed a spin kick and ate a lariat that led to Saya applying a Dragon Sleeper for the win in 7:25. Another solid, yet unspectacular match. [** ½]

Cinderella Tournament First Round: Hina vs. Xena

I know they’re spelled differently but these names rhyme. These are two women with something to prove. Hina is one the rise and wants to show that she’s just as good as her impressive sisters, while Xena is trying to breakout, especially with her stable having just broken up. Hina brought what has worked for her in recent months and she’s so good at drawing out drama. For example, she was on the apron and took a springboard dropkick that should’ve knocked her out but the way she managed to just hold on was excellent. Little things like that matter. Xena blended her power with some quick offense that helped this feel different from other matches so far. She put a target on Hina’s leg after a while and Hina fought through it to make her rally. The closing stretch had close calls on both side until Hina used a tight pinning combination to advance in 10:32.  Match of the night so far. Really good stuff as Hina continues to impress and that was one of Xena’s better showings. [***¼]

Cinderella Tournament First Round: Miyu Amasaki vs. Rina Yamashita

We’ve got an interesting clash of styles here. Miyu works a quick pace and is known for her array of DDTs while Rina has come across as more of a bully in STARDOM thus far. They played into that, with Miyu as the fiery babyface and Rina as the villain trying to take her down. Simple, yet effective. The trading of blows section didn’t do much for me as I was more interested in some of Rina’s character work than anything else. She was cocky at every turn and helped the crowd get more invested in Miyu. Then, from out of nowhere, Miyu knocked Rina off the top and to the outside, advancing in 6:40. Inoffensive. [**]

Cinderella Tournament First Round: Saki Kashima vs. Sayaka Kurara

I’m sad we don’t have much Saki Kashima left. Her comedy game was on point here and Sayaka is a fun person for her to go against. They played well off each other. I don’t have much else to say besides that. I thought the finish was fun as Sayaka had gotten going and charged up for the Spear, only for Saki to collapse in pain. Sayaka helped her up, blocked the cheap pin attempt and missed a Spear but then turned Saki’s pin into her own to win in 6:46. Short but sweet. Enjoyable and a lot of fun. [**½]

Cinderella Tournament First Round: Akira Kurogane vs. Rina

Certainly one of the more interesting matchups of the tournament. Akira is one of the many promising newcomers on the roster and Rina is pretty incredible for someone her age. Together, this proved that Rina can lead a match. So far, her best work has been with the likes of Starlight Kid and Konami, who obviously know what they’re doing in there. Akira is still relatively green, so Rina had to lead and nailed it. In the early stages, she held serve and was arrogant throughout. That made Akira’s comeback a fun one and the crowd has been pretty behind her since that Tag League run with Bozilla. Akira ended up with a bloody nose because this was surprisingly hard hitting. Rina put her down with the Gory Bomb after 12:37. We’re back on track as that was another good match. [***¼]

Cinderella Tournament First Round: Ami Sohrei vs. Bea Priestley

These two have spent a fair bit of time teaming up lately, so I hoped it would translate to the ring. Alas, that wasn’t exactly the case. This was a situation where the opponents kind of just didn’t click and it felt uninspired. It was like the main event of a G1 show on night 11 or something. Like the thing you’d get in a main event of a house show. The stuff they did was mostly fine, it just came across like going through the motions. Both being faces didn’t help as the crowd was kind of just there. I don’t have much else to say about the match, which was standard back and forth stuff. Ami won with Like Thunder after 11:28 that felt longer than it was. [**½]

5.0

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

Not much from night two here, though we’re set up for the later rounds being an improvement.