Stardom heads to Nagaoka for what could be best described as a B-tier Pay-Per-View. With no world title match on the card, it is left to the Wonder of Stardom Championship clash between Saya Kamitani and Natsupoi to headline the event. While Stardom has left the major matches at home that doesn’t mean they’ve phoned it in here as their card depth is on full display at Cinderella Journey in Nagaoka.
Stardom Cinderella Journey in Nagaoka Full Card
Dark Match – Future of Stardom #1 Contenders Match: Mai Sakurai vs aka Tsukiyama vs Rina
Future of Stardom Championship: Hanan (c) vs Momo Kohgo
Queen’s Quest (Utami Hayashishita & Lady C) vs Oedo Tai (Ruaka & Momo Watanabe)
Mayu Iwatani & Tam Nakano vs Oedo Tai (Saki Kashima & Fukigen Death)
High Speed Championship: Starlight Kid (c) vs AZM
Ryogoku Outpost: Donna Del Mondo (Syuri, Maika & Himeka) vs Donna Del Mondo (Giulia, Thekla & MIRAI)
Goddess of Stardom Championship: FWC (Hazuki & Koguma) (c) vs Cosmic Angels (Mina Shirakawa & Unagi Sayaka)
Wonder of Stardom Championship: Saya Kamitani (c) vs Natsupoi
Mai Sakurai vs Waka Tsukiyama vs Rina
The night kicks off, likely on YouTube, with a number one contenders match for the Future of Stardom Championship. Mai Sakurai recently defected from Cosmic Angels to Donna Del Mondo and a win here would put her directly into the spotlight opposite Hanan. This has us leaning towards a Mai victory, but Rina could pull off the win and earn the right to challenge her sister Hanan for the title. Either way we look forward to seeing Tsukiyama try to make Sakurai pay for leaving Cosmic Angels.
Hanan vs Momo Kohgo
Hanan’s reign as champion is in its infancy but it is in big trouble here against STARS stablemate Momo Kohgo. Stardom obviously likes Kohgo, she single-handedly beat Oedo Tai in a battle royal on the Nagoya Supreme Fight pre-show, which should tell you how they view her. What gives us pause is the current storyline of Kohgo proving herself to the STARS leadership and working with Hazuki to improve. If Kohgo is to win this title it will likely be after she’s proven herself ready to Hazuki.
Utami Hayashishita & Lady C vs Momo Watanabe & Ruaka
For a high-profile grudge, this storyline has mostly been left to simmer in undercard tags. The end goal is Utami Hayashishita vs Momo Watanabe, but Stardom is holding off on getting to that point and dragging it out with OT and Momo continuously getting one over on Utami and co. This is likely to be more of the same with Hayashishita out for revenge on Watanabe for turning on QQ, but ultimately coming up short.
Mayu Iwatani & Tam Nakano vs Saki Kashima & Fukigen Death
This was originally two separate matches, Mayu Iwatani vs Saki Kashima and Tam Nakano vs Fukigen Death in a dark match. Saki Kashima asked for it to be changed to a tag and Mayu was happy to go along with it. An interesting note, this isn’t the first time Mayu and Tam have worked together recently, in December they briefly reunited to fend off Giulia and her masked assailants. Now the long-time STARS duo are reunited for an entire match. The split between Mayu and Tam was a major storyline in recent Stardom vintage but could we be seeing them slowly get back together? What would that mean for Tam’s Cosmic Angels faction? Lot’s of questions, but sadly no answers.
Starlight Kid vs AZM
For years Starlight Kid and AZM have been rivals, as two of Stardom’s younger roster members, it was always easy to compare the two and their growth. Kid, the paragon of babyface energy, and AZM, the cheeky prodigy, were understandably always at odds. The fact they had fantastic chemistry in the ring was just an added bonus for Stardom. For the longest time, their rivalry centered over who would be the first to win the High Speed Championship. Now that they have both held it you might think that their grudge has settled down… you would be wrong. Their competitive nature continued to put them at odds as both aim to be at the peak of the High Speed division. This time, they have the added intensity as Starlight Kid and Oedo Tai wooed Momo Watanabe away from Queen’s Quest and she hasn’t been shy about reminding AZM of this fact.
With so much history shared between AZM and Kid this might be the most important High Speed title match since the days of Natsuki Taiyo, Kid recognizes this and tried to get this match put into the main event spot. There is an ongoing fan vote to decide the main event and currently AZM/Kid is trailing Saya vs Natsupoi in the vote.
It might finally be time for AZM to get one back on Oedo Tai for everything they did to her and QQ over the past few months, but Starlight Kid winning wouldn’t be a shock.
Hazuki & Koguma vs Mina Shirakawa & Unagi Sayaka
This is just the second defense for Hazuki and Koguma so we don’t see them losing. This sort of feels like a filler defense even though it’s a STARS vs Cosmic Angels match. Neither Hazuki or Koguma were even in Stardom when the Cosmic Angels split from STARS so there’s unlikely to be much leftover bad blood. Sayaka and Shirakawa are currently too busy dealing with the fallout of Mai Sakurai defecting to DDM to really focus full on the Goddess of Stardom belts so this should be an easy win for FWC
Saya Kamitani vs Natsupoi
This match has a lot of weight on its shoulder as both women will be expected to deliver a great match in the main event spot. While Kamitani vs Poi may suffer from a lack of drama, Saya is obviously winning, the two have shown a lot of chemistry in past interactions so we have full faith that they can pull through here and deliver a match worthy of the spotlight. This match being given such high billing can be seen as Stardom having confidence in both Saya and Natsupoi to not only deliver a great match but also to headline a major event.
Now you can vote for the main event of February 23rd’s Cinderella Journey in Nagaoka! Choose which of the 4 title matches you want to headline!
Voting in the re-tweet below!
The order on the poll is Wonder, Goddess, High Speed and Future. https://t.co/2tdfglUlQZ pic.twitter.com/myuT5FQDbK
— We Are Stardom (@we_are_stardom) February 10, 2022
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. If you want to see more from Stardom, you can check out their subscription service Stardom World for all your wonderous Joshi needs.
