WORLD WONDER RING STARDOM
ROAD TO YOKOHAMA DREAM CINDERELLA
MARCH 26, 2021
KORAKUEN HALL
TOKYO, JAPAN

Watch: Stardom-World 

Stardoms stops off at Korakuen Hall ahead of their return to the Yokohama Budokan on April 4th.  Like a lot of recent Korakuen Hall events, this is a real one-match show as the Cosmic Angels vs Queen’s Quest match in the main event is one of the only matches of note.  The Future of Stardom match between Iida and Ruaka will be interesting to see as well as the returns of Rina and Hina but the expectation will be on the main event to deliver to make this a worthwhile show.

FUTURE OF STARDOM
SAYA IIDA (C) DEF. RUAKA

This was exactly the kind of performance Ruaka needed.  Ever since her heel turn, she’s been put into the high octane, highly athletic Stardom main event style matches, and it’s been a real trial by fire for her.  A match like this allowed her to showcase her growth with a slightly slower pace and an emphasis on the power of both performers.  Iida was the perfect dance partner as she is one of the best in the roster who can mold herself to any opponent and deliver good matches.  Iida rightly retains but Ruaka had one of her best showings in this one. ***1/4

NATSUPOI DEF. LADY C & GOKIGEN DEATH

This was a pretty fun three-way match.  They had the usual comedic spots given Death and Lady C were involved but when it got down to the wire there were some cool spots that you can only get from a three-way match.  ***

DONNA DEL MONDO (MAIKA & HIMEKA) DEF. QUEEN’S QUEST (UTAMI HAYASHISHITA & HINA)

This was a very formulaic tag match that didn’t really do much except give the current Goddess champions a win ahead of their big Yokohama main event.  The only other thing of note about this match was that it was Hina’s return after around three months of absence, she looked as good as ever and had some impressive exchanges with Maika in the early portion of the match.  **3/4

STARS (MAYU IWATANI, STARLIGHT KID & HANAN) DEF. OEDO TAI (NATSUKO TORA, SAKI KASHIMA & RINA)

As far as preview tag matches go this was pretty fun.  At Yokohama Budokan these two factions will collide again in an elimination match with a lot on the line.  But here it was mostly for bragging rights, and for Rina to make her return.  STARS got a much-needed win and Hanan surprisingly was the one to get them the win when she submitted her sister Rina with an armbar.  This amped things up just that little bit more ahead of their clash at Yokohama Budokan. ***1/4

DONNA DEL MONDO (SYURI & GIULIA) DEF. OEDO TAI (KONAMI & BEA PRIESTLEY)

Ahead of their Goddess of Stardom title match at Yokohama Syuri and Giulia defeat the former champions.  Syuri and Giulia working together is fun and seeing them pull out new team moves really makes them feel like a united team.  In the past, they always felt like two stablemates obligated to team together but now they feel like a genuine team and a win over the former tag team champions makes them a fairly credible threat to the current champions Maika and Himeka. ***1/2

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ARTIST OF STARDOM CHAMPIONSHIPS
COSMIC ANGELS (TAM NAKANO, MINA SHIRAKAWA & UNAGI SAYAKA) DEF. QUEEN’S QUEST (MOMO WATANABE, AZM & SAYA KAMITANI)

This might have been the best Cosmic Angels match yet, not too shocking as they faced off against three of Stardom’s most consistently great performers.  There were a few storylines advanced through this match which helped carry things forward.  Mina and Momo dislike one another and they had some time together in this match to show that, Sayaka and Kamitani also dislike one another and they too got the chance to showcase that throughout the match.  The main point of interest for me is Tam Nakano pinning Momo Watanabe to win.  I would like to believe that Watanabe taking these high-profile defeats is leading to something but Stardom has yet to really tell that story in any way.  Watanabe’s failings aside this was a great showcase for the Cosmic Angels who had their strongest match to date here and stood tall after beating a very game QQ team. ****

FINAL THOUGHTS

As far as Korakuen’s go this was the most skippable one in a while.  Outside of the main event, there isn’t much that you have to go out of your way to see and most matches were just giving some people a win ahead of bigger matches at Yokohama Dream Cinderella.  If you do watch the show though you’ll have a good time as almost every match was enjoyable with a great main event to top things off.