Stardom kicks off the 14th Goddess Of Stardom Tag League today, their annual tag team tournament that features the entire roster, or as close to it as reasonably possible. This year that’s 18 teams split into 2 blocks with a standard round-robin format. The top 3 teams in each block will advance but only the winner of each block goes to the Semifinals. The 2nd & 3rd place teams face each other for that second Semifinals spot. The tournament will run most of the rest of the year until just before the promotion’s year-end blowout events in December. Today the tournament begins with 5 matches, 2 from the Blue Block and 3 from the Red Block.
Today’s event will be held at Shinjuku Sumitomo Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on Stardom World. There likely will be no commentary. I’m not yet sure what the time limits for tournament matches will be (could be the 30 minutes standard but it’s Stardom so I’m thinking 20 minutes) and there are 2 non-tournament matches that may be shorter, regardless I expect the running time to be just over 2 hours, close to 2 1/2 hours if there’s an intermission.
Today’s lineup (match order TBA):
Mina Shirakawa, Maika & HANAKO vs. Suzu Suzuki, Saya Iida & Ranna Yagami
Starlight Kid & Haruka Umesaki vs. Momo Watanabe & Rina
Goddess Of Stardom Tournament:
Red Block:
Syuri & Saki Kashima vs. Konami & Saya Kamitani
Mayu Iwatani & Momo Kohgo vs. AZM & Miyu Amasaki
Hazuki & Koguma vs. Natsuko Tora & Ruaka
Blue Block:
Natsupoi & Saori Anou vs. Mei Seira & Cohaku
Hina & Lady C vs. Waka Tsukiyama & Rian
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 9 PM PT/midnight ET.
7:30 PM PT UPDATE You will also be able to watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.
8:55 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Shinjuku Sumitomo Hall in Tokyo, Japan. There is no commentary.
The paid attendance will be announced later today or tomorrow. While it appears the venue’s max listed capacity is around 2000, the setup is for much smaller. The crowd is still filing in but the setup looks like for around 500, right now I’ll predict an actual number of around 400. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 499, a full house/near sellout)
The matches should begin in about 10 minutes. Tournament matches will be 20 minute time limit, today’s main event will be Hazuki & Koguma vs. Natsuko Tora & Ruaka.
The matches begin at 9:05 PM PT/12:05 AM ST.
Match 1: Goddess Of Stardom Tag League Tournament Blue Block: Natsupoi & Saori Anou vs. Mei Seira & Cohaku (WAVE). 20 minute time limit
Result: Natsupoi & Saori Anou beat Mei Seira & Cohaku. Anou pinned Cohaku.
Natsupoi/Anou are 1-0, 2 points. Seira/Cohaku are 0-1, 0 points.
Match 2: Goddess Of Stardom Tag League Tournament Blue Block: Hina & Lady C vs. Waka Tsukiyama & Rian. 20 minute time limit
Result: Waka Tsukiyama & Rian beat Hina & Lady C. Tsukiyama pinned Hina with a German suplex hold. I’d say that qualifies as UPSET ALERT!!! Afterwards, C beat down Tsukiyama for a few seconds.
Tsukiyama & Rian are 1-0, 2 points. Hina & C are 0-1, 2 points.
The YouTube broadcast ends here.
Match 3: Mina Shirakawa, Maika & HANAKO vs. Suzu Suzuki, Saya Iida & Ranna Yagami. 20 minute time limit
Result: Mina Shirakawa, Maika & HANAKO beat Suzu Suzuki, Saya Iida & Ranna Yagami. Shirakawa pinned Yagami after Glamorous Driver Mina. Iida & HANAKO continued to fight after the bell with Iida trying to maintain a hold of HANAKO’s leg.
Match 4: Starlight Kid & Haruka Umesaki (Diana) vs. Momo Watanabe & Rina. 20 minute time limit
Result: Double Countout. Quickly spilled outside the ring and became a brawl all over the place.
Goddess Of Stardom Tag League Tournament Red Block:
Match 5: Syuri & Saki Kashima vs. Konami & Saya Kamitani. 20 minute time limit
Result: Syuri & Saki Kashima beat Konami & Saya Kamitani. Syuri beat Konami.
Syuri & Kashima are 1-0, 2 points. Konami & Kamitani are 0-1, 0 points.
Intermission.
The matches resume at 10:40 PM PT. Only a 5 minute break.
Match 6: Mayu Iwatani & Momo Kohgo vs. AZM & Miyu Amasaki. 20 minute time limit
Result: Mayu Iwatani & Momo Kohgo beat AZM & Miyu Amasaki. Iwatani pinned AZM.
Iwatani & Kohgo are 1-0, 2 points. AZM & Amasaki are 0-1, 0 points.
Afterwards, as Iwatani & AZM stared, Momo Watanabe came out. With microphone. IWGP Women’s Championship challenge. Iwatani comments got laughs from the crowd and a Watanabe beatdown. Watanabe then posed with the belt while choking Iwatani with her foot. I guess we’ll see where this goes in the coming days, I could see a match happening at HISTORIC X-OVER 2 in a couple weeks or at the year-end events.
Main Event: Hazuki & Koguma vs. Natsuko Tora & Ruaka. 20 minute time limit
Result: Hazuki & Koguma beat Natsuko Tora & Ruaka. Hazuki pinned Ruaka.
Hazuki & Koguma are 1-0, 2 points. Tora & Ruaka are 0-1, 0 points.
The next event is tomorrow at Korakuen Hall. Live streaming on Stardom World will begin at 7:30 PM PT/10:30 PM ET. Live results are tentatively planned (other events happening around that time though).
