She defeated AZM in the finals of the tournament on Saturday, which was held in Ota, Tokyo. With the win, Watanabe earns the right to challenge for the World of Stardom Championship, currently held by Saya Kamitani.
Watanabe said after her win (via Google Translate):
“Momo Watanabe is the champion! Finally winning on my ninth appearance. To all the jerks who’ve been supporting Momo Watanabe, I kept you waiting, huh? To all the belt holders around the world, get ready because this Momo Watanabe is coming for you. From now on, it’s the era of Momo Watanabe!”
The tournament used a format similar to this year’s G1, with three wrestlers from each block advancing to the knockout round. Watanabe had the fewest points of any wrestler to advance, finishing third in the Blue Stars B Block with 8 points off a 4-3 record. She defeated Ami Sohrei in the first knockout round, Sareee in the quarterfinals, and Saori Anou in the semifinals before defeating AZM in the finals.
This was the 14th edition of the tournament. No wrestler has won the tournament more than once. Former winners include Maika, Suzu Suzuki, Giulia, Syuri, Utami Hayashishita, Hana Kimura, Mayu Iwatani, Toni Storm, Yoko Bito, Kairi Sane, Iyo Sky, Nanae Takahashi, and Yuzuki Aikawa.
Momo Watanabe and AZM went to battle ready to destroy each other for the glory, Momo knew this was her landmark and AZM the moment to go to the next level but in the end Momo did it and became the #STARDOM 's 5 Star Grand Prix absolute winner pic.twitter.com/HJAmntSuSY
Daniel Garcia will look to keep his TNT title reign intact as he defends the title as part of this Saturday’s AEW Collision lineup — the go-home show for Sunday’s Revolution.
After going to a no contest with Adam Cole last Saturday, Garcia will defend against reigning Ring of Honor Pure Champion Lee Moriarty whose title will not be on the line. It will be Garcia’s sixth title defense and the third time he has faced Moriarty in AEW history. He has yet to lose to him.
Before she challenges TBS Champion Mercedes Mone at Revolution, Momo Watanabe will take on Serena Deeb with Mone on commentary. It will be Watanabe’s first AEW TV match and first match in an AEW ring since last summer’s Forbidden Door.
Harley Cameron will look to win her second straight as she will be in action against an opponent to be named.
Hologram will look to remain undefeated since making his return as he faces Dralistico.
Here’s the current lineup for Saturday that is being taped Wednesday after Dynamite:
TNT Champion Daniel Garcia defends against Lee Moriarty
After dispatching Harley Cameron at AEW Grand Slam Australia, TBS Champion Mercedes Mone appears to have her next challenger set already.
During Wednesday’s Dynamite, Mone was being interviewed by Renee Paquette when they threw it to a video of Stardom star Momo Watanabe challenging her for the title at next month’s Revolution pay-per-view from Los Angeles, California.
Watanabe was at ringside for Grand Slam Australia, shown during Mone’s successful title defense.
Mone wasn’t thrilled by the surprise challenge and said Watanabe needs to show up on Dynamite if she wants an answer.
The two squared off for Mone’s NJPW Strong Women’s title last August at Capital Collision that saw Mone successfully pick up the title defense.
Here’s the current and expected card for the Crypto.com Arena on Sunday, March 9th:
AEW World Champion Jon Moxley defends against Cope
MJF vs. Hangman Page
AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita defends against Kenny Omega*
Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fletcher in a steel cage match*
TBS Champion Mercedes Mone defends against Momo Watanabe*
Momo Watanabe is the International Women’s World Cup winner.
The Stardom representative emerged victorious at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday night defeating Athena, Willow Nightingale, and Persephone in a four-way match. The finish had Athena looking to score the win against Watanabe. However, Watanabe’s stablemate Thekla pulled Athena out of the ring as the referee was making the count. The distraction allowed Watanabe to strike Athena with a baseball bat, eventually leading to her victory.
As a result of her win, Watanabe has now earned a title match of her choice across ROH, AEW, CMLL, and Stardom.
For the last month, matches have taken place to determine the representatives for the four-way match at Wrestle Dynasty. Nightingale won a mini-tournament to earn her spot in AEW, while ROH’s Athena, CMLL’s Persephone, and Watanabe all won four-way matches.
During the main card of Wrestle Dynasty, Mercedes Mone will face Mina Shirakawa. The match will be for both the New Japan Strong title that Mone holds and for the RevPro Undisputed British Women’s title that Shirakawa holds.
The final entrant into the International Women’s Cup finals at Wrestle Dynasty has been determined.
Stardom’s Momo Watanabe won a short tournament this weekend to earn her spot in the match. She joins Athena (ROH), Willow Nightingale (AEW), and Persephone (CMLL) as those who have qualified.
On Friday, Watanabe defeated Hanan, Saki Kashima, and Yuna Mizumori in a four-way match to advance to the finals held today in Hachioji. She defeated Syuri, Suzu Suzuki, and Tomoka Inaba in another four-way bout to win the tournament.
It was about as hard-hitting of a Fatal Four Way that you'll find in the sport of pro wrestling.
At the end of it, Momo Watanabe emerged as our entrant into the International Women's Cup w/ #AEW, #CMLL, #ROH at WRESTLE DYNASTY in the Dome 1/5 pic.twitter.com/7VbhxxcXS2
The winner of the four-way match at Wrestle Dynasty will earn a title shot from the participating promotion of their choosing.
Wrestle Dynasty (Sunday, January 5, airing live on NJPW World) —
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ricochet (will be an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match if Sabre retains against Shota Umino at Wrestle Kingdom)
Shota Umino vs. Claudio Castagnoli (will be an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match if Umino wins the title at Wrestle Kingdom)
NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone vs. RevPro Undisputed British Women’s Champion Mina Shirakawa in a double title match
David Finlay vs. Brody King (will be an IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship match if Finlay retains against Yota Tsuji at Wrestle Kingdom)
Yota Tsuji vs. Jack Perry (will be an IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship match if Tsuji wins the title at Wrestle Kingdom)
Kenny Omega vs. Gabe Kidd
Great-O-Khan & TBD vs. The Young Bucks for the vacant IWGP Tag Team titles
International Women’s Cup four-way match (winner receives a title shot in the promotion of their choosing): Persephone (CMLL) vs. Athena (ROH) vs. Willow Nightingale (AEW) vs. Momo Watanabe (Stardom)
Tomohiro Ishii challenges either Shingo Takagi or Konosuke Takeshita for the NEVER Openweight Championship (AEW International Championship will also be on the line if Takeshita still holds the title when he faces Takagi at Wrestle Kingdom)
Lucha Gauntlet match featuring four wrestlers from CMLL and four from NJPW
ROH Tag Team Champions Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara defend against SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone looks to have her challenger for Capital Collision.
For the first time ever, Mone will face off against Stardom wrestler Momo Watanabe. Stardom shared a promo to social media today with Watanabe challenging Mone to face her at Capital Collision. The show is taking place from Washington, D.C. on Friday, August 30.
At AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door this June, Mone won the NJPW Strong Women’s Championship from Stephanie Vaquer. She has not made any title defenses since becoming champion.
Mone is currently a double champion, but that could change at AEW All In. She has a TBS title defense against Britt Baker set for the Sunday, August 25 pay-per-view.
Capital Collision will air live as a PPV on NJPW World. NJPW also posted a video last night with Mustafa Ali responding to Hiromu Takahashi’s challenge for the event. Ali accepted the challenge — as long as Takahashi agrees to publicly endorse Ali as the greatest junior heavyweight in the world if Ali wins their match.
NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone defends against Momo Watanabe
NJPW Strong Openweight Champion Gabe Kidd defends against Lio Rush
NJPW Strong Tag Team Champions TMDK (Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls) defend against Hechicero & Virus
NJPW Strong Tag Team title number one contender’s match: TMDK (Robbie Eagles & Bad Dude Tito) vs. Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Titan
Tom Lawlor & Fred Rosser vs. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs
NJPW has revealed the two Stardom showcase matches that will be taking place at Wrestle Grand Slam in MetLife Dome.
At Wrestle Grand Slam night one this Saturday, Momo Watanabe & Saya Kamitani will team against Maika & Lady C. Watanabe & Kamitani will then face Giulia & Syuri at Wrestle Grand Slam night two on Sunday.
These will be the first Stardom showcase matches in NJPW to air live on NJPW World. They have previously been dark matches.
Night one of Wrestle Grand Slam in MetLife Dome will begin at 3:30 a.m. Eastern time this Saturday. Night two will begin at 1:30 a.m. Eastern on Sunday.
Here are the full lineups for both Wrestle Grand Slam shows:
Wrestle Grand Slam in MetLife Dome night one (Saturday, September 4) —
IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi defends against Kota Ibushi
Kazuchika Okada vs. Jeff Cobb
Chase Owens defends the provisional KOPW 2021 trophy against Toru Yano in an I Quit match
YOH vs. SHO
Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI vs. Robbie Eagles & Tiger Mask IV
Momo Watanabe & Saya Kamitani vs. Maika & Lady C
Wrestle Grand Slam in MetLife Dome night two (Sunday, September 5) —
IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Shingo Takagi defends against EVIL
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Robbie Eagles defends against Hiromu Takahashi
IWGP Tag Team Champions Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi defend against Tetsuya Naito & SANADA and Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI in a three-way match
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo defend against El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jeff Cobb & The Great-O-Khan
The Friday night show from the NYC Arena in Jamaica, NY, opened with all the participants coming down to the ring for the introduction. Kagetsu and Mayu Iwatani got the biggest ovation. Momo Watanabe opened the show thanking the fans and hyping them up.
Pacific Rim’s Jim Valley and Fumi Saito were on commentary. Saito had so much interesting points, insights, and trivia throughout the show. Ring introductions were done by Yurie Kozakai, so they were exactly like a normal Stardom show.
Jungle Kyona & Natsuko Tora defeated Violette & Sonya Strong
Kyona and Strong started the match in a power vs. power battle doing shoulder tackle challenges where Strong got the advantage. Violette came in and worked on Kyona’s head with a nice looking guillotine. Jungle slowly started a comeback when she got enough space to gather speed and shoulder tackle Strong down.
Tora came in and both Violette and Strong tried to gang up on her, but took them down with a double spear. Strong regained control of the match on Tora, and she and Violette hit a flurry of kicks until Tora landed a desperation spinebuster on Violette and got the hot tag to Kyona.
Violette hit a codebreaker on Kyona for a close two fall. Strong and Violette hit a kick combo for another two count. Kyona took them out with a double lariat and a sliding clothesline on Violette for a two count. Both Kyona and Tora climbed the ropes and hit stereo Superflies for a two count. Jungle landed a sitdown powerbomb to finally finish off Violette for the win. This was a good kickoff for the show.
Bobbi Tyler & Hana Kimura defeated Dr. Britt Baker & Brittany Blake and Bea Priestley & Konami
The rules are three women in the ring at all times.
Baker, Kimura, and Konami started the match with a three-way test of strength that turned into a quick exchange of arm drags and roll ups. All women got cleared out leaving Hana and Konami with the latter being thrown around by her hair and stomped on. Hana and Tyler locked in a double Romero Special on Konami, but Baker broke it off when she pinned both Kimura-gun girls. Queen’s Quest came in and worked on Kimura until Blake came in to break up the pin.
Kimura (who looked like a superstar) and Konami got into a striking battle that ended with Konami’s signature kicks taking out Kimura for a two count. Konami went for a guillotine, but Kimura powered herself out with a deadlift suplex. They kept trading submission attempts until Priestley interrupted them. Baker got a couple of near falls on Tyler with a Slingblade, but after some miscommunication, Blake hit an Enzugiri on Blake.
Kimura took advantage, hitting a dropkick on Blake for the pin.
High Speed Champion Hazuki defeated Dust to retain
This started with a series of reversals and counters, a quick pace that lived up to the name of the championship. Hazuki gained control of the match early on, stomping Dust out of the ring. Back in the ring, Dust started to level out things with running lariats before starting a striking battle where Hazuki once again got control after a springboard dropkick and running knee for a two count.
Dust hit a DDT on the apron and a top rope plancha for a two count. Dust hit a running knee and a codebreaker for another two count. Dust hit a backstabber for another (almost late) two count. Out of nowhere, Hazuki locked in La Magistral, or, as Hazuki calls it, Hazukistral for the flash pin to finish a good match.
Dust looked really good. I would have liked for an extra five minutes as they were barely hitting second gear when it ended.
Wonder of Stardom Champion Momo Watanabe defeated Utami Hayashishita to retain
I’m surprised that this match didn’t close the show. Utami getting a shot at Momo’s championship and their first time meeting had been hyped and anticipated since the announcement of the match. The crowd was split between both wrestlers.
It started with both women fighting for wrist control with good, crisp reversals. Utami was the first to up the ante and slapped Momo straight in the face, which Momo answered, landing a set of hard kicks to the back and a fake out to the front. From here on, Momo started working on Utami’s torso. Momo would challenge Utami to hit her and quickly cut her off, getting two counts in between.
Utami finally dodged Momo’s offense, locked in the Camel Clutch, and started going after Momo’s back with a series of stomps and a Boston Crab. Whenever Momo would hope for a comeback, Utami would reverse back into the Boston Crab. Utami finally started chasing the Torture Rack while Momo chased the Peach Sunset, but they kept blocking each other.
They went back and struck each other until they simultaneously knocked each other down with slaps. They started exchanging stiff looking dropkicks. Momo hit an Uranage and a double knee for a two count. Momo hit two Meteoras for another two count. Momo went for a chicken wing and Sleeper, but Utami reversed into a judo throw and locked in a sleeper with a body scissors for a near submission, but Momo managed to roll to the ropes.
Utami put Momo in the Torture Rack right before the feed unfortunately went off. Momo would win minutes later with the a Tequila Sunrise. Even with the gap in time, this was easily the match of the night.
In an elimination match, STARS (Mayu Iwatani, Tam Nakano, Saki Kashima & Arisa Hoshiki) defeated Oedo Tai (Kagetsu, Session Moth Martina, Jamie Hayter & Andras Miyagi) w/Hazuki
Oedo Tai did their dance entrance and looked like superstars. Kagetsu and Mayu Iwatani had the biggest pops.
STARS offered the opening handshake, but Oedo Tai ignored and instead jumped the babyfaces to start the match. Both teams brawled around the arena with Kagetsu and Mayu making it all the way into the crowd. When they made it back to the ring, Oedo Tai had taken control of Iwatani, who they worked on for a while with a series of quick tags and quick moves. Andras did her headbanging spot and a DDT for a two count. Mayu hit a quick Slingblade to get the tag to Saki who ran wild on all the Oedo Tai women, hitting a couple of Angel’s Wings on both Kagetsu and Andras. Oedo Tai hit their running combo on Saki, and after a spinning piledriver by Andras, Saki was eliminated.
Arisa came in against Martina, who hit her with the beer mist. Martina hit a lariat and went for the Electric Chair, but was rolled into a two count. All of Oedo Tai got suplexed by the remaining STARS, leaving Session Moth opened for a STARS combo of sentons that ended with a triple dropkick and one of Hoshiki’s killer kicks to be eliminated.
Kagetsu called out Tam Nakano next. They got into a strikefest that ended with a cutter by Nakano on Kagetsu. Nakano hit a great German Suplex Pin for a two count. When Nakano went for the kill, Jazuki hit her with a chair, giving Kagetsu the opening for the Oedo Coaster and a DVD to eliminate Nakano.
Andras went against Mayu and Arisa. Andras got a near fall on Mayu before Mayu hit a top rope Frankensteiner on her. Andras set up a powerbomb to eliminate Mayu with an over the top rope elimination, but Mayu caught the ropes, headscissored Andras, and pulled her out the ring for the elimination.
Kagetsu and Hoshiki started kicking each other, but at the end, it was Hoshiki that landed the final kick for a two count. Hoshiki went for the flying kick, but all of Oedo Tai came back to stop her, leaving an opening for Kagetsu to throw water on her. As she went to throw her out of the ring, they ended up eliminating each other.
That left Hayter and Iwatani as the final two. Kagetsu hit the green mist on Hayter by mistake, giving Iwatani the opening for the moonsault and pin for the STARS win. This was a pretty great match as all women got to shine even if it was just for a few minutes.
STARS closed the show thanking the fans and saying goodbye. Jungle Kyona invited all the factions to come out to close out the show. Momo, Jungle, Kagetsu, and Mayu all agreed that tonight’s it was about STARDOM. Oedo Tai obviously didn’t comply.
**********
This was a great, easy to watch and short show by Stardom. They had a good debut in the United States, showing what they bring to the table in terms of wrestling. The show itself didn’t fully feel like a normal Stardom show since there were no pre-match promos or the younger talent, but when it came to the everything inside the ring, it was just like watching a show on Stardom World.
