2026 Cinderella Tournament Day 1 Results, March 6, 2026
Maki Itoh vs Kikyo Furusawa and a couple of double eliminations are among the highlights of an exciting opening night.
Track the full tournament progress, brackets, and upcoming schedule at the 2026 Cinderella Tournament Hub.
The 2026 Cinderella Tournament kicked off on March 6 before a sold-out crowd of 560 at Chunichi Hall in Nagoya, which marked a 5 AM start of a very busy day (and weekend!) of wrestling if you live in the US Eastern time zone.
While Cinderella Night 2 kicks off at 11:30 PM Eastern, CMLL also has a loaded La Noche de las Amazonas at Arena Mexico, featuring plenty of Stardom and other international talent.
Starlight Kid and Mei Seira will challenge Lluvia and La Jarochita for the CMLL Women’s World Tag Team titles. Additionally, Maika takes on Dark Silueta. Old friends from Stardom will also collide with CMLL luchadoras, as Megan Bayne takes on Olympia and Mina Shirakawa challenges Zeuxis. There’s also a potential banger of a main event with Mercedes Moné defending the CMLL Women’s World Championship against the incredible Persephone. Check it out on Triller at 9:30 PM Eastern US time for just $10!
Now, onto the business at hand. Let’s look at the results from Day 1 of the Cindy, along with my initial thoughts. Feel free to share yours in the comments, as there’s plenty to discuss. If you just want quick results with no commentary, I got you.
Yuna Mizumori vs Rian
The High Speed Champion kicked off the show with her first-round bout against the ever-popular Rian. This was pure High Speed stuff, with a ton of pin reversals and a close call that nearly resulted in an over-the-top rope finish.
With the crowd behind her, Rian survived an onslaught before reversing a pinning combination and getting the surprising three count. After the bell rang, Rian cut a promo where she declared that she will win the Cinderella and then take Yunamon’s title.
Yunamon was humble in defeat, accepting Rian’s challenge for an undetermined future date.
Aya Sakura vs Fukigen Death
Sakura continued the Cinderella transformation theme, bringing her trusty mop out to the ring with her. The High Kick Angel was all business, making relatively short work of the clown princess of H.A.T.E. The pinfall finish came via a bridging German suplex.
Natsupoi vs Tabata
The leader of Stars’ opening Cinderella matchup had an international flair as she took on CMLL’s Tabata. This was a more technical contest than the previous bouts, with Natsupoi showing some much-needed attitude throughout. Natsupoi ultimately prevailed, getting the submission win via armbar.
HANAKO vs Yuria Hime
After refusing HANAKO’s offer to put the Future of Stardom title on the line in this matchup, Yuria fought as a young wrestler who is sure of her future. She showed a lot of spirit and looked like she was ready to finish HANAKO off, but the match ended in a double count out after the two brawled outside of the ring, eliminating both women from the tournament.
Post-match, Yuria once again proclaimed her desire to capture the Future belt. She issued a challenge, and the champ accepted, setting up Yuria’s shot at the title in the near future. The double elimination opened the door for a second-round bye for Aya Sakura, who will likely spend her time off mopping the floor.
Maki Itoh vs Kikyo Furusawa
This was the match of the night and it’s not even close. The Itoh Respect Army’s leader and only member mirrored one another throughout the match. Kikyo repeatedly went for all of Itoh’s signature moves. The two exchanged submission holds. It was dead even for most of the contest.
Maki caught her junior in a half crab in the center of the ring. When Kikyo wouldn’t tap, she turned it into a full crab. Itoh’s face betrayed her feelings about eliminating her only friend, but she turned the crab into a cloverleaf. Unwilling to relent, Kikyo forced a rope break and attempted some submissions of her own. Itoh avoided the attacks, hitting a stunner. Kikyo recovered in time to nail Maki with a headbutt, but mistimed a dropkick, leading to the falling headbutt and the Itoh Deluxe, earning the Kawaii of Kawaii champ a submission win.
After the match, the tension broke, and the two embraced, declaring that the Itoh Respect Army will last forever!
Maki Itoh’s plan to win the Cinderella dress and pawn it so that she can make real Itoh Respect Army t-shirts is still in play!
Saori Anou vs Fuwa-chan
Fuwa-chan has absolutely won me over despite all of my instincts to dislike her. The YouTube star has clearly worked hard and has focused her efforts on becoming a “real” professional wrestler. In her opening round match, she faced her polar opposite, Saori Anou.
This was a very hard-hitting and solid match with a disappointing finish. Fuwa hit a brainbuster on the apron and both wrestlers simply dropped to the arena floor, resulting in a double over the top elimination and handing Maki Itoh a second-round bye to the quarterfinals on March 11 at Korakuen Hall.
After the match, the two brawled all over the ringside area. In her backstage promo, Saori was extremely frustrated, calling the loss a “stain” on her professional career. Saori accused Fuwa-chan of being fake after her past mistakes to build up a character on social media. Fuwa disagreed, saying she is going to make the most of her chance going forward.
Hanan vs Momo Kohgo
Two members of Stars collided in the final match of the night.
Poor Momo. She just can’t get a win lately and has particularly struggled in the Cinderella Tournament. This year was no different. Hanan was able to withstand Momo’s best offense, ultimately hitting the bridging belly to back suplex to get the three count and advance to the 2nd round at Korakuen Hall.
After the match, Momo showed Hanan nothing but respect, noting that Hanan has the total package. Hanan remains in the hunt for her second Cinderella Tournament win after tonight’s victory against her unit mate.
The Aftermath
The second round has started to come into focus, with eight more first-round matchups to go, streaming tonight (March 6) at 11:30 PM Eastern US time on Stardom World. Day 2 will once again emanate from Chunichi Hall, before the second and quarterfinal rounds move to the Korakuen.
The following second-round matchups will take place on Saturday, March 8 at 9:30 PM Eastern US time at Korakuen Hall and live on Stardom World:
Hanan vs Ranna Yagami
Rian vs Natsupoi
Meanwhile, Maki Itoh earned a second-round bye due to the double elimination of Fuwa-chan and Saori Anou. Aya Sakura also gets a break after the double countout finish between Yuria Hime and HANAKO.
Day 2 at Chunichi Hall will be another loaded eight match card featuring:
Saki Kashima vs Sayaka Kurara
Tomoka Inaba vs Anne Kanaya
Akira Kurogane vs Rina
Bea Priestley vs Ami Sohrei
Hina vs Xena
Lady C vs Azusa Inaba
Miyu Amasaki vs Rina Yamishita
Saya Iida vs Kiyoka Kotatsu
As always, the post-show backstage promos are available on YouTube. If you don’t speak Japanese, you can get the general vibe by turning on closed captions, clicking the options gear, and selecting Auto-translate to English.
I’ll be back very late tonight with a report on Day 2. Thanks as always for reading!
Quick Results
Rian defeated Yuna Mizumori via pinfall in 7:44
Aya Sakura defeated Fukigen Death via pinfall with a bridging German suplex in 4:47
Ranna Yagami defeated Waka Tsukiyama via pinfall after a Beat Buster in 7:15
Natsupoi defeated Tabata via submission with an arm bar in 8:45
HANAKO and Yuria Hime wrestled to a double count out DRAW in 9:59
Maki Itoh defeated Kikyo Furusawa via submission with the Itoh Deluxe in 13:07
Saori Anou and Fuwa-chan wrestled to a DRAW via double over the top rope eliminations in 10:56
Hanan defeated Momo Kohgo via pinfall with a bridging belly to back suplex at 11:37