Mayu Iwatani Was Reportedly Set For Big IWGP Title Win

KAIRI may have won the inaugural IWGP Women's Championship last month, but a new report Friday morning suggests that was not always the plan that New Japan Pro-Wrestling had in mind. In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that although KAIRI won this year's IWGP Women's Championship tournament late last month, the first woman NJPW had in mind to become its inaugural women's champion was her finals opponent, Mayu Iwatani.

"When the IWGP women's title was announced, the plan was for Iwatani to be the first champion," Meltzer reported, writing that World Wonder Ring STARDOM —.the sister promotion of NJPW, whose wrestlers will primarily compete for the new IWGP women's title — "had earmarked a big 2023" for Iwatani in the build-up to a major Japanese film about her life. The biopic, titled "Runaway Wrestler," was announced last June and is expected to be released in late 2023.

Meltzer reports that Iwatani unsuccessfully requested a contract renegotiation with STARDOM leading to the match, because winning the IWGP Women's Championship would have resulted in an increase in U.S. bookings. STARDOM and Iwatani did not agree on a new deal, which led to her being replaced as inaugural champion by KAIRI — Meltzer says the two were always planned for the tournament finals. The 25-minute match at the Historic X-Over event ended in a pinfall victory for the former "NXT" Women's Champion and WWE Women's Tag Team Champion, who competed in WWE as Kairi Sane from 2016 to 2021 after initially making her name in STARDOM. Iwatani, one of the most legendary figures in STARDOM history, remains under her current contract with STARDOM, having "turned down the title for now."