Sareee vs. Syuri soars. The latest Sareee-ISM main event flaps its robust wings and aims for the heavens with the audience gripped tightly in its talons. The match is a propulsive work of theater where precision is brilliantly weaved together with ferocity.
A masterpiece. A bout I’ve already gone back to after watching it, reliving its biggest moments, perhaps somehow trying to absorb its extraordinary power.
For Chapter VII of Sareee’s Sareee-ISM shows, The Sun God again chose Shinjuku FACE as the home for her production. She again booked herself in a captivating cross-promotional matchup. This time out, former World of STARDOM champion Syuri would stand opposite her in the ring.
The intrigue started to surge as soon as this clash was made official.
Fans would be treated to a meeting between two of the best strikers in the game, two of the most badass women in wrestling. And this was something novel. Sareee and Syuri had not wrestled one-on-one since their 2011 bout in World Woman Pro-Wrestling Diana.
You need not do any homework to understand their story. The narrative was the simplest one: a wrestler wanting to beat another wrestler. To prove who is best. To claim the honor that comes with victory.
Both women needed that in a bad way.
Sareee, coming off a two-year run where she was winning titles everywhere, suddenly found herself in a slump. She began the year with a loss to Utami Hayashishita, dropping the Marigold World Championship in the process. VENY took Sareee’s SEAdLINNNG World Championship from her. The bruises of defeat had no time to heal as she then fell to mentor Meiko Satomura at the previous Sareee-ISM event.
In a recent interview with RESURA, Sareee said of her fight against Syuri, “I can’t lose. I must win and become one step closer to getting the champion belt that I want.” Syuri stood in the way of that redemption.
Syuri, meanwhile, was once the undisputed queen of STARDOM and had one of the greatest red belt runs in company history. The former UFC fighter helped bring eyes to STARDOM with standout matches that broke through the joshi bubble.
More recently, though, Syuri has been relegated to midcard tag team duty.
She hadn’t competed in a one-on-one match in 2025 before this showdown with Sareee. And she hasn’t been a singles champ since the end of 2022.
A win here in the main event had substantial weight. Momentum. Glory. Bragging Rights.
You could feel that in the air as Sareee and Syuri stood across from each other, streamers at their feet. The caliber of stars in this battle, the growing prestige of the Sareee-ISM brand, the simple-but-powerful stakes, all helped create this big-match aura filling Shinjuku FACE.
The match started on the mat where Syuri could show off her grappling skills. There was a sense of struggle early on, a touch of Syuri’s MMA days coating the action. Right away, Syuri looked to clamp on an armbar, a move that would become a recurring element of this fight.
While the wrestlers were wary of each other, they did not hold back on aggression. Every move was tight and applied with hostility. The tie-up, a headlock takedown, it all had extra punch to it.
As one would expect, strikes played a major role in the in-ring story. Syuri’s kicks rattled Sareee’s back, but the violence to her spine only seemed to fire her up. They paid each other back again and again.
Forearms thudded against chests. Boots cracked against anatomy.
As the match progressed, each wrestler’s strategy became clear. Syuri focused on the arm whereas Sareee worked over her foe’s leg. Syuri kept reaching for Sareee’s arm, wrenching with the worst intentions; Sareee stomp and abused Syuri’s knee. They did well to come back to these attacks throughout, punctuating the fight with a focus on what increasingly became weak points for each opponent.
The intensity remained high throughout. Control never lasted long. This was an even matchup, competitive as all get out.
Unable to decide a winner between the ropes, Sareee and Syuri’s battle moved outside the ring. The level of violence picked up out here where Syuri tossed Sareee off the apron like a discarded carcass and Sareee pounded on Syuri’s chest like she was trying to break through a wooden crate.
The strength of the match is largely in its severity, the absolute mercilessness of the strikes. Pummeling forearms. Frenzied headbutts. This led to increasing tension between them, to Syuri’s chin bleeding from one of the blows she suffered.
Syuri kept coming back to the armbar, leaving Sareee in agony, anxious and desperate to escape. Sareee, in kind, struck back with a focused attack on the leg. Zeroing in on these limbs acted as a coda, a familiar refrain in this savage symphony.
The two warriors give each other their best. Sareee suplexed the hell out of Syuri and only got a two-count out of it. Syuri delivered a devastating head kick for her own disappointing two-count. We saw lots of near-falls, but it was never excessive, instead strategically dramatic.
They ramped up their assault on each other as the time limit drew near. But they each had too much grit, too much toughness. Even with Sareee dropping Syuri square on her head, the bell rang before either foe could finish the other. Realizing the match had ended in a draw, Sareee smacked the mat in frustration, having a tantrum born of pure frustration.
This was not over.
Syuri and Sareee shouted at each other, threw some heavy-handed slaps, and yanked on each other’s hair. The match had not solved anything. It had only thickened their animosity
The rivalry rolls on and the audience has to be thankful. These two had a thriller of a match and will get a chance to follow it up. The sequel promises to be special.
Sareee vs. Syuri will undoubtedly be in the Match of the Year conversation come year’s end. That’s a given. The crispness of the offense. The level of violence. The drama that swelled as time went on. It all added up to a tour de force, an all-time classic.
The oldest story in wrestling, the pursuit of triumph, was told gloriously. Sareee and Syuri were willing to do all manner of violence to achieve that goal, and while doling out all that murderous offense they made art. Art we will treasure for years to come.
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Original background image: Markus Spiske
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