Syuri and Sareee’s battle for the IWGP Women’s Championship demands the audience’s attention from their opening staredown to the final collision of flesh and mat. Their match at STARDOM’s The Conversion event is a robust drama powered by bad blood, a hunger for glory, the chase for legacy. A rival intertwined with a rival.
This bout comes just three months after their instant classic at Sareee-ISM Chapter VII, a 30-minute draw that earned waves of acclaim online. Rightly so. That was a showcase of two perfectly paired greats pushing each other to their absolute best.
The rematch was inevitable. Not only had Syuri and Sareee not settled things back in March in Shinjuku FACE, Syuri now had a prize Sareee so badly wanted–the IWGP Women’s Championship, the title Sareee had failed to rip from Mayu Iwatani’s hands.
Syuri bested the incomparable Iwatani to claim that title at All-Star Grand Queendom. That victory might as well have been blood in the water as Sareee came swimming around with her teeth bared.
In an interview with Sportiva, (h/t Mera Wrestling for the translation), Sareee fired shots at the newly crowned champ: Syuri is just too soft. Her matches are intense, buy why does her mic work never connect? There’s too much of a difference between her energy level and mine.
Sareee wanted that championship for herself, to add her names to the illustrious list of women who have held it, to bolster her collection of gold that has included world titles from Sendi Girls, Diana, and SEAdLINNNG. The IWGP crown would further cement The Sun God’s supremacy over the joshi world. She was walking into Yoyogi National Gymnasium with the Sukeban World Championship and AAAW Tag Team Championship (with Takumi Iroha) already in hand.
A woman she’d never defeated, however, stood in her way. The two wrestlers met long ago at a Diana show in 2011. The bruising Syuri won that night. And then the two warriors could not decide a winner at Sareee-ISM.
Syuri is, in a way, Sareee’s mirror. Or vice versa. They are both hard-nosed fighters. They both rely on their hammering strikes. They exude toughness. But only one could emerge as the greatest of the two.
That simple premise can be so powerful if played out by wrestlers as damn good as these two.
As they met at The Conversion, glaring across the ring from each other, a palpable intensity filled the building. That carried through to the lockup as Syuri and Sareee clamped onto each other like two crabs, and despite the referee’s efforts, they did not want to come apart. For a moment, their limbs looked interwoven, the enemies seemingly merged into each other.
Everything in this match was crisp, precise, with a punch to it, from a hip toss to a kick to the spine. As much as this was about how their ferocity and dislike of each other, the level of skill elevated it. This was a masterclass in execution.
Add to that, both women infused a high level of aggression into the action.
Extra nastiness bolstered Sareee’s offense. Syuri seemed to have more ill will than normal when she swung her legs to kick her rival. That compelling intensity rose and bubbled over as Sareee and Syuri rolled around on the entrance ramp, smashing each other with strikes.
They each employed the same strategy as their last match with Syuri focused on cranking on the armbar and Sareee going after the champ’s knee. Last time out, neither approach quite worked, so here they upped the severity of their attack. It looked as each of them were trying to snap the other’s tendons.
It might take something that drastic to keep each other down.
Watching this showdown and their match at Sareee-ISM reminded me a lot of the famous Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada series in 2017/2018. Like those classics, there is no wasted move. Everything matters. Every hold is put on tight and urgently. Every exchange is milked for maximum emotion.
The way Sareee’s eyes rolled back. The way Syuri applied her sleeper hold so desperately and viciously at the same time. We were watching masters of their craft at work.
It all culminated in Sareee keeping Syuri down for a three-count with an emphatic uranage, The Sun God hitting her best shot at just the right moment. Then an exhausted and emotional Sareee celebrated, now the fifth IWGP women’s champ.
Even before that ending, it was impossible not to compare this match to their Sareee-ISM meeting. They are too similar, too equally captivating to not judge them side by side in your head. If you are watching The Godfather 2, chances are you will start to contrast it to The Godfather, asking yourself which one is best.
Heading into The Conversion, the Sareee-ISM main event was my frontrunner for Match of the Year. How could one top that, I wondered.
Well, the answer is added momentum, as it builds off the previous encounter. It’s a continuation. It’s an escalation. Now, they are fighting over a major championship. Now, they know how much it will take to avoid a draw and get a clear winner.
So, for me, Sareee vs. Syuri II outdoes part 1. It’s bigger, more powerful, urging the crowd to get louder. It’s Sareee’s redemption, her crowning achievement, and on the flip side, heartbreak for Syuri.
The story can’t end here, though. You know Syuri will be fighting her way back to contender status to avenge this loss. She won’t be content to have had such a short reign (just 55 days) and have Sareee’s claims that she is weaker appear true.
We are blessed then that this will almost surely be a second part in a trilogy for the ages. We are blessed that two all-timers will meet once more with hopes of outdoing themselves once more, that we will be again witness to a showcase of the dramatic weight that pro wrestling can wield.
The fury Sareee and Syuri share is special, and we are the beneficiaries of that grand and deep bounty.
RESURA 