A fresh year bursting with possibilities is here again. Will we see a shift in how STARDOM books or a change at the top of the card for Sendai Girls? What lies ahead in the new year for ChocoPro, Shino Suzuki, and Ema Maishima? 

Our writers offer their best answers to those unanswered questions.

Read on to see what we forecasted to come to pass in 2026.

To see how our crystal-balling panned out from last year, check out the 2025 edition of the column: BOLD PREDICTIONS FOR 2025 – RESURA

Shino Suzuki Will Surpass 35 Wins For the Year

TJPW has shown its fully embracing its new era. Miu Watanabe is positioned as the clear Ace. Wakana Uehara enters the big Jan. 4 show as tag champ. Arisu Endo is getting the push her fans have long asked for. I think Shino is next to benefit from this focus on younger rising stars. She’s shown great growth in the past year, both with presence and with in-ring skill. She’s earned the right to move up the TJPW hierarchy, and while I think it’s too early to see her challenge for the top title or anything, I’ll bet on her win total going up in 2026.

Per CageMatch.net, Suzuki ended the year with 22 wins behind TJPW stars like Pom Harajuku and Moka Miyamoto. My prediction is that she fights her way to more than 35 wins. A good run in the Max Heart tournament alongside HIMAWARI will help that.

– Ryan (@ryandilbert)

ChocoPro will hold another show at Korakuen Hall

In 2024, ChocoPro celebrated For the Future, their first Korakuen Hall show since 2016 and the first Hall show for many wrestlers on the roster, including Kaho Hiromi, Mei Suruga’s pupil and a literal child, who made her debut that night. This event marked a new era for the promotion, since they dropped the “Gatoh Move” name to fully embrace the “ChocoPro” banner. Emi Sakura’s creation has gathered a number of fans, both Japanese and foreigners, who support it through YouTube memberships and donations, while also having its talent featured in cards from other promotions.

With that said, is it too far-fetched to think they can present yet another show at the mythical venue? What if they co-produce a show with some other company? Have your top champion Rina Yamashita be challenged by a big name, your tag champions make an open challenge, invite wrestlers from TJPW, Stardom, and the indie scene to wrestle on your card and, of course, let Chie Koishikawa run wild. 

I love the passion this little group of people show for the art of professional wrestling, and they deserve to have a big stage to do it.

– Fernando (@Jferimsw)

Victoria Yuzuki will get the 2026 IYO Sky match in Marigold after dropping the United National Championship 

For the past two years, Marigold have been able to hold marquee IYO Sky matches at their Ryogoku Sumo Hall events, with the Genius of the Sky facing off with her wrestling sister Mayu Iwatani and fellow Queen’s Quest leader Utami Hayashishita. While there’s no guarantee this yearly trend will continue it seems to be a tradition both IYO and Marigold want to keep, but now that the Mayu match has been run the Goldberg question of “Who’s next” looms over the rest of the roster. 

While there are plenty of exciting options, the most interesting prospect could be the one she shared the spotlight with at the very end of last year’s show. As Grand Destiny closed, IYO said goodbye alongside Mayu and the company’s two new top champions: Miku Aono and Victoria Yuzuki. Seeing her come back a year later to test the mettle of the Young Ace and future of the company – as someone who knows what it takes to succeed as a company Ace as well as a worldwide megastar, is a tantalising story that offers something different from the previous two matches against fellow veteran performers. 

Victoria Yuzuki has the confidence to not shy away from such a spotlight – if anything she’d only be further inspired to rise to the spotlight – and an IYO match guarantees more eyes than ever would be on one of their best and brightest. If people didn’t know her beforehand, they would after. 

– Trent (1upculture)

STARDOM’s booking team will realise they have other factions than HATE

My biggest frustration in joshi wrestling this year is that Stardom has become HATE-centric. They not only look like the NWO, with their black and white T-shirts, they are now being booked like it. They’ve hoarded the majority of Stardom’s championships and quite frankly made everybody else feel like their cast of characters, with most being jobbed out to HATE members or being stuck in endless multiplayer matches that are used to get everyone on the card. 

The most neglected factions are probably STARS and EXV. STARS was once the most over babyface unit in the company. But since Mayu Iwatani left Stardom and Hazuki and Koguma were forced out of the group, STARS has become merely a shadow of its former self. The unit now consists of three midcarders (Hanan, Iida and Priestley) and two jobbers (Komomo and Hime, who’d fit in better with Cosmic Angels as well). And they are not even the worst group. That has to be EXV. That abbreviation stands for Empress Nexus Venus, lest we forget. The unit has been X (or Nexus, but I’m guessing WWE might have something to say about that) for most of the year. though. The Empress, Maika, has been injured for half a year. And the Venus, Mina Shirakawa, left the company eight months ago! If any unit needs an overhaul, it’s this one! 

My biggest problem with a heel stable being pushed this strongly, is that you need a lot of babyfaces who feel like they have a good chance at actually beating them. The whole point of a heel is that the public should want to see them get beat. With most of Stardom’s top babyfaces leaving the company (Utami, Mayu, Tam) and Stardom not really building new ones (with the exception of Starlight Kid), they really need to start pushing other factions more.

– Dave (@Dave_TCS4Life)

An Outsider Will Win the Sendai Girls World Championship

Chihiro Hashimoto marches into 2026 closing in on 300 days as world champ. Of the last 10 reigns in Sendai Girls World Championship history, only two went significantly past that 300-day mark. Mika Iwata’s first reign went one day over that. So if recent history tells us we are due for a title change, who do we think will take that gold off Big Hash?

Do they go with Mika Iwata again? That would put her in rarefied air as only Hashimoto has had three or more reigns. It’s never seemed like Sendai Girls believes that Iwata is on Hashimoto’s level, forever slotting her in the tier below the powerhouse. Plus, it’s only been since the very end of 2024 since Iwata was champ. Feels like they may try to mix things up more than that.

Well what about Manami then? I’d love to see her get a shot in the center of the spotlight like that, but that feels like wishful thinking. She’s 0-4 against Hashimoto and 0-8 against DASH Chisako. At least for now, we can assume Senjo has Manami well below the top stars.

DASH dethroning Hashimoto makes some sense, but the way her first and only Sendai world title reign was such an obvious transitional one gives me pause. She’s often treated like a special attraction outside of the main event, the hardcore queen who spices up the card. 

All that doubt about the title chances of those roster members leaves me to think Sendai Girls would look to outsource its next champion as it did in the recent past with ASUKA and Millie McKenzie. There’s a certain Sun God whose no longer a full-time roster member who has a long history with Hashimoto, just saying.

– Ryan (@ryandilbert)

Ema Maishima Will Prove To Be The Best Rookie

One thing that might be somewhat underrated when it comes to STARDOM is how many talented rookies they have at their disposal. While Marigold and Marvelous have picked a rookie or two to call “super” STARDOM has done none of that, and instead focused on bringing up those rookies somewhat slowly so that you don’t put them into a position they shouldn’t be in too early in their careers. That’s one of the things I feel like some of the other promotions have done wrong, but considering their much smaller rosters, it’s at least somewhat understandable.

In STARDOM there’s a generation of rookies who all have their specialties that make them stand out in their own ways, but as 2026 goes on, I believe that there’s one rookie in particular who will show the potential and skill needed to take that next step in their career. Who is it you might ask? Well in my opinion, I believe that Ema Maishima will be the one to push ahead of the pack, and possibly even become the Future Of Stardom champion by the end of 2026. When watching rookie matches in STARDOM, I feel a lot like I do when I watch TJPW as well, which is that they strap a proverbial restrictor vest onto their young wrestlers until they trust that they can work without it. So while we haven’t seen a ton from Ema Maishima, I think there’s a lot more that she can do if they allowed her to, and the fact that she works the house style so well being more of a high- speed, high-flying wrestler, I think she’ll be able to adapt to the other wrestlers quite a bit  as well. Hell, the High Speed Championship is a title that is often forgotten when it comes to the booking department in STARDOM, but if they are looking for a new face to help that division out, I think Ema would be a great addition as well. The sky is the limit for Ema, and I’m excited to see what she does during her second year in the business.

– Justin (@BioHizzle)

The Relationship Between Japan And Mexico Will Strengthen

Not too long ago, we were hit with the awesome news that STARDOM had officially signed a deal with the legendary Mexican wrestling company CMLL to work together. Sure, there had been a little bit of a partnership already considering the fact that there was still a CMLL-Japan Women’s championship that was defended at least a few times per year, but now that the deal is officially signed, I think we’ll see a lot more of it. STARDOM has the most talented women’s roster on the planet, and I don’t think anyone can dispute that, but now we’ll add a talented luchadora from Mexico from time to time which will only help bolster such a great roster. On the flip side, Mexico will hopefully get to see some of the awesome wrestlers on the STARDOM roster many times per year, which will not only give the wrestlers an awesome experience, but grow their popularity on the other side of the world. In general it’s a win/win in my opinion.

I think what also ended up helping this come together is that it’s pretty well known that the Japanese yen is quite weak to the say the least, and the Mexican peso has never been super strong either when you compare it to the US dollar, so it might honestly be a good financial move to have these two companies trade talents instead of either of them bringing in wrestlers from the United States or Europe. It also doesn’t hurt having Hazuki as your champion, someone who many overseas fans at least have been wanting to see wear a big singles title for a long time. This championship isn’t seen as a big time world title at the moment, but with strong champions and great matches, that could definitely change. Either way, I’m excited to see who all gets to travel over the pacific and make their name in front of a new audience, because ultimately it will only help to continue to grow the popularity of women’s wrestling around the world!

– Justin (@BioHizzle)