World of Stardom and NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Saya Kamitani has some lofty goals for 2026. Among them is having Stardom run a show in the Tokyo Dome.
“What drives me right now is having Stardom run an event in the Tokyo Dome. Taking the MVP award has only made that drive stronger, but to get there I have to stay at the top of the game. So I’ll make sure that every single person in that sold out Tokyo Dome will end up worshipping at the feet of Saya-sama!” said the leader of Stardom’s H.A.T.E. faction in a NJPW 1972 interview.
Kamitani, this year’s winner, is also the first woman to ever win Tokyo Sports’ overall Wrestling MVP award.
“Honestly, I haven’t really had the time to let it sink in, but it really is a big deal to have done something nobody has ever done before. I was confident that I’d done everything it took to win it though. If it had been anybody else, I think it would really mean there was no future for pro-wrestling,” she said.
Kamitani agreed that 2025 has been the biggest year of her career thus far.
“I started the year saying I wanted to grow the footprint of women’s wrestling on the world, and I think in the end it’s gotten way bigger than I’d imagined. When it got to April, and we set the all time attendance record for Stardom in Yokohama Arena for the title and career match with Tam Nakano, I thought for a second that was the peak. That it couldn’t get any better but from there, I was carrying on what Tam Nakano had left behind as well. That motivated me even more. Especially as there was a lot of injuries, and girls leaving Stardom at the time, I thought I needed to step up even more. So I put my head down and got stuck in, and now here we are,” she said.
At Wrestle Kingdom this weekend, Kamitani will be facing Syuri, the IWGP Women’s Champion, in a Winner Takes All match.
“If I let my guard down for a second it’s all over! I’ll definitely take some knocks in the Ryogoku match, but I have to keep going full power and be at my best in the Tokyo Dome. It’s all I think about…When we wrestled in the 2021 5 Star GP, I was still only two years in, and I remember really getting wiped out in that one. It was a reminder of how tough Stardom is, and why Stardom’s number one for women’s wrestling…Syuri focuses in on her strength, so I think I have to use something different. My style has that strength to it, but also something more…bewitching to it. Great wrestling is all about the chemistry that comes from those styles mixing. I think we’ll have a match that’s appropriate for that stage, being in the Tokyo Dome at the highest level, but that’s completely different to anything the men are doing. And after it, I’ll be a triple champion and keep going from there into 2026.”
The Wrestle Kingdom card for January 4, 2026 at the Tokyo Dome, in Tokyo, Japan is:
Ranbo for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship
El Phantasmo (c) vs. Chris Brookes – NJPW World Television Championship Match
Saya Kamitani (Strong) vs. Syuri (IWGP) – Winner Takes All match for the IWGP Women’s Championship and Strong Women’s Championship.
Bullet Club War Dogs (David Finlay, Gabe Kidd and Drilla Moloney) and Unaffiliated (Shingo Takagi and Hiromu Takahashi) vs. United Empire (Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan, and Henare), Andrade El Ídolo and TBA
El Desperado vs. Kosei Fujita vs. Taiji Ishimori vs. Sho – Four-way match to determine the #1 contender for IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Evil (c) (with Dick Togo and Don Fale) vs. Aaron Wolf – NEVER Openweight Championship Match
Konosuke Takeshita (World) vs. Yota Tsuji (Global) – Winner Takes All match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada – Tanahashi’s Retirement Match
Wrestle Kingdom is available on NJPW World, NJPW’s streaming service.
