Trapped in the Cagematch: Syuri vs. Sareee (June 21, 2025)

With Trapped in the Cagematch, Kim Wong combs through the highest-rated matches according to Cagematch’s voters in preparation for the annual FSM 50 and the year-end Match of the Year extravaganza.

Syuri (c) vs. Sareee
Stardom The Conversion
June 21, 2025
Cagematch ranking as of 12/18/25: 13

Recently, I watched a lot of videos and compilations of Jeremy Lin’s magical run as a New York Knick in February and March 2012. The Knicks have been playing well this year, and I’d watch the highlights from House of Highlights or the NBA itself on YouTube or Rob “WorldWideWob” Perez’s recaps if I can’t watch the games. Naturally, YouTube’s algorithm detected a hint of enthusiasm about the Knicks and flooded my feed with Knicks-related content. In the end, who am I to deny the nostalgic appeal of Linsanity, when the Knicks almost got me back after the Jeff Van Gundy era collapsed after the 2000-01 season? (It’d take Derrick Rose’s comeback in the 2020-21 season and the effort that coach Tom Thibodeau extracted from Julius Randle, RJ Barrett, Reggie Bullock, and Alec Burks for me to pay regular attention to the team again.) 

Over the years, Lin talked a lot about how his agent told him before the February 4 game against the Brooklyn Nets that it was probably his last game in the NBA and to play fearlessly. He helped the Knicks come back from a 10 point deficit after the first quarter to win by 7; he had a plus/minus of +13 in that game. He’s talked about how he was effectively houseless during those first few Linsanity games because his brother had just kicked him off of his couch, and he had to sleep on teammate Landry Fields’ couch. However, I haven’t seen him discuss how he dealt with the mental pressure of following up on that breakout Nets game or the game where he taught Kobe Bryant to put some respect on that name (for the record, the Lakers lost that game, and Bryant was -4 in 41:33 and Lin was +8 in 38:34) or the Toronto Raptors game where he hit a game-winning three at the buzzer. How do you follow personal greatness? How do you not buckle under the weight of expectations?

I thought Sareee and Syuri had a really great match in March, and I was ecstatic to see that Sareee challenged Syuri for her newly won IWGP Women’s Championship at Stardom All Star Grand Queendom 2025. With a title now at stake, we seemed to be on the precipice of another great wrestling series. So, I started to wonder 1) how would Sareee and Syuri’s series stand in the pantheon of great wrestling series and 2) how would Sareee and Syuri bear the weight of lofty expectations for their rematch. 

First, let’s place Sareee’s and Syuri’s burgeoning feud in the context of some great wrestling feuds. Sareee and Syuri had a strong start with their March match, but we can see that wrestlers often fall victim to the law of diminishing marginal returns. They may start strong, and they may even peak in the middle of their series, but they rarely end with their best. (So, it’s notable when the Saya Kamitani vs. Tam Nakano, FTR vs. the Briscoes, Bryan Danielson vs. Homicide, and the Bryan Danielson vs. Takeshi Morishima series all end with their highest rated match.) 

In general, we only included their last five most recent matches.

*We focused on Bailey and Gresham’s matches in Impact for this table.

The fade in quality over time is also impacted by the timing; Okada and Tanahashi are in a much different place in 2024 than they were in 2013. Even a year can make a difference; Danielson and Morishima had four very good matches in 2007, but they arguably had their best match a year later in 2008. For Sareee and Syuri, their series is contained (so far) entirely in 2025.

Stardom recaps Sareee’s and Syuri’s history, from Sareee’s unsuccessful challenge for Mayu Iwatani’s IWGP Women’s Championship in 2024 to Sareee and Syuri’s time limit draw in March to Syuri’s victory over Iwatani for the title in April to Syuri’s defense of the title against Alex Windsor earlier in June. As the hosts of my favorite Stephen King book club podcast would say about their mission to read King’s works in publication order, “The method works!”

And luckily for us, we actually got Sareee’s entrance theme, Shimatani Hitomi’s “Taiyou Shin,” on this broadcast. 

Q1: So, which is the better match?

Based on how wrestling series usually go, I had expected that the second match would be better than the first match. By the rematch, the wrestlers have history that they can reference and riff off of. I think this match reaches its climax better, but that might partly be by design since the first ended in a draw. This match is given a few more minutes, so it is able to reach the conclusion that Sareee and Syuri hinted at in their first match: that once Sareee hit her wrist clutch exploder suplex, Syuri would be done. Since we get a definitive outcome in this match, I would rank this slightly higher than the first match.

On the other hand, the consensus opinion prefers the first match, and I can’t fault that opinion’s holders because the first was also pretty, pretty good. 

Q2: You’ve watched a lot of Sareee’s big matches since she returned from her failed NXT tenure. What makes her someone worth returning to again and again?

Sareee is able to create a sense of verisimilitude better than any other wrestler in the world right now. Simply put: her matches feel like fights, which is the point of professional wrestling, pro graps, simulated fighting, or whatever you want to call this performance art form. Sareee doesn’t poke at the fourth wall or the veil of irony. She and her opponent struggle against each other; everything feels like an effort, though not in the pejorative way that phrase is usually used. Her matches are intense, grueling affairs to witness, and I haven’t felt a wrestler project this seriousness and back it up with effort since Bryan Danielson’s heyday. She moves with purpose, and she doesn’t waste time emoting unnecessarily. In this match, she and Syuri battled over Sareee’s attempted leglock. Syuri was able to reach the ropes, and instead of staring into the middle distance in disbelief, Sareee did what I want most wrestlers to do: she stood up, dragged Syuri back into the middle of the ring, and tried another leg submission hold. That heightened the feeling of tension since Syuri had fought to reach the ropes to break Sareee’s hold the first time; the viewer is left wondering how Syuri could survive the second assault after exhausting herself on the first. 

On the flip side, when her opponents have her in a hold, Sareee tests the holds for reversals and loopholes instead of laying back and doing nothing. The way that Sareee fought out of Syuri’s headlock here is a simple but clear example:

In short, Sareee demonstrates urgency in the ring, and that urgency invites investment. 

Her opponents also tend to step up to meet her intensity, so she is also a floor-raiser. She beats the hell out of her opponents, and her opponents beat the hell out of her in return.

Furthermore, her matches don’t feel formulaic. She mixes up her offense in ways that keep the feeling fresh. For example, when Syuri gave Sareee too much space, Sareee pounced on the opportunity and rolled Syuri up for a light double stomp. In other instances, Sareee would then try for a pin, but she’d focused on damaging Syuri’s leg earlier in the match, such as with her double stomp to the thigh. So, Sareee returned to that tactic to slow Syuri down and take away her kicks.

Q3: How similar or dissimilar is this from the first match?

We got some callbacks, and the ending is a direct reference to how the first match ended. The tone here is similar to the first match’s. I appreciated that this match maintained the internal consistency from the first match. We learned from the first match that Syuri was able to beat Sareee on the mat every time. Just like in the first match, Syuri had Sareee on the backfoot from the start. She won the positioning battle in the opening collar-and-elbow grapple. She won the opening ground battle and forced Sareee to seek the refuge of the rope to break Syuri’s hold, and Syuri easily stuffs Sareee’s double leg takedown attempt and gets her in the full mount, gliding into arm breaker that again forces Sareee to find the ropes.

By the end of the match, because Syuri had downloaded Sareee’s tactic of retreating to the ropes to break her submission holds, Syuri hooked her leg around Sareee’s leg here in order to move her away from the ropes.

That said, this match took place in Yoyogi National Gymnasium #2 instead of Shinjuku FACE, and Stardom had a ramp. That means that Syuri and Sareee had to make use of the ramp, though they didn’t go quite as far into the realm of the absurd as Tam Nakano and Saya Kamitani did. 

In short, if you liked the first match, you’ll like this one too. 

Q4: What are some small things that you appreciated in this match?

As always, we have to appreciate attention to details, like the way Syuri and Sareee stared each other down after the title presentation photo was taken. Taking that extra second before walking to their corners magnified the match’s intensity. They ramped it up a little by marching to each other’s corner as they were announced, and then they ramped it up again with the collar-and-elbow grapple where they jockeyed for position so that neither was trapped in the corner. 

At the end of the match, Syuri had Sareee trapped in the same armbreaker that she used to devastating effect against Mayu Iwatani. I really enjoyed the way Syuri and Sareee battled, Syuri to bend Sareee’s legs to keep her away from the ropes and Sareee to stretch and shuffle centimeter by centimeter so she could touch the rope long enough to get the break she desperately needed. She had to tap the bottom rope several times before she could hook her leg around the rope for long enough to earn the referee’s rope break.

Q5: The focus is going to be on Sareee’s performance. What did Syuri do well in this match? 

Syuri doesn’t slack on projecting intensity either in her matches, and she met Sareee’s energy from the start. She delivered some devastating kicks and headbutts, and her timing was precise. She adapted Sareee’s running dropkick into a seated opponent to knock them out of the ring for a running knee: 

This match wouldn’t have been nearly as good as it was without Syuri. Sareee showed why she is the best wrestler in the world in 2025 in this match, but Syuri wasn’t far behind.

The match and the show can be seen on Stardom World. Watch the match.

Next time: “Don’t call it a comeback, I been here for years

I’m rockin’ my peers, puttin’ suckers in fear

Makin’ the tears rain down like a monsoon

Listen to the bass go boom”

– LL Cool J, “Mama Said Knock You Out” 

Sareee is back in the United States, not as Sareee Bomb in Sukeban and certainly not as Sarray. And she’s defending the IWGP Women’s Championship against…Alex Windsor. Her again?!