Trapped in the Cagematch: Sareee vs. Alex Windsor (October 2, 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.

Sareee (c) vs. Alex Windsor
Ring of Honor
Taped October 2, 2025/Aired October 9, 2025
Cagematch ranking as of 12/18/25: 732

Sareee vs. Alex Windsor from the October 9, 2025 episode of Ring of Honor was not a secret contender for the best match of 2025. It was, however, a milestone in wrestling in 2025 and in Sareee’s career. It was Sareee’s moment of professional redemption after her ignominious (and thankfully brief) run as Sarray in NXT from 2021 to 2022. It was essentially a tryout match for the best wrestler in the world for the largest professional wrestling company in the world. (WWE proudly announces that it is a sports entertainment company, so I do not count it as a professional wrestling company. We would all be better off if we took WWE at their word for what they are.) And it provided an interesting contrast to how the second largest professional wrestling company in the world (and the largest professional wrestling company in her home country) would use her talents later in the same month. Finally, it was another exhibit in the case that Alex Windsor was the secret power in women’s wrestling in 2025.

Since returning to Japan after WWE NXT wasted her time and talent, Sareee has been on a remarkable professional roll. Her resume in 2025 has been as strong as her 2024 resume; if anything, 2025 might have been an even better year given her increased output this year. 

For various parts of the year, Sareee was the

• Marigold World Champion (lost to Utami Hayashishita on January 3)
• SEAdLINNNG Beyond the Sea Champion (lost to VENY on January 17)
• IWGP Women’s Champion (lost to Syuri on October 13) 
• Sukeban World Champion (lost to Atomic Banshee aka Ram Kaicho on November 14)
• AAAW World Tag Team Champion (currently with Takumi Iroha).

She also wrestled for 14 different companies this year and various independent shows, such as Kenta Kobashi’s Fortune Dream, the Hana Kimura memorial show, and Natsupoi and Saori Anou’s Natsu & Saory show. She also promoted 4 Sareee-ISM shows. Suffice it to say that Sareee had a productive and busy 2025.

Prior to her matches in ROH, Sareee’s only appearances outside of Japan were as Sareee Bomb in Sukeban, a company that carves out its niche by turning the kitsch factor to rebrand Japanese women wrestlers for a North American audience. In Sukeban, Sareee became Sareee Bomb, VENY became Venomous Veny, and Azusa and Tomoka Inaba became Delicious Dolly and Stray Cat, respectively. So, when Sareee announced that she would be wrestling in the United States, I, along with most people, were puzzled because there were no Sukeban shows scheduled for October 2025. 

I also think we were all surprised when Sareee wrestled two matches in Ring of Honor, first teaming with Alex Windsor against Billie Starkz and Diamante and then defending the IWGP Women’s Championship against Windsor. It wasn’t Sareee’s first defense; she had already defended the title against Konami and Suzu Suzuki in Stardom before the match against Windsor. However, it was her first defense outside of Japan; the “I” in IWGP stands for International (and unfortunately, the “G” does not stand for Goto), and every champion has had a match outside Japan:

• KAIRI: vs. Mercedes Mone at NJPW Battle in the Valley 2023 in San Jose, CA
• Mercedes Mone: vs. KAIRI 
• Mayu Iwatani: vs. Stephanie Vaquer at NJPW STRONG Lone Star Shootout 2023 in Garland, TX
• Syuri: vs. Alex Windsor at Pro-Wrestling: EVE 135: Hit Me Baby One More Time in London, England
• Sareee: vs. Alex Windsor at ROH on HonorClub #136 in Lakeland, FL

For Sareee, it was a moment of professional redemption. She had rehabilitated her reputation in Japan after her stint in WWE NXT. Now, she would be wrestling for Tony Khan’s ROH, and she undoubtedly wanted to catch his attention in these matches. If she succeeded, she might be able to return to the United States (and thus potentially higher pay) through a company that arguably understood how to utilize her talents and showcase her abilities better than WWE. 

Windsor, by this point, was about eight months into her tenure in All Elite Wrestling and ROH, and she had challenged for the ROH World Women’s title and the AEW TBS title, which indicated that she was a trusted and valued member of the roster. She was also Syuri’s opponent in the title match at EVE, which also indicated that NJPW, which ostensibly controls the IWGP Women’s Championship, also trusted her as a challenger for one of their champions. Windsor earned this trust through her professionalism and skill, and this trust made her one of the key cogs in women’s wrestling. Windsor tried to make the case for why this match was important as best as she could with the limited advance notice that she had for it.

While the match itself was not a secret contender for the best match of 2025, it was certainly still a solid piece of professional wrestling. I was mostly happy that neither Ian Riccaboni nor Caprice Coleman spent their time on commentary to celebrate how Sareee was available as a DLC character in WWE 2K22, unlike Stewart Fulton would on various Marigold shows. Coleman did try to spin a tale about how Sareee and Windsor knew each other from teaming; unfortunately, Sareee and Windsor have only teamed once, and it was for ROH on HonorClub #135 on this very trip to the US.

Windsor has an obvious height and power advantage, but that didn’t stop Sareee when she faced the bigger and stronger Bozilla, so it didn’t stop her here. There was some awkwardness at the start that could be blamed on the language barrier and lack of familiarity between them. We got some classic Sareee bits, like her bridging out of a pin and hitting a running dropkick:

From there, Windsor blasted Sareee with an elbow strike to the face and a kick to the back. Sareee then made Windsor work to reach the ropes to free her from her abdominal stretch. Next, Sareee hit Windsor with some of the hardest, fastest elbow strikes that Ring of Honor hosted all year.

Later, Windsor would show again here what she showed against Hayter and Syuri: that she can hit as well as she can take.

Most notably, because this was an ROH match, Sareee and Windsor didn’t have to pace the match to account for television breaks. This meant that Sareee could work with the urgent pace that is key to her appeal; she could chain her missile dropkick into her double stomp from the middle rope to her fisherman’s suplex at a quick clip. 

Then, we got one of the most meatheaded moments of the year as Sareee and Windsor slapped hands and slapped each other in the face for about 30 consecutive seconds. 

Sareee proceeded to crush Windsor with a double stomp that got me to pump my fist. 

The match climaxed with Windsor’s super fisherman’s suplex, which Sareee survived and answered with a running double stomp and a series of headbutts to Windsor’s head. From there, a normal uranage finished off Windsor and ended Sareee’s tryout for Tony Khan.

In the scheme of Sareee’s catalogue of 2025, this was a fairly empty calorie match. There was a lot that entertained (the slap fight, Sareee’s elbow strikes on the floor, and the crushing double stomp), and Riccaboni and Coleman tried their best to make Sareee seem important. Sareee was able to show off how she was able to engage a crowd that was unfamiliar with her, but there are still some questions about how Sareee would adapt to working with television commercial breaks. Windsor was a good dance partner for Sareee, and she did her best to make Sareee look as impressive as possible while burnishing her reputation as a tough competitor, which is why Alex Windsor is the secret power in professional wrestling in 2025. For her efforts, she was rewarded with a victory over Mercedes Mone to take away the RevPro Undisputed British Women’s Championship from her as Mone’s character entered its next stage of development.

There are worse ways to spend 15 minutes of your time. I can comfortably assume that this is better than any match Sareee had as Sarray in WWE NXT. The match can be seen on Ring of Honor’s YouTube page.

Next time: CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe. FTR vs. The Briscoes. Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat. Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock. Does Sareee vs. Syuri III elevate their feud to the tier of great wrestling trilogies, or will Bushiroad kneecap this feud by holding the match at NJPW King of Pro Wrestling show instead of at a Stardom show?