Trapped in the Cagematch: Nanae Takahashi vs. Mayu Iwatani (May 4, 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.

Nanae Takahashi vs. Mayu Iwatani
Marigold Rising Spirit Night 6
May 4, 2025
Cagematch ranking as of 12/18/25: 44

After losing the IWGP Women’s title to Syuri at Stardom All-Star Grand Queendom 2025 and announcing that she was leaving Stardom, it was not shocking that Mayu Iwatani then announced days later that she was joining Marigold. Her first match would be against Nanae Takahashi, who was in the middle of her own retirement tour. This would be the first match that Takahashi and Iwatani would have since 2012, and it would be Takahashi’s final match at Korakuen Hall. Takahashi would retire on May 24, and her final match would be a loss to Miku Aono, who became the Marigold world champion in October. 

Common wisdom states that a wrestler owes their fellow wrestlers and the company that employs them to use their final match as a way to create something that will survive after their retirement. Typically, it takes the form of a loss to an up-and-coming wrestler so that they can burnish their reputation with the victory over the retiring wrestler. This is not a universal, hard-and-fast rule, nor should it necessarily be the outcome of every wrestler’s last match. Looking at the wrestler retirements of 2025 that we know of, we can see a mix of how different wrestlers have approached their last match: 

About half of the wrestlers lost in their last match, and it seemed notable to me that while various prominent women wrestlers lost their finale (Sumie Sakai, Tam Nakano, Takahashi, Yuu), only two (Meiko Satomura and Laura Di Matteo) won theirs.

The last time I paid Takahashi serious attention was her unsuccessful match against Sareee in December 2024 for the Marigold World Championship. She announced her intention to retire after that loss, and she concentrated her retirement tour in Marigold: after her announcement, she won the Marigold Twin Star title with Seri Yamaoka (one of Marigold’s promising teenagers) from Bozilla (who was one of Marigold’s prominent young wrestlers before she switched teams to Stardom) and Tank. Takahashi and Yamaoka then defended the title against company focal point Utami Hayashishita and the promising Victoria Yuzuki; Senka Akatsuki (one of Marvelous’s promising teenagers) and veteran Takumi Iroha; and Darkness Revolution (CHIAKI and Misa Matsui) before losing the title to Magenta (Maria and Riko Kawahata, another pairing of Marigold’s young women). 

The same tension between the young and promising and the veteran stalwarts that defined 2025 in Stardom, NJPW, Pro Wrestling Zero1, Dragongate, and Pro Wrestling Australia was also felt in Marigold, which was exemplified in who the champions were throughout the year:

*Utami Hayashishita, who is currently 27 years old, held the title from January 3 to October 26.

**Mai Sakurai, who is currently 35 years old, held the title from January 3 to October 26.

***Victoria Yuzuki held the title from January 3 to May 24.

****The longest reign in the Twin Star Championship’s history was held by Maria (25 years old) and Riko Kawahata (26 years old).

From this snapshot of Marigold’s title history, we can see Victoria Yuzuki’s rise in prominence, losing the Superfly Championship and becoming the United National Championship. We can also see that Marigold featured Hayashishita, one of the crown jewels that Marigold took in their split from Stardom, as their champion after Sareee helped to establish the World Championship. Iwatani is likely holding the Superfly Championship until another of the young wrestlers in Marigold (maybe Yamaoka, Matsui, Kizuna Tanaka, or Rea Seto) makes her name by ending Iwatani’s reign. 

We can also see how Marigold uses the Twin Star Championship to pair older and younger wrestlers together (Sakurai and MIRAI, Takahashi and Yamaoka, and CHIAKI and Matsui) as a learning platform for the younger wrestlers. (And yes, MIRAI is a bit of an exception since she was a featured wrestler in Stardom, where she held a singles title, the tag team title, and the trios title, before she moved to Marigold.) 

Takahashi made Passion her brand since her time in the Passion Red faction alongside Kana (now Asuka in WWE) and Natsuki Taiyo during the joshi dark period after All Japan’s Women Pro Wrestling and GAEA Japan closed in 2005. Her legacy lies in retiring AJW’s WWWA World Championship by beating Kumiko Maekawa for it at Maekawa’s retirement show, serving as Stardom’s inaugural World of Stardom Champion for 602 days, shepherding Stardom from its first show through its formative years, cementing Kairi Hojo (now Kairi Sane in WWE) and Io Shirai (now Io Sky in WWE) as headliners in Stardom, founding SEAdLINNNG after the Act Yasukawa and Yoshiki incident, and shepherding Marigold from its first show. In both Stardom and Marigold, Takahashi challenged young wrestlers to prove themselves against her in her Passion Injection and MG Passion Injection matches, respectively; her first opponent in Marigold was Victoria Yuzuki at Marigold’s first show. 

Iwatani and Takahashi share a history that dates back to Iwatani’s third singles match. Takahashi won that match in 2011 and proceeded to win their next two matches in 2011 and 2012. However, their 2025 match would be their fourth and final singles match, and it would be Takahashi’s final match at Korakuen Hall, where she had wrestled a total of 305 matches. 

Sporting some blue contact lenses and the same tail that undoubtedly annoyed Syuri every time Iwatani went for a pin in their match, Iwatani was tearing up during her entrance. At the opening bell’s tolling, Iwatani sported a bright smile on her face while the crowd chanted “Passion” in tribute to Takahashi. Soon, however, she settled down to business and proceeded to take a beating from Takahashi, losing to Takahashi in the ground battle and suffering Takahashi’s musket chops (since they’re too slow to be categorized as machine gun chops). 

Color commentator Sonny Gutierrez, former English commentator and English social media handler for Stardom, raised my eyebrows when he claimed that he had confirmed with Iwatani that she had intended to jump to Marigold when he left Stardom on March 31, 2024, nearly 13 months before Iwatani actually left Stardom for Marigold. (In January 2024, Gutierrez garnered controversy when he criticized Starlight Kid’s physique and work ethic on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter/Figure Four Online Message Board as he was preparing to leave Stardom.) For his part, play-by-play announcer Stewart Fulton references Iwatani’s political battles in Stardom, which seems needless to discuss during Iwatani’s first match in Marigold. (Am I carrying residual annoyance at how Fulton and color commentator Mark Pickering insisted on repeating the talking point about how Sareee was a DLC character for WWE 2K22 as Sarray during Sareee vs. Giulia at Marigold Summer Destiny, which took place in 2024? Probably. However, as Mr. Darcy would say, “My good opinion, once lost, is lost forever,” and Fulton and Pickering have not impressed me enough to tempt me to reconsider. Gutierrez’s own baggage precedes his own performance on commentary, so suffice it to say that once again I wish that I had opted for the Japanese commentary.)

After delivering a whupping to Iwatani, Takahashi challenged her to return fire. At first, Iwatani could only muster some forearm strikes that wouldn’t bust a grape in a food fight, but she found her footing for long enough to force Takahashi off of her. And while Takahashi still picked her up and put her down with a sidewalk slam, it was the first bit of offense that Iwatani mustered in the match. She followed it not long after when she twisted out of the corner to roll Takahashi far enough away that she could then bowl Takahashi over with a dropkick.

Takahashi had dominated Iwatani just enough in the first half of the match to make the viewer antsy about seeing Iwatani show her dynamic and engaging offense that the moment when Iwatani reversed the momentum on Takahashi would bring a cathartic release. (This is especially so when Gutierrez and Fulton repeated their talking points about how Takahashi and Iwatani are both living joshi legends.) 

In response to that momentum shift, Takahashi did what every wily veteran would do: cheat and throw a chair at her opponent.

It wasn’t the most brutal or the most aesthetically impressive chair throw, but even Bob Knight would be proud of Takahashi’s toss. And no final match at Korakuen Hall would be complete without a fight in the crowd; Takahashi took Iwatani to the arena’s south side to brawl a little bit. Iwatani, as always, gave the crowd that extra touch that enhanced the story of how worn down she was by Takahashi’s beating and made you wonder if she were truly ok.

From there, Takahashi continued to build the story of how thoroughly she was kicking Iwatani’s ass. Importing one of the best wrestlers in the world from your competitor, scheduling her first match against a well-respected wrestler on her retirement tour, and then arranging the match so that she got took an absolute unit of a beating wouldn’t be my final draft for the match, but it was certainly what Takahashi, Iwatani, and owner Rossy Ogawa had decided. If Ogawa and Iwatani wanted to make a point about the superiority of Marigold’s roster over Stardom’s, scheduling Iwatani to take a beating from one of Marigold’s young wrestlers, such as Hayashishita or one of the veterans who would become a featured member of the roster, such as Aono, would seem like the more obvious choice. Even if Takahashi beat on Iwatani to “tease [Iwatani’s vengeful Zombie Mode] out of her,” as Fulton claimed on commentary, to test her in their first singles match in thirteen years, I don’t agree with dedicating so much of the match to Iwatani getting beaten up, especially when Iwatani fell down on her own after dueling Takahashi with some Korakuen Hall chairs.

I suppose that it was all worth it for Takahashi and Iwatani to then sit in chairs in the middle of the ring and slap each other as hard as they could. Takahashi cheated again by kicking Iwatani, which earned her a kick to the head (that also resulted in Iwatani falling awkwardly).

From there, Iwatani chased Takahashi, who was outside the ring, with a tope suicida that looked gnarly because it looked like Iwatani had put everything into the dive.

With Iwatani and Takahashi now on equal footing, they traded their best offense. Iwatani led off with a missile dropkick and a frog splash, while Takahashi used a German suplex and a Boston crab. Iwatani tried to go blow for blow with Takahashi, but all that got her was a series of lariats and a backdrop driver. And when Iwatani survived all of that and tried to push Takahashi with a dropkick in the corner, that only gave Takahashi an opening to wrench Iwatani from the top rope with a Dragon Screw. 

Later, Takahashi and Iwatani couldn’t quite connect on the hurricanrana from the top rope, but Takahashi treated us with a counter to Iwatani’s double stomp into an ankle lock on the leg that she had wrenched with the Dragon Screw that transitioned into a Figure Four that again targeted that leg. Takahashi and Iwatani’s execution of the sequence was impressive. 

From there, Takahashi and Iwatani ramped up to the match’s climax as Takahashi unloaded her war crate: a Falcon arrow, big lariats, and more heavy slaps. Iwatani tried to match with roundhouse kicks to Takahashi’s head and superkicks, but she focused on surviving Takahashi’s onslaught. In the end, Iwatani won by catching Takahashi off guard with a pin from a hurricanrana.

Takahashi’s offense still looked violent and impactful, but she had difficulty with moving with Iwatani’s high-powered offense, such as the hurricanrana from the top rope, Iwatani’s crucifix pin, or even Iwatani’s final hurricanrana that scored the victory. The climactic sequence was high energy, and it made for a clear contrast with the early half of the match where Takahashi bludgeoned Iwatani. That first half made Iwatani’s ultimate win seem a bit flukey, which is an odd impression to leave the viewer with when Takahashi is on her retirement tour and there could be no rematch.  

Putting that aside, it was an entertaining match. It was Iwatani’s third highest rated match of the year behind her match against Syuri and her match against a cameoing Iyo Sky in October. This was Takahashi’s highest rated match of 2025, ahead of her actual retirement match against Miku Aono. It should be noted that Takahashi’s third highest rated singles match was with Victoria Yuzuki, while Iwatani’s fourth highest rated match was also with Yuzuki. Both Takahashi and Iwatani had notable matches with Misa Matsui, Seri Yamaoka, and Natsumi Showzuki, so Marigold tried to use Iwatani’s return and Takahashi’s retirement to help develop their promising young wrestlers.

The match and the show can be seen on Wrestle Universe.

Next time: “Four-fifteens with thе Zap on my lap

Riding through the ghetto, all you hear is thе slap

Everybody throwing up gang signs (Crip)

Throwing up gang signs (Suwoop)”

– Snoop Dogg, “Gang Signs”

Time to throw up those Ls, those Os, those Vs, and those Es as we return to TJPW for Miu Watanabe’s match against Shoko Nakajima from the 2025 Tokyo Princess Cup.