Trapped in the Cagematch: Saya Kamitani vs. AZM (September 27, 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.

Saya Kamitani (c) vs. AZM (c)
Stardom
September 27, 2025
Cagematch ranking as of 12/18/25: 63

Saya Kamitani’s rise in prominence was a key event in professional wrestling in 2025. She defeated Tam Nakano for the World of Stardom title at Dream Queendom 2024 in December to signal that she was the company’s foundation. Her rise in 2025 helped to stabilize Stardom after Stardom fired Rossy Ogawa and notable wrestlers, such as Giulia, Utami Hayashishita, Mirai, and Nanae Takahashi, left Stardom in 2024 to join Ogawa’s new organization, Marigold. Attendance between 2024 and 2025 at Stardom’s most frequent venues (EDION Arena Osaka #2, Korakuen Hall, KBS Hall, Light Cube Utsunomiya, Sendai PIT, and Yokohama Budokan) all show upward trends.

Kamitani’s profile grew beyond professional wrestling. In July 2025, Kamitani became a recurring guest on TBS’s morning variety show, Love It!, which led to Kamitani wrestling Hanan on the show in September 2025. She was the first female wrestler to ever win the Tokyo Sports MVP Award in its 51 year history, and she has her sights set on leading Stardom to host its own show in the Tokyo Dome, where NJPW holds its annual signature Wrestle Kingdom shows.

Inside the ring, after defeating Tam Nakano and sending her to retirement, Saya Kamitani continued to have a banner year. While she failed to reach the 5STAR Grand Prix’s finals, she avenged her loss to AZM in that tournament by beating AZM for the NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship. She held the Regina Di WAVE Championship for 279 days between 2024 and 2025. As of this writing, she remained the World of Stardom Champion after defending the title against Suzu Suzuki, Tam Nakano, Sayaka Kurara, Natsupoi, Bea Priestly, AZM, Momo Watanabe, and Saori Anou in 2025. She lost the NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship to Syuri at Wrestle Kingdom 20, which was a surprise to me since it seemed reasonable to assume that Bushiroad might want to further fuel Kamitani’s rise by awarding her all of the main women’s titles that exist under the Bushiroad banner. Kamitani then announced that she was taking a leave of absence until February 7, when she would defend the World of Stardom title against Starlight Kid. 

In regards to this match, AZM and Kamitani have a personal history that runs back to their time together in Queen’s Quest and the Losers Must Disband match that AZM tried to single-handedly win and that Kamitani ultimately lost. That loss gave Kamitani the impetus to join Oedo Tai and form H.A.T.E., which propelled her to stardom. This was their second singles match in 2025 and third overall, and they had split their first two matches.

Since we’ve been spoiled that AZM lost this match, we can focus on determining whether AZM continued her growth and whether Kamitani was able to rein in her melodramatic excesses. From AZM’s match against Momo Watanabe, we saw that AZM seemed to struggle to escalate the match and cycled through a small set of offensive moves on repeat. We’ve also seen Kamitani put on an annoying, cartoonish spread-eagled staggering walk to show that she’s suffered a blow to her head. The hope is that Kamitani reins in that instinct. 

As you would expect in a battle between two former High Speed Champions, Kamitani and AZM started fast by skipping the opening grappling to jump into forearm strike exchanges and agility demonstrations. The end where each held off their punch and kick because their opponent had predicted it and dodged it looked as awkward here as it has elsewhere, but it was a good indicator that Kamitani and AZM were evenly skilled at the start of the match. H.A.T.E. provided Kamitani an advantage, first by tripping AZM as she approached their side of the ring while AZM’s teammates in Neo Genesis once again stood by impotently like they’re Shinji Ikari in the Neon Genesis Evangelion movie, The End of Evangelion, while the Mass Production Evas destroyed and ate his teammate, Asuka Langely Sohryu. One can only hope that’s where the comparison between the other members of Neo Genesis and Shinji ends. 

Kamitani and AZM brawled around Korakuen Hall, as wrestlers must when they’re there, though we didn’t see anything quite as wild as what Mayu Iwatani and Nanae Takahashi pulled off in their match in Takahashi’s final match there. Kamitani threw AZM through an exit, and in a better world, AZM would have returned to the match through a different door. Instead, she re-entered through the same door and stumbled back to the ring just to suffer Kamitani’s missile dropkick. After all of that damage and indignity, AZM could just muster a glancing forearm strike. 

It was nice to see that trope, our old friend, again.

AZM, like Tam Nakano before her, laid into Kamitani’s chest with multiple forearm strikes to little effect, but Kamitani was able to knock AZM down with just one.

Overall, I thought Kamitani played a great villain throughout the match. She cut AZM off whenever it seemed like AZM was about to turn the match around, making the crowd desperate to see AZM’s comeback. She was annoying and disrespectful in little ways, like giving AZM noogies while keeping her down on the mat with a chinlock.

AZM started her comeback by losing a slapfight and outracing Kamitani to the ropes, which allowed her to slip outside and trip Kamitani. While Kamitani was stuck on the apron, AZM kicked her in the face. While Kamitani was staggering on the floor, AZM ran along the apron and kicked her in the shoulder. AZM capped the burst with her running dive from the top turnbuckle to the floor. All in all, it was a decent comeback from AZM.

Back inside the ring, AZM sprung La Mistica on Kamitani to no effect; it left me puzzled why AZM has devalued La Mistica to a mere transition move. A head kick and a missile dropkick got AZM a near pinfall and gave us a funny image of Kamitani popping up so she could fall back down for AZM to pin her.

It’s not quite as egregious as some of the classic clips of wrestlers stumbling around so they can be in position for their opponent’s next move. 

AZM continued her attack with an arm wrench, a head kick, and a double stomp where it looked like she slipped off of Kamitani on the landing, causing her legs to buckle under her. 

She foolishly then taunted Kamitani and tried to escalate the match with a German suplex, but Kamitani landed on her feet and stomped AZM. Kamitani’s long legs accentuated her double stomp.

Later, she landed a very impressive dropkick that was again accentuated by her long legs.

Back on their feet, Kamitani got the better of AZM in an elbow strike battle, which led to one of the more absurd but still spectacular bits of wrestling I’ve seen. Kamitani tried a spinning heel kick, and AZM leapt into the air to catch her in a cross armbreaker. If you were to describe it, it would sound about as ridiculous as Demetrious Johnson’s flying armbar except that this is slightly more ridiculous since it’s a defensive reaction to Kamitani’s spinning heel kick and had to be coordinated with Kamitani. It took great timing and positioning from AZM and Kamitani to pull this off as well as they did, and I had to rewind it a few times to check it out.

On the mat, Kamitani tried to fight out of the armbar, and AZM wisely turned Kamitani on to her side so her free arm would be trapped under her body. Thanks to her long legs, Kamitani reached the ropes to break the hold, and AZM and Kamitani exchanged a bunch of suplexes with Kamitani coming out on top in the exchange after landing multiple Northern Lights suplexes. AZM kicked her way out of Kamitani’s Star Crusher, planted Kamitani headfirst into the mat with a Canadian Destroyer, and rolled her up with the AZM Sushi to no avail. 

None the worse for wear, Kamitani kicked AZM in the head a few times to soften her up for the Star Crusher, which earned Kamitani a two-count kickout. AZM came back with a Canadian Destroyer that looked awkward because of the height differential and because Kamitani was a little slow in getting up. AZM followed with a Tiger Destroyer that looked like it spiked Kamitani’s head to the mat but actually protected Kamitani’s head and neck quite well. 

Of course, it is AZM’s most spectacular move, so it’s a shame that AZM was unable to finish Kamitani with it. Kamitani even survived AZM’s Super Canadian Destroyer from the top turnbuckle. 

With no other options, AZM returned to the armbar, but she over-leveraged her weight on Kamitani, and Kamitani turned AZM over for a pin that broke up her submission hold. Freed, Kamitani backed AZM with headbutts and then grabbed her for a single leg suplex and a Blue Thunder Bomb. Though AZM escaped the Star Crusher once more, Kamitani was able to hit a short Star Crusher, boot AZM in the face, and plopped AZM down with a spinning Star Crusher to score the victory. I appreciated AZM’s feeble little kick at the end. She had gotten her ass kicked, but she had enough fire left to present a token piece of resistance.

This was a much better match for AZM than her match against Momo Watanabe. I didn’t feel like AZM was spinning her wheels in her offensive stretches quite as much here, and she escalated her violence in accordance with Kamitani’s resilience. Her determination was very appealing, but she still seemed a level below Kamitani, who looked fantastic in this match. Kamitani owned the little moments, like giving AZM a noogie, and the big moments like destroying AZM with the single leg suplex that she rolled into the Blue Thunder Bomb. The climax was very exciting, and AZM’s weak kick at the end was a great little touch for the end of the match.

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

Elsewhere in 2025: In 2024, the major companies (AEW, NJPW, CMLL and WWE) accounted for 48% of Cagematch’s top 200 matches. In 2025, they accounted for 51.5%, buoyed by CMLL’s increased presence, but a new power rose: Stardom, which rose from 5% of the list to 10.5% on the backs of Sareee, Syuri, AZM, and Saya Kamitani. Like Stardom, NOAH also found its footing in 2025 with a young villain flanked by yet another rule-breaking, black-clothes wearing gang, but its standing in the top 200 actually diminished year over year. It’s also notable that DEADLOCK Pro-Wrestling’s presence shrank even though they didn’t hold fewer shows in 2025, its final year before operations are suspended indefinitely in 2026. And then there are the companies that manage to break through the discourse with one match and then disappear for one reason or another: JTO in 2022, Mutoha Wrestling in 2023, and IWS in 2024. Will Pro Wrestling Australia or Squash A Jobber Wrestling ever show up in future years’ versions of Cagematch’s list of top 200 matches? What American indie company will fill the void that DEADLOCK Pro-Wrestling’s shutdown will leave? 

The act of choosing means that some things must be left out. I had intentionally excluded matches from WWE and its North American satellite companies, AAA and TNA, or involving wrestlers from WWE’s ID program from consideration from the column; I stand by my previous statements about why. I had also generally excluded matches from AEW, NJPW, and CMLL from this column’s scope because they generally receive enough press from other people, and I only featured an NJPW match because it fit into the grander theme of the old guard vs. the next wave that played itself out around pro wrestling in 2025. 

That said, I wish that I had time to take a closer look at NJPW’s junior heavyweight wheel and how El Desperado has tried to break the chains binding him to that grind with fluorescent light tubes, glass boards, and barbed wire. El Desperado wasn’t meant to be the junior heavyweight champion this year; he became champion because DOUKI was injured during their match at Wrestle Kingdom 19. His deathmatches against Jun Kasai and Masashi Takeda brought a sense of danger to the NJPW junior heavyweight scene, though part of me couldn’t help but condescend about how El Desperado was playing in the mud while Kosei Fujita, Francesco Akira, Clark Connors, and Templario took their turns in the junior heavyweight wheel. Since 2021, El Desperado has been the junior heavyweight champion five times; could NJPW have better used this opportunity to crown a first time champion in someone under 30 years old like Fujita (23) or Akira (25) instead of relying on the 41-years-old Desperado to hold the fort until DOUKI (33) returned? Wrestling shows should offer a variety of styles as a shotgun spread gamble to attract the viewer’s interest and entice them to return. Though NJPW accomplished its primary objectives at Wrestle Kingdom 20 of celebrating Hiroshi Tanahashi’s career, establishing Yota Tsuji as the company’s new focus, and introducing Aaron Wolf, couldn’t NJPW have also included a showcase for Fujita and Akira against Douki instead of relying on El Desperado once again by making him the number one contender for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title? 

I was able to include one of the two DDT Pro Wrestling matches in Cagematch’s top 200 matches of 2025 in this column, and I chose not to include the sole AJPW match. Despite JamieOD’s best efforts, DDT still seems under-appreciated. Chris Brookes, Kazusada Higuchi, Yuki Ueno, and Hazuki Hirata have all held the company’s KO-D Openweight Championship this year, and the company had five matches in Cagematch’s top 200 matches of 2024. Did fewer Cagematch voters watch DDT in 2025? Ueno is the only wrestler of the four under 31 years of age; how is DDT handling its own succession planning in the main event and the tension between the old guard and the next wave?

I had mentioned in my personal 30 Under 30 list that it seemed like AJPW had navigated through that tension and found its successors to Kento Miyahara in Yuma Aoyagi and Yuma Anzai. In 2025, Anzai disappeared between June and September and Aoyagi endured as the walking avatar of the aphorism that “funny doesn’t equal money.” In 2024, AJPW was represented in Cagematch’s top 200 by two matches featuring Yuma Anzai. In 2025, AJPW only had one match, a New Year’s Eve match between Kento Miyahara and Anzai. If we assume that Anzai will eventually beat Miyahara for the Triple Crown Championship at some point in 2026, would Anzai’s growth eventually be handicapped by the company’s small roster? With BJW’s downsizing and NOAH’s reorientation, are there enough intriguing freelancers who could challenge Anzai? Or would AJPW have to rely on more collaborations with other companies like Dragongate just so Anzai doesn’t wear out AJPW’s limited pool of challengers? 

CMLL remains surprisingly hard to access in 2025, which saddened me because I’ve been entertained every time I earnestly tried to engage with CMLL. However, unless I watch the matches as they take place, the barriers to entry are much higher than for other wrestling companies. Like water and electricity, my attention goes along routes of lesser resistance, meaning that the fine efforts from wrestlers like Zandokan Jr. and Blue Panther were underrepresented in this column. Though I managed to touch on Mascara Dorada, Hechicero, and El Barbaro Cavernario in this column, I wish I had been able to write more about them and other luchadors.

While I focused on Stardom because the most important story in joshi wrestling in 2025 was happening there, I have to acknowledge that Dream Star Fighting Marigold also spent its year trying to figure itself out. Mayu Iwatani left Stardom for Marigold this year, which invigorated the company even as it lost Nanae Takahashi to retirement. Elsewhere in Marigold, the 25-years-old Misa Matsui and 20-years-old Victoria Yuzuki became champions in 2025, and Marigold is sorting through its own crop of young wrestlers: 

• Misa Matsui (25 years old)
• Maria (25 years old)
• Nagisa Tachibana (25 years old)
• Rea Seato (24 years old)
• Komomo Minami (22 years old)
• Kizuna Tanaka (20 years old)
• Seri Yamaoka (19 years old)
• Yuuka Yamazaki (18 years old)
• Shinno (16 years old)

Will any of these wrestlers prove themselves to be the successors to Iwatani, Miku Aono, and Utami Hayashishita? 

The driving impetus of this column is to explore the wide world of wrestling out there. One of my favorite matches in this column was from ChocoPro, a promotion that I had all but written off as the silly promotion that holds its shows in a padded room. We saw some spectacular fireworks and some great meat-headed wrestling. Trying to understand what PWA’s long term plans with Robbie Eagles and The Tuckman was extremely rewarding. We met Daiki Odashima, one of my newfound favorites, and the new Hayabusa, who I hope finds his way. I got to see Miu Watanabe reclaim her place at the top of the TJPW ecosystem. We explored the tension between the old guard and the next wave in wrestling and how some companies were able to navigate that problem better than others. We traced the path of Saya Kamitani as she blazed her way through 2025 and caught up with Sareee, the best wrestler in the world, on her various adventures in Japan and back in the United States. 

Engaging with all of this wrestling around the world took effort, but it was extremely rewarding. In general, the barriers to entry have been lower than ever, and great wrestling that is invigorating and infuriating and exciting and confounding is right there for anyone to seize. Even as the industry seems to contract and become more homogenized, there are still standouts around. And I look forward to coming back to check out the best of 2026 at some point.

Next time: “8 years from now, I will go into cardiac arrest

There is no doubt, my body will give and pay for this

Night after night, all my many demons have a go

Carving their names with tiny hearts and arrows into bone

This night explodes in my eyes”

– Polar Bear Club, “Heart Attack at Thirty”

As Bill Goldberg used to say, “Who’s next?”