Unagi Sayaka Hopes To Bring Tam Nakano Out Of Retirement, Has Reached Out To Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & EVIL For Future Events

By: Lewis Carlan

On Feb. 1st, freelance superstar Unagi Sayaka held her FATE BURNS IN PURPLE event at Korakuen Hall that saw 1,275 fans in attendance for the show. Unagi competed a number of times on the event which included losses to Maki Itoh and Aja Kong in two singles bouts.

Photo Credit: Unagi Sayaka

Sayaka has been holding her own produced independent events since Jan. 2024 and has seen the popularity of them greatly increase over the past two years. Since Aug. 2025, there has been an Unagi Sayaka Produce event every month due to the increased demand for the shows.

Now, Sayaka has announced that there are two upcoming Unagi Sayaka Produce events. The first confirmed event will be a return to Korakuen Hall on June 21st and the second being at the Tokyo Dome City Attractions Viking Zone Lawn Square on Sept. 2nd to coincide with her birthday.

For the next events, Sayaka invoked the names of a few high profile pro-wrestlers who are currently available to compete on future Unagi Sayaka Produce shows.

In speaking with Tokyo Sports, Sayaka made an appeal to former NJPW superstars Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI and EVIL to compete on her events. In a lighthearted statement she said she would even name Naito the department manager and BUSHI the sales manager of her company should they agree. As for EVIL, Sayaka would give him the position of vice president. She would change his in-ring name to Gambler of Darkness as Sayaka has jokingly stated EVIL has entered his gambler phase.

Sayaka also said she would love to bring Tam Nakano out of retirement and make a comeback at one of her events. Nakano was forced to retire from STARDOM back in April 2025 when she lost a career vs. career match to Saya Kamitani. Now, Sayaka would like to give Nakano an opportunity to compete in her ring and to make money once again as a pro-wrestler.

Nakano and Sayaka have a rich history together as they were both members of Cosmic Angels when the STARDOM unit was formed in Nov. 2020.

Photo Credit: STARDOM

While none of the names mentioned by Sayaka have been confirmed, due to the growing fan enthusiasm for Unagi Sayaka events, its not out of the realm of possibility that we could see one, two or all the names she mentioned on her future events.

If she is able to convince Tam Nakano to come out of retirement to compete, that would be a major achievement for Unagi Sayaka and the ticket demand for that event could be astronomical.

(English translations made by Google Translate and Deepl.com)