Mayu Iwatani Becomes Very Emotional After Losing The IWGP Women’s Title To Syuri

By: Lewis Carlan

On April 27th at STARDOM’s ALL STAR GRAND QUEENDOM 2025, over 7,500 fans in attendance and people watching on PPV, witnessed the end of the longest IWGP reign of all time. Mayu Iwatani held the IWGP Women’s Title for 735 days going into the biggest STARDOM event of the year.

That incredible run as the champion came to a halt for Iwatani as she was defeated by Syuri in a match that will go down as a pure classic. Iwatani was making her 10th defense of the title she won from Mercedes Mone back in April 2023.

While Syuri celebrated her IWGP Women’s Title victory, Iwatani broke down and cried as she was making backstage comments regarding her loss. Iwatani indicated her defeat was frustrating and that she was at a loss for words.

From Mayu Iwatani:

“What should I say? For these past two years, ever since I won the IWGP belt, I’ve always had the IWGP belt in my hands. But after my tenth defense, the belt is gone. Mayu Iwatani had always said that she would set the record for the most title defenses of the belt that bears the IWGP name, but it’s gone after the 10th defense. I’ve had the IWGP belt for so long, so it’s frustrating. It’s frustrating. This belt, I say ‘this belt’ even though I don’t have it anymore, but I thought I had put everything into the IWGP belt. This belt. No, there is no ‘this belt’, I have only ever thought about the IWGP belt. I’m sorry. I’m at a loss for words.” (H/T goes to meraWRESTLING for the English quote translation)

Iwatani also took to X to apologize for her IWGP Women’s Title loss:

I was unable to defend the IWGP title for the 10th time. It’s frustrating. It’s frustrating. I’m sorry, thank you for the past two years.

Iwatani is arguably the face of STARDOM and it will be interesting to see what is next for the mega-superstar.