Photo Credit: STARDOM
By: Lewis Carlan
The STARDOM 5 STAR GP 2025 tournament was almost without the current World of STARDOM Champion Saya Kamitani.
Kamitani recently spoke with Tokyo Sports and revealed that she considered skipping this years 5 STAR GP tournament. She claimed that she reluctantly agreed to participate only after STARDOM President Taro Okada doubled her salary. Kamitani indicated that Okada basically begged her compete in the tournament.
From Saya Kamitani:
“Saya-sama has been busy lately, so I thought about not participating, but Taro Okada bowed his head to me, so I decided to participate on the condition that he would double my salary. Well, also, I lost to Maika in the finals last year. I thought that if I could win the tournament with a perfect record with the Red Belt, I could erase all of Maika’s records from last year.”
Kamitani admitted that she is looking forward to stepping in the ring with Bea Priestley. Priestley was a STARDOM superstar from 2017 until 2021. She spent the last three and a half years with the WWE but has returned to STARDOM as a freelancer after departing the promotion.
Kamitani remembers facing Priestley when she was a rookie back in 2020 and getting beaten up by the more experienced Priestley. With 5 years of experience under her belt and as the World f STARDOM champion, Kamitani pointed out that she is not the same person she was in 2020 and looks forward to facing Priestley.
Kamitani and Priestley are in the same block so a match between the two is all but guaranteed.
From Saya Kamitani on Bea Priestley:
“At that time, I was a rookie, so all I remember is getting beaten up. Time has passed, and I’m completely different from back then. I’m looking forward to seeing how hard we can go at each other.”
The STARDOM 5 STAR GP gets underway on July 27 and runs through August 23.
STARDOM events can be viewed on STARDOM WORLD subscription streaming service.
(H/T goes to meraWRESTLING for English quote translation)
Date:
July 23, 2025
Category:
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