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Despite another 4 title defenses and another superhuman effort against Syuri on a match that went on for 36 minutes, the year would end with Hayashishita losing the championship against Syuri. 2021 ended with a sour taste for Utami, but what she accomplished that year extended above any championship belts, because on 2021 Utami cemented herself as one of the most iconic Red Belt champions of all-time.
Speaking of iconic championship reigns, Io Shirai was experiencing one of her own between 2020 and 2021. Shirai left 2020 as a champion after reigning for the second half of the year by defending her title 5 times. She managed to carry her good momentum for the first trimester of the year, but her title reign would finally end in April after Raquel Gonzalez was able to beat her for the belt.
Despite this loss, the Joshi Judas would enjoy another title reign that year thanks to an NXT women’s tag title victory alongside Zoey Stark that would last for a couple of months. And thus, Io had accomplished everything that she could on the brand, which meant that she would be thinking about a change of scenery.
