Quoted By:
[Good news]
Mayu Iwatani (29) is not a mark.
>When the IWGP women's title was announced, the plan was for Iwatani to be the first champion. Stardom had earmarked a big 2023 for her. She's already known as the Stardom icon, but they were going to push that nickname harder because of the release of a major Japanese motion picture on her life that will be released in the latter part of 2023. However, she had asked to renegotiate her deal given that holding that title would mean she would be doing a lot of U.S. bookings as champion next year. The sides didn't come to an agreement on a new deal, but she remains under contract. So essentially she turned down the title for now and Kairi, who was the second choice since she's the best known Stardom wrestler in the U.S., was made champion. But the idea was always for one of them and for the tournament finals to be Kairi as the international division rep and Iwatani as the Japanese division rep.
