NJPW Announces IWGP Women’s Title Match For Wrestle Kingdom 17

KAIRI will officially defend her newly-won IWGP Women’s Championship at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17. NJPW announced on Monday that KAIRI will defend the championship she won at NJPW x STARDOM Historic X-Over against Tam Nakano at their January 4th show.

You can see the full announcement below:

The first ever IWGP Women’s Champion KAIRI will have her first defence in the Tokyo Dome opposite Cosmic Angels’ Tam Nakano. After KAIRI’s historic victory November 20 in Ariake over Mayu Iwatani, Nakano answered the call for a first challenger, and though the ‘Cutest in the Cosmos’ issued her challenge with characteristic zeal, there were daggers in her words as she promised a ‘special hell’. Tam’s ability to undercut her colourful demeanour with a vicious aggression underscored her 301 day run with the Wonder of STARDOM Championship in 2021, a title that KAIRI had helped mould in her earlier years. Indeed, mutual respect was evident when KAIRI teamed with Tam in one of her earliest matches back in STARDOM this spring opposite Miyu Amazaki and Utami Hayashishita. That match showed how brutal both women could be as a team, and now that violence will be turned on one another January 4.