– On Tuesday, the 29-year-old Stardom star claimed the 2025 Tokyo Sports MVP award, the top honor in Japanese pro wrestling since 1974, marking the first win for a woman in its 52-year history and the first for a non-NJPW wrestler since 2010.
Saya Kamitani 2025 Tokyo Sports MVP.
The goals were this and the Tokyo Dome.
Never doubt Saya-Sama. pic.twitter.com/648vLnMh2v
— JJ Williams (@JJWilliamsWON) December 16, 2025
Kamitani dominated the year by holding the World of Stardom Championship, triumphing in high-stakes matches like a cage bout and a Career vs. Career clash at Yokohama Arena, while also pioneering the first women’s pro wrestling match on Japanese terrestrial TV since 2002. She also took home the Women’s Pro Wrestling Grand Prize, thanking her family and rival Tam Nakano for fueling her run.
– Kyle Fletcher discussed his decision to join AEW over WWE, emphasizing the environment and creative freedom: “I think it was the vibe there… there’s a lot of trust there that I can produce the wrestling I want to produce, and I can wrestle the way that I like to wrestle.” He explained that his experience working with AEW through New Japan helped him see this firsthand, and that sense of trust and ability to perform his style was what ultimately “drew me towards AEW for sure.”
(Source: Insight with Chris Van Vliet)
– The Wrestling Observer says WWE was reportedly “blindsided” by the reaction to John Cena losing his Final/retirement match.
“There are many people in WWE who did not agree with that decision [John Cena losing], but the guy in charge did it. The one thing that I can say is that even though they may say something different publicly, they were blindsided by that reaction. The idea that we did it, we knew it was going to get heat, it’s just the price we pay. When they’re all chanting and he’s going, ‘Oh, I thought it would be louder’, that was a defense mechanism…. I was told there was no discussion of a reaction.”
(Source: Wrestling Observer Radio)