Sareee vs Mayu Iwatani was a beauitful non-verbal story.

On May 21st, 2024, I watched the match between Sareee and Mayu Iwatani, I liked it so much that I made a Twitter thread about it in Spanish. I wanted to celebrate this match in the Spanish speaking sphere and make more people watch it. This is an English blog post version of that!

This show's production was stellar because, if the video package wasn't enough, the entrance videos for each wrestler tell you who they are. Prestige against scrappiness. Sareee decided to give her life to pro-wrestling. She trained next to legends and is considered as a heir of the 90s school. Mayu... Pro-wrestling gave life to her. Her entrance video does not only show her triumphs, it also shows her struggles and failures. It first shows the homeless 17 year old girl who was crying after doing too many squats in her pro-test and spent a year losing matches. This is our hero?

This has a clear purpose. Mayu's bio-pic came out on May 17th. The camera shows guest commentator, Anna Hirai, who had spent the previous two years beneath the mask of Mayu Iwatani for the movie. Her emotional face says it all.

In her review, my friend Romi said this match was completely even, and upon first glance it might look that way, but looking at the action closely, Sareee is dominating this match from the start. Any attempt by Mayu to get ahead AT HER OWN HOME is not enough against the aggressiveness of visitor Sareee.

If you watch this without context it looks like Sareee is a heel who's bullying someone weaker and less experienced, but this transcends the concepts of heel or face and that's why Sareee will always shine brighter outside of American wrestling and its tropes, she can take these freedoms. The Sun Goddess indulges herself in humilliating Mayu so much that she starts mocking and slapping her around. Of course, Mayu is no longer that 17 year old girl and gets mad, which feels quite satisfactory at this point in the match. We're finally starting to see an even playing field.

But even then, there's a difference between Mayu and Sareee's offence. The icon survives. She's often reacting to her opponent's moves or resorting to surprise tactics to try to get the upper hand. Sareee looks like she doesn't even get tired from doing or receives moves. It's not that she doesn't sell anything, but even in showing pain, Sareee looks more in control of the situation. Mayu spends most of the match screaming in pain. Her limits and shortcomings are more noticeable. She's slimmer and lankier than the smaller but more built Sareee, who takes advantage of these differences.

It was only an oversight on Sareee's part that allowed Mayu to flip the table and pull out a tope (Which she tried unsuccessfully at the start of the match). Just now you can hear the crowd cheer in excitement as Mayu finally nails a decisive move and she celebrates.

Despite that, Mayu can't avoid plummeting almost immediately, or when she's clashing bodies against Sareee upon returning to the ring, because everything that happened prior in the match fucked her up. However, the adrenaline starts kicking in and as Mayu levels herself, Sareee slowly falls into desperation. There are moments where Mayu can get the win but performing a dragon suplex leaves her too tired to go for the pin. Precious seconds wasted.

Sareee's not stupid and her behavior in the match changes after realizing that, despite athletically surpassing her in everything, she still can't defeat Mayu 17 minutes into the match. Sareee, who was personally blessed by Antonio Inoki years ago, cannot win an IWGP Championship. The frustration.

Sareee starts spamming (complimentary) her prime attacks and Mayu suffers through it. They're both overclocking and Iwatani does everything she can, at one point trying to check if she can still move her knuckles as she shrieks in pain. While Sareee makes great use of her impeccable skillset, it's too late. Zombie Mayu woke up. This match becomes Iwatani's life story. The woman who resists every obstacle until achieving victory, not for her skills or talent, but because of getting up over and over again when anyone else would've given up.

It's not a gimmick or a fictional movie. The coolest thing about Mayu is that her story is real, and a reminder that there's no bottom we can't pull ourselves out of when we find the one thing that makes us want to climb up the most.

Kick, moonsault, dragon suplex, win.

You may have a different path, see wrestling in a different way, but at the end of the day you love the same thing as your rival and you will respect her even if she threw a chair onto your skull. An ode. Don't let people make you believe that stories can only be told through words.

Mayu is not the ace of STARDOM, she herself rejected that title. She's the icon. An anomaly. The total failgirl who wins despite herself. They invited her to throw the first pitch at the Baystars game shortly after this, and the ball didn't even come close to the catcher. She's Mayu, our hero.

Sareee is a beast as a freelancer and these could be her prime years. In hindsight, the high schooler character on NXT might have been the best thing that could happen. She's the cream of the crop now and no booker will do her justice. Not Triple H nor Tony Khan nor whoever manages TNA.

You can watch this match on STARDOM World and the yen is so cheap that it becomes quite affordable. Of course, we all live different realities, but this match is already in that status where you can find it elsewhere too (I got the screenshots from there because the buffering on World was awful).

This post is not a replacement for watching the match, please give yourselves the pleasure.