Iwatani versus Shirakawa in Sapporo.
Mina Shirakawa expressed her intentions to go after Mayu Iwatani’s IWGP Women’s Championship and their title bout has been made official.
STARDOM held their ‘Supreme Fight’ show on February 4th from Osaka, Japan and it was formally announced that on February 23rd at NJPW The New Beginning in Sapporo, Iwatani is going to defend the title against Shirakawa.
It’ll be the third time the IWGP Women’s Title will have been defended at an NJPW event in Japan. Since winning the title from Mercedes Moné in April 2023, Iwatani has had three successful defenses with the latest being at NJPW STRONG Lonestar Shootout in September.
With the addition of the IWGP Women’s Title bout, here’s the updated New Beginning in Sapporo lineup for 2/23:
- Tomoya & Toru Yano vs. TBA & TBA
- Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito) vs. Just 5 Guys (TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yuya Uemura, Taichi & SANADA)
- El Desperado vs. SHO
- NEVER Openweight Championship: EVIL (c) vs. Shota Umino
- IWGP Women’s Championship: Mayu Iwatani (c) vs. Mina Shirakawa
- NJPW World Television Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Matt Riddle
- IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship: David Finlay (c) vs. Nic Nemeth
