There was a time in US pro wrestling where championships meant something. The idea in story was that the champion would see a bigger cut of the house, and in actual fact would sometimes do media tours to promote the company, even if only on a local scale. Having the belt also meant, in theory anyway, that the fans would pay money to either see you win or to see you lose depending on how they felt about you or how your character was being portrayed. This art has died to a great extent, though an exception can be found in AEW's Mercedes Moné and her "belt collector" gimmick. But even that doesn't quite succeed in the way championships once did. Having a title was meant to elevate a wrestler, and a great wrestler could make a title seem more important just because they have it.
And that brings me to the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship. To explain for anyone I link this to who doesn't follow Japanese pro wrestling, the Ironman belt is a joke. It was created to parody WWE's hardcore and 24/7 titles, and the general gimmick is that anyone, and anything can win the belt at any time so long as a referee is present. Past champions have included a ladder (three times!), assorted non-wrestlers, and even the belt itself was once its own champion. It once had an officially recognized title change take place in a dream! By any real metric, this title is meaningless... with the exception of the metric of how the champions treat the title. And with that, I segue into Mahiro Kiryu.
Mahiro's gimmick as a wrestler is that she doesn't have a gimmick. She likes mahjong, she's a bit nervous around her more colorful peers in Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling, and she apologizes a lot for the things she has to do to survive the crazy world she finds herself in. And she has a cat that is potentially more popular than she is. Oh, and she is, as I write this, the current and defending Ironman Heavymetalweight Champion. She has held the belt enough times that I have genuinely lost count in a very short time frame. She keeps losing it and finding ways to get it back. You would think this has a cheapening effect on the belt, but the amazing thing is that the opposite has happened. This... toy, this bauble that was once co-held by the subscriber list of DDT Pro Wrestling's YouTube channel, is very serious to her and the other wrestlers that vie for it. And, as a viewer, that engages me.
It's very hard to express just how much this "Mahironman" story has elevated Mahiro and the Ironman title at the same time without a person actually seeing it play out, and of course viewer opinions may vary. But I will try. Mahiro underwent a massive boost in confidence by holding the title. She has a (comedic) reputation as a killer for shredding a sheet of paper and drinking two beverages to reclaim what is rightfully hers. This title has taken her from a somewhat popular lower midcard wrestler to someone whose name you could put on the marquee. "Come see how Mahiro Kiryu tries to keep ahold of the belt this week!" The idea that this timid girl who apologizes a lot could sell tickets on her own would have been unthinkable at the start of the year, and that's no knock on her. It just wasn't her role. The belt elevated Mahiro, and Mahiro elevated the belt. Even as it continues to be lost and won in comedic ways, suddenly it matters, and that's an amazing thing.
We are about to have voting for TJPW's "Best Bout" list, where the fans vote for what they think were the best matches of the year, and it's a pretty tough vote because this was a banner year for the company in terms of just amazing in-ring performances. But one thing that won't get recognized in that voting is the Mahironman run because no single element of it was a "best match of the year" candidate. But it was my single favorite thing to happen in wrestling in 2025, and it deserves to be honored. And thus I wrote this post. Thanks for reading, and see you in 2026 for a review of TJPW's "Ittenyon" show!
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