MLW Announces New Challenger For Taya Valkyrie At Superfight

MLW officials have "remixed" the lineup for this Saturday's MLW SuperFight 2023, including a massive change to its women's main event. The promotion announced Monday that MLW World Featherweight Champion Taya Valkyrie will no longer defend her title against Delmi Exo, and will instead take on "the teenage phenom" Billie Starkz.

"Will Taya trounce another pretender to the throne? Will Billie become the youngest world champion in MLW history?," MLW's press release pondered. Starkz, 18, " is one of wrestling's most promising up-and-coming competitors," according to MLW. The company said Starkz' "star is rising seemingly higher and higher with each outing." The Indiana-born wrestler has been training since she was 13 years old, and said in a recent interview that she grew up watching Bayley and Finn Balor on "WWE NXT," inspiring her to give in-ring work a try.

"It's always what I wanted to do," Starkz told "The Joshi Pod." "I have a very stubborn mindset and personality. I watched wrestling when I was little and I got it stuck in my head that I wanted to be a professional wrestler." Starkz recently debuted on AEW as an enhancement talent, and toured Japan for the first time this month as well. MLW says tensions have been building between Valkyrie and Starkz for some time. "There are whispers that there's been static between the champ and the teenage phenom," the promotion said. "MLW.com confirmed a recent verbal exchange at an MLW event between the two." Valkyrie, a former WWE star and the longest-reigning Impact Knockouts World Champion of all-time, has held the MLW World Featherweight Championship since May 2022.