Japanese WWE Talent Announces Her Intention To Retire From The Ring Next Year

On Saturday, WWE’s Meiko Satomura announced during a press conference held in her home country of Japan that she intends to retire from the ring next year. This follows the 44-year-old wrestling three matches during WWE’s tour of Japan, which featured her challenging Bayley for the WWE Women’s Title in Toyko. Whether she will wrestle more frequently for WWE from now on remains unclear, although it was disclosed that she will compete in a series of matches for her own promotion, Sendai Girls, which she launched back in 2005 with Jinsei Shinzaki.

Satomura broke into the business in the mid-90s, which led to her briefly wrestling for WCW when they sought to establish a women’s women’s division. And while her time competing in the US was limited, thanks to a cult-like following among wrestling fans, when WWE needed extra talents for their second Mae Young Classic tournament in 2018, she would not only be booked but actually reach the semi-finals. Subsequently, this would see her hired full-time by the company in 2020 to both wrestle and coach on their NXT UK brand, where she worked with current main roster talents such as Blair Davenport, Lyra Valkyria, Alba Fyre, and Isla Dawn.