Riho

Riho (里歩, Riho, born June 4, 1997) is a Japanese professional wrestler and idol. She was trained by Emi Sakura and debuted for her Ice Ribbon promotion in May 2006, at the age of nine. She would work for the promotion for the next six years, becoming the its first Triple Crown Champion, having won the ICE×60 Championship, the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship and the Triangle Ribbon Championship once each. She also became a DDT Jiyugaoka Six-Person Tag Team, DDT Nihonkai Six-Man Tag Team and UWA World Trios Champion, unifying the three titles in July 2010, teaming with The Great Kojika and Mr. #6. Riho left Ice Ribbon in September 2012 to join Gatoh Move Pro Wrestling, a new promotion founded by Emi Sakura, who had left Ice Ribbon the previous January. In November 2014, Riho won the IWA Triple Crown Championship.

Ice Ribbon (2006–2012)

In 2006, when Riho was only nine years old and still in elementary school, she and her three years older sister Seina began training professional wrestling under Emi Sakura at her Ice Ribbon dojo. She made her debut in an exhibition match against Nanae Takahashi on May 29, 2006 in Shinagawa, Tokyo. On July 25, Riho made her debut for Ice Ribbon at the promotion's third ever event, defeating Makoto. Riho's first year in professional wrestling consisted mainly of matches with Emi Sakura, Hikari Minami and Seina. In March 2008, Riho and Seina faced each other in a four match series, which Riho won 3–1.

On October 24, 2008, Riho won her first professional wrestling championship, when she teamed with Yuki Sato to defeat Chounko and Masako Takanashi for the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship. On December 23, Riho was entered into a tournament to determine the inaugural ICE×60 Champion, but was eliminated in the semifinals by Seina, who would go on to become the champion. After successfully defending the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship against Emi Sakura and Ribbon Takanashi, Riho and Sato vacated the title, after Riho fractured her right leg on March 31, 2009. For most of 2009, Riho was involved in a storyline rivalry with Chii Tomiya, which eventually led to the two forming the tag team Miniature Dachs in November. On November 28, 2009, Riho defeated Nanae Takahashi and Tsukasa Fujimoto to become the inaugural Triangle Ribbon Champion. After one successful title defense, Riho lost the title to Miyako Matsumoto on March 22, 2010. However, just twelve days later, Riho came back to defeat Matsumoto for the ICE×60 Championship, the promotion's top title. In the process, Riho also became Ice Ribbon's first Triple Crown Champion. During the post-match celebration, Riho nominated her trainer Emi Sakura as her first challenger for the belt. On May 3 at Golden Ribbon, Riho became the youngest person to ever main event a show in Korakuen Hall, when she lost the ICE×60 Championship to Sakura in her first defense, ending her title reign at just 30 days.

Riho in February 2010

The following month, Riho began making appearances for DDT Pro-Wrestling (DDT). On June 13, she teamed with Kenny Omega and Mr. #6 to defeat Mr. Strawberry, Muscle Sakai and O.K. Revolution for the Nihonkai Six-Man Tag Team Championship. On July 20, Omega left the championship team, after which the title was declared vacant, before Riho, Mr. #6 and The Great Kojika were announced as the new champions on July 24. The following day, Riho, The Great Kojika and Mr. #6 defeated Hikaru Sato, Keisuke Ishii and Yoshihiko, and Antonio Honda, Kudo and Yasu Urano in a three-way match to retain the Nihonkai Six-Man Tag Team Championship and win the Jiyugaoka Six-Person Tag Team and UWA World Trios Championships, unifying the three titles in the process. After defending the Trios Triple Crown Championship against Jaki Numazawa, Jun Kasai and Miyako Matsumoto at an Ice Ribbon event on September 23, Riho, The Great Kojika and Mr. #6 lost the title to Hikaru Sato, Michael Nakazawa and Tomomitsu Matsunaga back in DDT on November 3. In late 2010 and early 2011, Riho also made appearances for Union Pro Wrestling, where she performed under a mask and the character of Black Cherry, a storyline nemesis of Cherry. The storyline also came to include Black Cherry #2 and Black Cherry #3, portrayed by Ice Ribbon wrestlers Hikari Minami and Emi Sakura, respectively.

In January 2011, Riho came together with Ice Ribbon's younger wrestlers, including former associates Chii Tomiya and Hikari Minami, to form the Heisei YTR (Young Traditional Revolution) stable, under the leadership of Makoto. On February 6, Riho and Makoto made it to the finals of the Ike! Ike! Ima, Ike! Ribbon Tag Tournament, before being defeated by Muscle Venus (Hikaru Shida and Tsukasa Fujimoto) in a match that was also contested for the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship. On March 31, Riho made her debut for Smash at Smash.15, where she teamed with Hikari Minami and Tsukushi to defeat Emi Sakura, Makoto and Mochi Miyagi in a six-woman tag team match, scoring the deciding pinfall over Miyagi. The following month, Riho and Minami began producing their own events under the banner of "Teens", which would focus on spotlighting Ice Ribbon's younger wrestlers. In August, the alliance between Riho and Makoto was broken, when Makoto announced that she would be leaving Ice Ribbon for Smash. On August 11, Riho interrupted a Smash press conference, where the transfer was made official, by attacking Smash promoter Tajiri and challenging him to a match. The match took place on August 21, during Makoto's final night in Ice Ribbon, and saw Tajiri pick up the win. On December 25 at RibbonMania 2011, Seina returned to Ice Ribbon, after a two-year hiatus, to wrestle her retirement match against her Riho. Riho won the match in eight minutes and afterwards refereed a three-minute match, where Seina was defeated by her longtime friend Hikari Minami.

In early 2012, Riho began teaming regularly with Hikari Minami, after the latter brought back the Teens concept, producing Teens4 on March 3. On April 15 at Teens5, Riho won a tournament to earn the right to book herself a match for Teens6. On May 24, Riho made her debut for Wrestling New Classic (WNC), the follow-up promotion to Smash, when she replaced an injured Mio Shirai in a tag team match, where she and Makoto were defeated by Kana and Syuri. On June 16 at Teens6, Riho was defeated by World Wonder Ring Stardom representative Nanae Takahashi in the match she was allowed to choose herself. On September 1, Riho announced that she was quitting Ice Ribbon after the September 23 Korakuen Hall event to reunite with Emi Sakura, who had left the promotion in the beginning of the year. On September 17, Riho wrestled her final match at the Ice Ribbon Dojo in Saitama, teaming with her hand-picked partner Tsukasa Fujimoto in a tag team match, where they defeated Hiroyo Matsumoto and Hamuko Hoshi, with Riho pinning Hoshi for the win. On September 23 at Ribbon no Kishitachi 2012, Riho was defeated by Aoi Kizuki in her Ice Ribbon farewell match.

Gatoh Move Pro Wrestling (2012–present)

Riho in November 2015

On September 23, 2012, Riho officially joined Emi Sakura's Bangkok, Thailand-based Gatoh Move Pro Wrestling promotion. Riho made her in-ring debut for Gatoh Move on October 7 in Shinjuku, Tokyo, wrestling Emi Sakura to a ten-minute time limit draw. As part of her transfer to Gatoh Move, it was announced that Riho would be changing her ring name. On November 4, Riho changed her ring name from hiragana "りほ" to kanji "里歩", another way of writing her old ring name. She then went on to lose to Emi Sakura in a main event singles match. In January 2013, Riho took a temporary break from Gatoh Move to concentrate on her high school entrance exam. On May 4, Riho and Antonio Honda first defeated Choun Shiryu and Hiroyo Matsumoto in the semifinals and then Emi Sakura and Hikaru Sato in the finals to win the Go Go! Green Curry Khob Khun Cup mixed tag team tournament. From December 22 to 23, Riho and Emi Sakura worked two Wrestle-1 events, wrestling singles matches against each other; Riho won the first and Sakura the second. On August 9, 2014, Riho defeated Sakura in the finals to win the Gatonun Climax one-day tournament. On November 2, Riho defeated Sakura to win the IWA Triple Crown Championship, after which she announced she was entering the idol business. Riho made her first successful title defense on December 27, defeating Sakura in a rematch. Her second title defense took place on March 26, 2015, when she defeated Reina Joshi Puroresu's Makoto. On August 13, Riho main evented Gatoh Move's first ever Korakuen Hall show, successfully defending the IWA Triple Crown Championship against "Kotori". On September 21, Riho lost the title to male wrestler DJ Nira in her fifth defense. On June 22, 2016, Gatoh Move held Riho's tenth anniversary event, which saw her defeat Kaori Yoneyama in the main event to regain the IWA Triple Crown Championship. She lost the title to Makoto on November 19.

• Finishing moves
  • Kuru Kuru Ribbon (Multiple revolution armscissors transitioned from a sunset flip into a prawn hold)
  • Somato (Running double knee strike to a seated opponent into a rana pin) – adopted from Harashima
• Signature moves
  • European Clutch (Double wrist-clutch flip into a bridging cradle pin)
  • Jumping knee strike
  • Nikoniko Clutch (Camel clutch, with theatrics)
  • Sakura Ebigatame (Bridging single leg Boston crab)
  • Tiger feint kick to the head of an opponent draped over the second rope
• Entrance themes
  • "Odoru Pompokolin" by B.B.Queens
  • "Small Monster" by Gatoh Ongaku

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• ｱｲｽﾘﾎﾞﾝ･28. Ice Ribbon (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 21, 2013. Retrieved February 7, 2012. 
• 第11回ｱｲｽﾘﾎﾞﾝ. Ice Ribbon (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 21, 2013. Retrieved September 21, 2012. 
• Future Star Vol.4 新木場1stRing. Ice Ribbon (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 21, 2013. Retrieved January 30, 2012. 
• Byers, Ryan (June 15, 2010). "Into the Indies 06.15.10: Golden Ribbon". 411Mania. Retrieved January 17, 2012. 
• アイスリボン274観戦記 第2試合. MakoReco (in Japanese). March 19, 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2012. 
• Youngリボンわっしょい！！vol.2観戦記 第4わっしょい！. MakoReco (in Japanese). July 18, 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2012. 
• お早うにうすデス8/7. Ice Ribbon (in Japanese). August 7, 2008. Retrieved February 9, 2012. 
• おはようニュースです8/8. Ice Ribbon (in Japanese). August 8, 2008. Retrieved February 9, 2012. 
• Sakura, Emi (May 2, 2013). "５月４日(祝)板橋大会より『我闘組曲』第２弾CD発売開始＆握手会を開催！". Gatoh Move Sakura (in Japanese). Ameba. Retrieved May 2, 2013. 

• DDT Pro-Wrestling
  • DDT Jiyugaoka Six-Person Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with The Great Kojika and Mr. #6
  • DDT Nihonkai Six-Man Tag Team Championship (2 times) – with Kenny Omega and Mr. #6 (1), and The Great Kojika and Mr. #6 (1)
  • UWA World Trios Championship (1 time) – with The Great Kojika and Mr. #6
• Fuka Matsuri
  • Fuka Matsuri Rumble (2010)
• Gatoh Move Pro Wrestling
  • IWA Triple Crown Championship (2 times)
  • Gatonun Climax (2014)
  • Go Go! Green Curry Khob Khun Cup (2013) – with Antonio Honda
• Ice Ribbon
  • ICE×60 Championship (1 time)
  • International Ribbon Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Yuki Sato
  • Triangle Ribbon Championship (1 time)
  • Teens5 Tournament (2012)
  • First Triple Crown Champion

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• 風香祭「Fuka Matsuri Fin～風香引退記念試合～」. Sports Navi (in Japanese). Yahoo!. March 28, 2010. Archived from the original on April 1, 2010. Retrieved February 1, 2012. 
• "International Wrestling Association Triple Crown Title". Puroresu Dojo. Retrieved November 5, 2014. 
• 10代女子ﾚｽﾗｰ主催興行･Teens5. Ice Ribbon (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 21, 2013. Retrieved April 15, 2012.