The WWE Vault YouTube channel has released a highly acclaimed match from WWE’s recent live events tour of Japan.
Watch as the legendary Meiko Satomura challenges Bayley for the WWE Women’s Championship during a WWE Live Event in Tokyo, Japan on July 27, 2024.
Satomura recently announced her intention to retire in April 2025, the 30th anniversary of her pro wrestling debut.
WWE Superstar Meiko Satomura will hang up her boots for good in April 2025 in a journey that will see her compete outside the promotion.
In a press conference, Satomura confirmed her retirement plans, which will mark the 30th anniversary of her professional debut. Satomura’s final match will take place at the historic Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
Despite being a WWE-contracted performer, Satomura said at the press event that she will compete in a number of Sendai Girls matches, starting this September. Sendai Girls, also known as Senjo, is a Joshi puroresu promotion founded in 2005 by Satomura and Kensuke Shinzaki, also known to WWE fans as Hakushi.
Satomura’s career in the ring has seen her work with some of wrestling’s biggest promotions including New Japan Pro Wrestling, WCW, STARDOM and others. In 2020, the ‘Final Boss’ joined WWE and competed in NXT UK and would win the NXT UK Women’s Championship. She would hold the title until WWE NXT UK’s demise in September 2022 and lost the title to Mandy Rose at that year’s Worlds Collide. After a lengthy hiatus, Satomura has returned to action as part of WWE’s tour of Japan.
WWE allowing Meiko Satomura the chance to compete for Senjo not only shows the company’s respect for her, but is the latest example of WWE working with another promotion. 2024 has already seen WWE work with TNA, Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport, Marigold Wrestling and Pro Wrestling NOAH. Hopefully, the 44-year-old Satomura receives a fitting send-off to mark the end of a legendary career in the ring.
WWE’s first night of its ongoing tour of Japan saw the Superstars bring the action to Osaka, Japan. This tour marks WWE’s first tour of Japan since 2019 and will continue for two more nights in Tokyo.
Here are the results for WWE Live in Osaka, Japan:
In-Ring Segment: Osaka’s very own Asuka opened the show and welcomed the crowd to WWE live. The former WWE Women’s Champion has been out of action since May with a knee injury.
Match: WWE Women’s World Championship: Liv Morgan (c) def. IYO SKY
This would be SKY’s first of two matches on the night and the Japanese Superstar got a big reaction in her home country. Morgan seemed very pleased for somebody whose heart was broken during this week’s WWE RAW.
Match: WWE Intercontinental Championship: Sami Zayn (c) def. Dominik Mysterio
Match: WWE World Tag Team Championship: Finn Balor & JD McDonagh def. The New Day
Match: Bayley, Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill & Meiko Satomura def. Dakota Kai, Kairi Sane, IYO SKY & Tiffany Stratton
Asuka made an appearance alongside her Damage CTRL allies to a huge pop from the crowd. This marked Meiko Satomura’s first match for WWE since February 2023. Tiffany Stratton had her Money in the Bank briefcase which was taped together after being destroyed by Bayley on a recent episode of SmackDown.
Match: WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Damian Priest (c) def. Jey Uso
In a rematch from WWE Backlash: France, Uso was unable to dethrone Priest. After the match ‘Main Event Jey’ bowed to the crowd in Oska in a sign of respect. Jey and Priest also share a ‘Yeet’ at the event.
Match: GUNTHER def. Rey Mysterio
Mysterio wore a Hanshin Tigers uniform, acknowledging the Nippon Professional Baseball team. GUNTHER, who got a lot of cheers, defeated the WWE Hall of Famer with a powerbomb, according to a fan on Twitter who attended the show.
Match: Solo Sikoa & Tama Tonga def. LA Knight & Kevin Owens
WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) def. AJ Styles & Shinsuke Nakamura
Cody shared his gratitude to the Osaka crowd after retaining the Undisputed WWE Championship in the show’s main event. He also invited a young Japanese fan to pose with him to end the night.
Former NXT UK Women’s Champion Meiko Satomura will compete at WWE live events later this month in the veteran’s first match since March of last year.
Satomura is being advertised for the upcoming tour of Japan that will begin in Osaka’s Edion Arena on July 25. The tour will then feature back-to-back events in Tokyo’s Ryogouko Arena on July 26-27. Other names being advertised for the show include Shinsuke Nakamura, Kairi Sane, Dakota Kai, Bianca Belair, and Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. Interestingly, Asuka is also being advertised despite the Empress currently being out with an injury.
More On Asuka’s Injury That Has Kept the Empress On The Shelf
These events will mark Satomura’s long-overdue return to the ring as she has not been used in any capacity by the company in over 16 months. Satomura’s most recent match took place at WWE NXT Roadblock 2023 and saw her unsuccessfully challenge NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez.
Satomura debuted in WWE in 2018 as part of the Mae Young Classic but was eliminated in the semi-finals by eventual winner Toni Storm. In October 2020, Satomura signed with WWE and in addition to being an on-screen talent, served as a coach in NXT UK.
In June 2021, Satomura captured the NXT UK Women’s Championship from Kay Lee Ray (now Women’s Tag Team Champion Alba Fyre.) Dubbed the ‘Final Boss’ long before Dwayne Johnson had the moniker, Satomura defeated all challengers for over a year. Her reign, alongside NXT UK, would end at Worlds Collide in September 2022 when she lost to then-NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose.
While Satomura hasn’t competed in WWE in some time, fans can see matches from her career outside of WWE on the Network/Peacock. Decades before joining WWE, a young Satomura competed in WCW as part of a cross-promotional effort with the Gaea Wrestling promotion.
Satomura competed in a tournament to crown the first WCW Women’s Champion. She was eliminated in the first round by eventual winner Akira Hokuto. Ironically, when Satomura entered a tournament to crown the first Women’s Cruiserweight Champion, she was eliminated in the first round by eventual winner Toshie Uematsu.
Meiko Satomura just picked up a big win, defeating Kay Lee Ray for the NXT UK Women’s championship but she already has her sight set on some even bigger opponents in WWE for her future.
The new champion recently had an interview with Metro just before her title win where she talked about a number of things and revealed a few other WWE names she wants to compete against.
Satomura first praised her last opponent in Kay Lee Ray. She then revealed which talents she wants to have a match against, discussing some big names such as Sasha Banks and Charlotte Flair as potential future opponents:
“First, I want to beat Kay Lee Ray, But next, Io Shirai, Sasha Banks and Charlotte [Flair].”
– Meiko Satomura
The female star is a Japanese wrestling veteran who has been wrestling since the age of 15. She made her debut for the all-women promotion Gaea Japan in 1995.
Meiko Satomura has also competed in promotions such as Sendai Girls’ Pro Wrestling and Chikara in her long career. She made some WCW appearances in 1996 thanks to Gaea Japan’s working relationship with the company at the time.
She made her WWE debut in 2018 as part of the second Mae Young Classic and was signed to a full-time deal in October 2020. She defeated Kay Lee Ray on the June 10 episode of NXT UK, ending Ray’s 649 days long run with the title.
Meiko Satomura is your new NXT UK Women’s Champion. She captured the gold on Thursday’s NXT UK broadcast on Peacock and the WWE Network.
Satomura defeated Kay Lee Ray in a hard-fought match. Ray had been champion for an impressive 649 days before her reign came to an end.
The Japanese wrestling legend joined the NXT UK brand back in February.
In this video, the Final Boss reflects on her monumental victory to dethrone Kay Lee Ray.
Satomura commented on her victory on Twitter. She thanked everyone and it was very difficult defeating Kay Lee Ray, a true champion.
Triple also H commented on the title change. He wrote on Twitter, “An incredible title reign ended by one of the absolute best in the world. A new era for the ENTIRE #NXTUK brand. #AndNew”
WWE has officially announced that Meiko Satomura will be debuting for the NXT UK brand shortly. It was revealed in an article back in October that she was headed to England to begin work with WWE.
Satomura is expected to work as a player/coach for the brand.
Satomura competed in the 1st Mae Young Classic tournament, making it to the semi-finals before losing to Toni Storm.
Sasha Banks is likely happy with the news. Banks has said previously she would like to wrestle Satomura.
Pete Dunne also spoke about Satomura during a pre-Mae Young Classic interview.
“I’m a student of pro wrestling. I’ve always been a huge fan of Meiko Satomura so… I’d seen that she’d been added to the Mae Young Classic–I’m really excited for her. I think, especially this late in her career, it’s amazing she’s finally getting the chance to come to a platform like this, show the world what she can do.” Dunne said.
“Seeing her live, you’ll see what I mean. The aggression and the competitiveness she brings is something unique and like I said I’m excited for the world to see. I think it’s gonna be great to see how competitors deal with somebody with that level of experience that Meiko brings to the tournament. I think that’s what so unique about her; not only is she always wrestling a completely different style over in Japan, but she has that level of experience that’s hard to match right now with those superstars.”
Meiko Satomura will be joining the NXT UK brand according to a new article released by Tokyo Sports. The veteran wrestler will be taking on a player/coach type role. She will be winding her time down with the Sendai Girls’ Pro Wrestling promotion in Japan as a result.
She will be traveling to England next month to begin work with the UK brand. The promotion currently tapes their television episodes from the BT Sport Studios in London.
Meiko Satomura competed in the 1st Mae Young Classic tournament. The 40-year-old made it to the semi-finals before being eliminated in the semi-finals by Toni Storm.
Kairi Sane is also said to be working with WWE in some capacity despite having been written off of television earlier this year. At one point, the plan was for her to work in an ambassador role for a potential NXT Japan brand. Once the pandemic hit, talks of opening up a performance centre in the country halted, however.
Last week, Kairi Sane posted the following Tweet which implied she was working in a WWE Japan office:
Kairi also provided guest commentary for the Japanese-language broadcast of Hell in a Cell on Sunday: