Journey to the US and beyond
The US first saw Itoh on April 4, 2019 when she wrestled at the DDT is Coming to America event. There, she won the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship for the fourth time from Kazuki Hirata. But, yet again, she lost it that night to Danshoku Dino.
Two months later, she entered the Tokyo Princess Cup for the second time. She defeated Raku in the first round before losing to Natsumi Maki in the second.
Then, on August 2, Itoh once again won the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship during a battle royal. She lost it during the match, but won it back from Momomi Wagatsuma. However, she lost it again later in the night to Yukio Sakaguchi.
In October, Itoh captured the International Princess Championship from Yuna Manase. She went on to successfully defend the title against Nightshade and Hikari Noa. Her reign eventually ended at 78 days at the hands of Thunder Rosa. On January 11, 2020, she made her Pro Wrestling EVE debut, defeating Session Moth Martina.
Several months later, Itoh entered the Spring Beautiful One Day Tournament. She made it to the second round, winning against Suzume then losing to Nakajima. Then, that August, she again entered the Tokyo Princess Cup and put on her best performance to date. She defeated Himawari Unagi, Yuki Kamifuku, and Miu Watanabe, advancing to the semifinals. But she just missed out on the finals, losing to Mizuki. Itoh continued to wrestle for TJPW and DDT for the rest of 2020.
On February 3, 2021, AEW announced that she would compete in the AEW Women’s World Championship Eliminator Tournament. As we saw last Monday, she lost in the first round to Mizunami.
Her most recent match came yesterday. There, she and Yamashita defeated Watanabe and Tatsumi in the second round of the Futari No Princess Max Heart Tournament.
With her bold and brash style both in and out of the ring, it’s easy to see why Maki Itoh is so popular. The self-proclaimed “Cutest Wrestler in the World” connects with fans in a way very few can. Her energy and charisma are what make her one of the more unique joshi wrestlers today.
Even in her loss to Ryo Mizunami, she created quite a buzz around her. Hopefully we’ll get to see her inside an AEW ring again sooner rather than later. But until then, we can still marvel at the brilliance that is Maki Itoh.
