Meiko Satomura (里村 明衣子, Satomura Meiko, born November 17, 1979) is a Japanese professional wrestler. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the NXT brand and the Japanese promotion Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling. She is a former one-time NXT UK Women's Champion. Satomura is set to retire in 2025.[2]
Satomura made her professional wrestling debut for women's promotion Gaea Japan on April 15, 1995, defeating Sonoko Kato.[3] On November 2, 1996, she and Kato defeated Sugar Sato and Chikayo Nagashima to become the inaugural AAAW Tag Team Champions. Satomura would go on to win that title on two more occasions, teaming with Ayako Hamada and Nagashima. She also won the AAAW Singles Championship twice, with her second reign ending at the hands of Aja Kong on April 3, 2005. Gaea Japan closed a week later on April 10, 2005, after staging its farewell show; in the main event, Satomura defeated her trainer Chigusa Nagayo.
In 1996, Satomura started appearing for World Championship Wrestling (WCW) through Gaea Japan's working relationship with WCW which was attempting to establish a women's division. She participated in an eight-woman tournament for the inaugural WCW Women's World Championship; however, Satomura was eliminated in the first round by eventual winner Akira Hokuto. When WCW introduced a WCW Women's Cruiserweight Championship, a second title for the women, she entered that tournament; however, Satomura was knocked out in the first round by Toshie Uematsu, who went on to win the tournament. Satomura continued to make appearances for WCW until the business relationships between two promotions ended.
Following Gaea Japan's closure, Satomura formed the women's promotion Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling with Jinsei Shinzaki. On September 23, 2009, she participated in the Splash J and Running G tournament along with Kaoru and Tomoko Kuzumi. In the semi-final, Satomura's team defeated the Dynamite Kansai (Makie Numao and Yasuko Kuragaki), to advance to the final. In the final, they defeated the team of Hikari Fukuoka, Kanako Motoya and Sonoko Kato to win the Splash J and Running G tournament.[4]
In May 2012, Satomura made her Chikara debut during the promotion's Aniversario.[8] That same year, She returned to Chikara, participating in the group's premiere tournament, King of Trios. In 2016, Satomura, along with Cassandra Miyagi and Dash Chisako won the King of Trios tournament. The trio was announced for the 2017 edition of the tournament.
On October 27, 2020, it was reported that Satomura had signed with WWE and would be an on-air talent and coach for NXT UK.[10] On the January 28 episode of NXT UK, a video package aired hyping up Satomura's arrival to the brand.[11][12] On the February 11 episode of NXT UK, She made her in-ring debut, where she defeated Isla Dawn in an opening match.[13] Soon after, Satomura began a feud with NXT UK Women's Champion Kay Lee Ray, unsuccessfully challenging for the title on the March 3 episode of NXT UK; however, she won the title on the June 10 episode of NXT UK, became the first Japanese wrestler to hold the NXT UK Women's Championship, as well as in NXT UK overall.[14] She had her first successful title defense against Amale on the July 15 episode of NXT UK. She would retain against Stevie Turner on the August 20 episode of NXT UK. She would successfully defend the championship against Blair Davenport on the January 6 episode of NXT UK and Isla Dawn on the March 24 episode of NXT UK.
On the August 23, 2022, episode of NXT 2.0, Satomura made her first appearance on NXT, an American promotion, where she confronted the NXT Women's Champion Mandy Rose. The two agreed to an unification match for their titles at Worlds Collide, with Blair Davenport being added to the match.[15] At the event, Rose won the match by pinning Davenport, ending Satomura's reign as NXT UK Women's Champion at 451 days (as recognized by WWE).[16] On the February 14 episode of NXT, she made her return, teaming with the NXT Women's Champion Roxanne Perez defeating Katana Chance and Kayden Carter. After the match, Satomura challenged Perez to a championship match, which Perez accepted.[17] The following week, the match was made official for NXT Roadblock, where Satomura would lose via roll-up.[18] Satomura then congratulated Perez after the match, only for her (Perez) to collapse afterwards. Since this appearance, Satomura hasn't appeared on WWE programming.
Satomura appeared in the 2000 documentary Gaea Girls made for the BBC by Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams.[citation needed] Satomura also attempted the Sponge Bridge course on Kinniku Banzuke.
^里村明衣子が赤いベルトを奪取！. Daily Sports Online (in Japanese). Kobe Shimbun. July 26, 2015. Archived from the original on July 26, 2016. Retrieved July 26, 2015.
