Back in February 2021, it seemed like Maki Itoh was poised to be a breakout star in the AEW women’s division. The former International Princess Champion appeared on the first episode of AEW Dark: Elevation. She took on Ryo Mizunami in the women’s title eliminator tournament. She also appeared as Britt Baker’s mystery tag partner at AEW’s Revolution pay-per-view event.
Itoh didn’t reappear on AEW programming until May of 2022, when she was revealed as the “Joker” in the Owen Hart Foundation Memorial Cup tournament. Her most recent appearance was on Dark: Elevation, teaming with Emi Sakura against Marina Shafir and Nyla Rose. She spoke about that with The Ten Count podcast in a recent interview. Please note that her answers were given via an interpreter.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On her absence from AEW television: “So, she doesn’t actually know the reason why she wasn’t on TV at all. Maybe it’s just AEW booking, she’s not very sure. She didn’t have a problem like, you know, working visa because it’s a long process to get a person there for a long time, right? But recently thanks to the team at AEW, she could have a visa for more long-term appearances. So, who knows? Maybe next time.”
Itoh’s plans for 2023: “For her aim in 2023 in Japan, she wants to get a title belt, obviously. She feels like maybe a tag team title belt would be really nice just about now. For America, obviously, she wants to go back to being on AEW television again.”
