Backstage Reason For AEW Star Riho's Absence From Television

Former AEW Women's World Champion Riho is one of the many AEW stars who's been bitten by the injury bug. She returned to the company after a brief hiatus in July 2024 to wrestle Lady Frost on an episode of "AEW Collision," but her return ended quickly as Riho suffered an injury during that match, and hasn't been seen since.

However, there could be light at the end of the tunnel for AEW fans who want to see Riho back. Fightful Select has reported that while the injury is the reason why Riho hasn't been back in the company, she was in Orlando, Florida, for the Worlds End pay-per-view on December 28, and was even training in the ring before the show started. It's unclear whether this means a potential return is in her immediate future, as it's unknown whether she has been medically cleared to compete, but AEW fans should expect to see Riho back in the company at some point in 2025.

Riho is not only a former AEW Women's World Champion, but she was also the first champion in the company's history. She defeated Nyla Rose on the debut episode of "AEW Dynamite" back in 2019, but was eventually dethroned by "The Native Beast" in the rematch four months later. Her AEW career came to a grinding halt just a few weeks later as she was unable to travel to the United States due to the restrictions implemented by the COVID-19 pandemic, where she kept herself busy in Japan wrestling for companies like STARDOM and DDT. She returned to AEW in 2021, and since then has split her time between wrestling there and various promotions across the world, with her 2024 hiatus coming as a result of renewing her work visa.