Thunder Ryuko

Originally climbing the ranks towards the top within World Women's Pro-Wrestling, Ryuko's rise is interrupted by the rapid decline of World itself following Dread Miyagi's defeat at the hands of New Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling ace Panther Risako. All of a sudden, World has shut down completely and Ryuko finds herself back on the street as an unaffiliated wrestler with nothing to show for her earlier work. Other wrestlers previously with World are flocking to former rival promotions, but Ryuko and her partner Suzumi Ishikawa do not wish to do so. One day, Ryuko is contacted by former acquaintance Anny Beach of USWW, who convinces Ryuko to join herself in crashing New Japan in the midst of its destabilization by JWI. Ryuko and Anny challenge Mighty Yukiko and Bomber Kishima to a tag match, which ends with the unknown Ryuko cleanly pinning Yukiko for the win, shocking the entire wrestling world which has come to see Yukiko as unstoppable. Instead of walking away with her win, however, Ryuko gives Yukiko a chance to vindicate her strength in a singles match for the IWWF World Heavyweight Champion title, in which Yukiko indeed pulls out a win of her own after a long and arduous struggle by both wrestlers, so that the challenge officially concludes as a draw. Not only does this event gain Ryuko enormous positive reputation (including an explicit endorsement from Risako who was providing ringside commentary), establishing her overnight as being on the same level as Yukiko, but it gains Ryuko and Yukiko a deep mutual respect. Ryuko uses her newfound recognition to co-found with Ishikawa their own promotion named WARS (Women's and Roman Spirits) as the ideological successor to World, with herself as its ace. Later, Ryuko and Ishikawa are one of the tag teams invited to the "Strongest Tag League" battle. Ryuko is the only other Japanese wrestler as highly rated as Yukiko and Ichgaya. (Comparative analyses of Ryuko and Ichigaya are especially common among fans due to both being power-based wrestlers, though Ryuko herself dislikes being compared to Ichigaya.) With the strongest foundational training of the three, Ryuko possesses unequaled resilience and stamina, a near-impregnable all-round defense and abnormal destructive power behind every attack. In particular, her legendary Plasma Thunder Bomb is widely considered to be the single most devastating finisher in Japan. Ryuko's tag team with Ishikawa is also an ideal combination which fans affectionately call the "Ryu-Suzu Cannon". Owing to her internalized code of honor, Ryuko will reject any match conditions that give herself an unfair advantage. WARS is a manifestation of Ryuko's ideology that wrestling should not see itself as a spectator sport. In her view, wrestlers should never think about entertaining the spectators; instead each match should be viewed as a matter between the participating wrestlers alone, with the spectators being mere observers who should be ignored. (This contrasts with the culture of New Japan where inspiring fans is considered to be the highest meaning of wrestling.)