Rika Tatsumi

[5.0] "An average in-ring wrestler, her go-to character and gimmick is to tsundere choke people. Half the moves are done at a ponderous speed and sloppily. She's certainly a veteran of the company, but I've never understood what she is in the company. Yamashita, Watanabe, Nakajima, nowadays Endo, Arai and Suzume are better in-ring wrestlers. Hyper Misao and Pom Harajuku are more consistently funny and enjoyable to watch. When she's in a match I've always had a tinge of disappointment because the match was gonna slow down or there was gonna be sloppiness introduced. She's not bad but I can't pinpoint much she does particularly well."

[7.0] "I am sorry but how come Rika Tatsumi became+9 wrestler? She's ok at best. She was part of some good tag matches that she was Carried out by other people throughout her career . I guess her being there for almost every show at TJPW for a decade boosted her rating"

[7.0] "Rika Tatsumi is good, I like a lot of what I've seen from her. I do feel a 9 is a bit excessive though."

[9.0] "huge hardass with an incredible work rate, and she still finds space in her impressive wrestling ability to throw a bit of comedy on the side. diverse worker. amazing."

[10.0] "Rika Tatsumi is an exceptional wrestler who consistently impresses with her in ring work. Her choking out other wrestlers make every match a thrilling experience. Rikas ability to tell a story in the ring, combined with her engaging personality, sets her apart as a true standout in TJPW"

[10.0] "Rika is the best. If you thought Itoh was crazy, Rika is a straight up psycho! Choking, hitting partners, invading Mizuki's space; you don't know what she'll do next? Outside of her amazing character work, she's also the best person on the roster at putting a match together. I hope she gets another run with the title."

[10.0] "Rika Tatsumi is an incredibly talented wrestler who can put on a great fight with anyone and elevate lesser talents to the highest possible level. Her wrestling psychology is unparalleled, allowing her to structure matches expertly and tell compelling stories in the ring. While she may not have the flashiest moves, she doesn't need them; the emotional depth of her performances resonates deeply with the audience. Additionally, her charisma and psychotic character make her captivating to watch. Without a doubt, Rika Tatsumi is one of the best, if not the best, wrestler out there."

"One of the best in TJPW, great worker. Hell of an entrance song and she has a tendency to choke people. What's not to love? haha"

[8.0] "She's a good technician but her rating is unusually high imo. She's good but not THAT good, and I agree that her hip attacks are horrible. Now I'll give the rating I think she deserves and not reduce the overall rating on purpose."

[6.0] "I really do not understand Rika Tatsumi's appeal. Cleary you all love her and I just don't get it. Her strikes are not good, her moveset sucks (those awful looking hip attacks....). Her best matches are character driven ones, but even here I feel like the stories are better than her on screen contribution to them."

[10.0] "rika is fantastic. by far the best submission based wrestler in all of tjpw, with her signatures the figure four and dragon sleeper. rika excels in a bully role where even though shes very likable she can make anybody into the underdog. rika has only been the world champion one time in tjpw and only held it for about 4 months, being the shortest princess of princess title reign in tjpw. rika has also become the first (and as of writing, the only) triple crown champion in tjpw. her matches against shoko nakajima and miu watanabe as well as when she teams with the aforementioned miu watanabe are always ones to seek out. even though shes one of the top wrestlers in tjpw, she is very underrated. definitely watch her."

[10.0] "Rika Tatsumi has been for a long time overlooked by most casual viewers of TJPW, and it is so good to see her getting the recognition she deserves. While she has always been quite charismatic and a cornerstoen of many storylines, she is not a flashy wrestler in-ring wise with her old-school and grounded approach to wrestling. Her greatest strengh is her mastery of in-ring storytelling: she can lay out a compelling match against anyone, using her ingenuity and flair to adapt to her opponents and delivers her trademark moves in an organic fashion. Speaking of her moveset while she is mainly known for her dragon screws, hip attack, and a tendency to choke her opponent when in a pinch to set up her lethal dragon sleeper, she can also use a wider variety of moves when needed, such as powerbombs and even enzugiri. She never forces her moves, and instead incorporate them in the narrative of the match in such a natural and pportuynistic way. She can deliver on any position on the card, in serious or comedic matches and combines wonderfully her natural likeability with her more vicious side. She is truly a unique talent."

[10.0] "A legendary talent, with each performance she only seems to get better She is aggressive or funny whatever the occasion calls for she never fails to meet the task at hand. She has a spectacular moveset she bursts with charisma it's hard not to pay attention when she's on screen. Run don't walk to her matches"

[6.0] "She is a solid worker in the ring, but lacks the personality compared to most of the rest of the top of the roster. Her character is a generic idol wrestler and that is fine as she has gained popularity due to being there so long, but for newer viewers there will be nothing to latch onto. She is solid in the ring though, and can deliver good matches against more entertaining wrestlers."

[10.0] "If wrestling is the art of wrestlers telling physical stories with their bodies that make sense while elevating their opponents and making everyone look good, Rika Tatsumi might be the best wrestler in the entire company. She's the best kept secret of TJPW and arguably the best of the pillars (I like her the most of the 4 but Shoko is similarly up there to me because of how giving she is). She's like if Bret Hart was funny and cute and weird. If you can get over an inherent bias against her Diamond Hip based moveset (which understandably has traditionally been comedic due to the nature of the body part involved), you'll realize that even if it seems a bit silly, that doesn't mean it doesn't still make sense. Rika is a cerebral and vicious wrestler, but that doesn't mean she can't have some fun while she's doing it. She'll hot dog for the crowd a little bit and do a cheer routine before driving an elbow into her opponent's chest. She'll slam her opponent's leg into the ringpost and then feign concern before smiling and slamming the leg another time. Her go to escape when things get hairy in a match is to simply choke her opponent until the referee demands she stop. If she's not tearing or twisting your leg into a pretzel to set up her leg based submissions, she's working the head and neck to set up her other submission, the White Dragon Sleeper. Her promos (from what little I can understand due to the language barrier) and physical charisma and presence are through the roof. She's great and she's on another level, 10/10. No notes."

[10.0] "Fun, fluid, but mostly intense. That is the best way to describe Rike Tatsumi. On top of her top-notch technical abilities, she is also one of the best storytellers in wrestling. Each big match feels like it has an understandable narrative to follow. She is charismatic, a joy to see perform, what's not to love?"

[10.0] "Her years of work as a mainstay in Tokyo Joshi cannot be overlooked, and her recent Princess of Princess title reign absolutely solidifies my rationale for giving her the topmost ranking. She excels in her ability to bring forth a narrative in everything she does, in long term or recurring arcs such as her encounters with Sakisama and Hyper Misao, and within the matches themselves as best seen during her recent title run. The result is that her matches often have a clear and demonstrable meaning that can be undervalued in wrestling and particularly important when language barriers are a factor. Finally she provides what any company should seek in one of their pillars: the ability to help her juniors grow, as she has done in inspiring Suzume and with her tag team work alongside Miu Watanabe. Overall she stands out among the best in TJPW and should be ranked accordingly."

[8.0] "Quite honestly, a great performer but I'm not sure she's on the level of top TJPW talent like Miyu Yamashita (who, to be fair, is a level above everyone else), Mizuki, Shoko Nakajima and maybe a few others. She's very smooth in ring and I really enjoy her offense except the Hip Attack which I'll admit she does better than almost everyone, it's just not a move I like at all. Great performer, bit overrated here in my opinion."

[6.0] "Rika Tatsumi's high rating here baffles me; this is a wrestler whose appeal is completely lost on me. Her in-ring work is extremely limited, she knows very few moves and half of them don't even look that good. The fact that the bulk of her offense is made up of that awful looking hip-attack doesn't do her any favors. She can occasionally be a compelling storyteller (her title match with Shoko this year was excellent) but just as often either way over or undersells, and the her matches are extremely repetitive. Maybe something is lost in translation here for me, but I don't understand the character at all."

[10.0] "I'm not sure if I watched at least 10 matches with here, but I'm already sure she's one of the best in joshi today. She is an absolute star. She is very charismatic and has this charming, memorable jump from the third rope which is like her trademark taunt. I love her unique wrestling style as well. She likes leg targeting, but uses it just to weaken her opponent's legs, not to finish matches. Hip attacks work better for this."

[9.0] "It took me some time to get into Rika, but I can now see just how good she is. Her move-set and wrestling style is a fantastic mash-up you won't see anywhere else and she has an entirely unique charm and personality. I Love her use of hip attacks too and she may have the best facial expressions in the business!"

[10.0] "Since she won the Princess of Princess Championship, I am incredibly invested in Rika Tatsumi's work. She is a great worker, have charisma and is perfect for TJPW's product. She now deserves the full 10 to me."

[8.0] "I like Rika Tatsumi. She's one of the promotion's best in-ring competitors and always does something to help her stand out on any given show. The thing that forces me to decrease my rating for her is that I just don't connect with her character as much as I want to right now."

[9.0] "I fully expect to bump my rating up before the end of her reign. She's really done such a good job coming off a great Yuka reign, which can't be easy, and she's really impressed me with her matches. Excited to see what else she does this year."

[10.0] "Rika Tatsumi is the most underrated wrestler in TJPW. She gets everything right, she knows the little things, she works that style that is almost lost, working bodyparts, taking her time, selling the opponents offense like gold, getting tired and not being able to fully use her arsenal due to injuries sustained during the contest, those basic concepts that most wrestlers these days don't always apply, she has that offense that tries to destroy the opponents legs using dragon screws, figure 4's and powerful dropkicks to the thighs, forcing them to go on their knees and get caught in her lethal White Dragon Sleeper. She's a wonderful wrestler, dressed in that outfit that reminds me to the old school All Japan Women's style of gear, with a fantastic catchy song as her entrance music, and her cheerful, carefree personality, instantly turning her into my favorite TJPW wrestler. She might not be as appealing as some of other roster members to the western fanbase, since she doesn't translate her tweets or records herself speaking english, but I clicked with Rika from day #1 and understood why the japanese fans go crazy for her in the Fan Club shows. The White Dragon is always involved in the hottest angles of TJPW, tagging with Maho Kurone as the dragon bombers, being the only person in the last 5 years to pin Sakisama, getting injured and missing over 6 months of action, then cutting her hair live for her rivalry with Miyu Yamashita followed by their amazing 2018 match. Having the long-running Mizuki-Yuka-Rika love triangle. Being the reason Hyper Misao turned heel, having the long program with NEO Biishiki-gun and then finally turning her friend back to the good side, being PaMi's "retirement" match. In most pieces of TJPW storytelling history, Tatsumi Rika was involved somehow. She debuted alongside Yuka, and even though she wasn't a champion for many years, she was always there, helping others, being a veteran, a helping hand, an inspiration to people like Suzume, who joined TJPW because of her, despite all of that she was never the star of the show. But now it's her time to shine, with a long reign as Tag Champions alongside Miu, and most recently, her current Princess of Princess Championship reign, I am truly happy the White Dragon gets to showcase her truly underrated work as the top champion of TJPW"

[10.0] "Rika was in the shadow of Miyu, Yuka and Shoko for very long time. Now, in 2021, she finally takes the most important prize in ToJo and find her place in the spotlight - White Dragon absolutely deserves that place."

[10.0] "Tokyo Joshi Pro operates in mysterious ways, booking most of the time sucks, but Rika Tatsumi always stands out and makes the best of whatever she's being given. In my opinion, she is the perfect wrestler for what Tokyo Joshi Pro is trying to be."

[9.0] "The white dragon is obviously a solid enough wrestler and the company obviously sees her as a future headliner too , as she is one of the few who has main evented a korakuen and she does regular commentary duties. she has not the best of luck with niggling injuries and losing her tag team partner , but probably her time will come very soon"