During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline.com discussed Riho’s status with AEW and why she hasn’t appeared on television during the pandemic:
“They can bring her in. The thing with her is she lives in Japan and then she’d have to quarantine to go back, and that’s a tough deal. If she was living here she’d be on TV every week. They do bring PAC back and forth, which is kind of a hassle. He comes here for a couple of weeks, then he has to quarantine for two weeks and then go home. Two weeks just to get home, it’s not worth staying home for a week if you’ve got to take two weeks to get home, so it’s really tough. It’s just a tough business right now, it’s a tough world. But that would be the same with Riho and I think that, like with PAC, I think they’ve got ideas for PAC to be in major matches, so it makes it worth doing, but Riho – it’s not like there’s going to be great major matches for her, so it’s kinda like, why put her through this I guess. They haven’t used CIMA and T-Hawk and Lindaman either for the same reason, or similar reasons, because it’s just not worth bringing them in for something that’s not major and then they have to quarantine and then bring them back. It’s just tough.” (quote courtesy of WrestleTalk.com)
Riho’s last appearance for AEW was during the first empty arena edition of AEW Dynamite on March 18th of 2020:
