Sad news from the Joshi world, and specifically for fans of Ice Ribbon. It has been announced that Ice Ribbon’s top champion, the ICExInfinity holder Tsukushi Haruka will be retiring in May of this year. This will being an end to Haruka’s 12 year career.
Tsukushi Haruka of Ice Ribbon Announces Retirement
At today’s press conference Tsukushi Haruka has announced that she will be retiring on May 4th at the Yokohama Budoukan show.
The English translation of her statement are as follows: pic.twitter.com/tR17sCyzgS
— Ice Ribbon ~Official English Account~ (@IceRibbon_eng) March 4, 2022
This news has come slightly out of the blue as 2021 in Ice Ribbon was centered on Tsukushi Haruka’s redemption and eventual victory over Tsukasa Fujimoto to win the ICExInfinity Championship for the first time in eight years. A series of departures in late 2021 left Ice Ribbon desperately clinging to Fujimoto and Haruka as two of the pillars of the company’s rebuild, but they must now advance without Tsukushi Haruka.
Tsukushi Haruka has earned a reputation as one of the best wrestlers in the entire Joshi scene. Since winning the ICExInfinty Championship she has been delivering at a level she’s never operated on before and earned a spot in a number of our Joshi Match of The Month top 5’s in the process. Tsukushi Haruka’s retirement will leave a dent in the Joshi wrestling scene that may be difficult to fill, she was a true workhorse that stole the show no matter her spot on the card. More to the point though, her retirement is a big blow to Ice Ribbon who are still reeling from the departures of key names in late 2021 and had been putting a lot of focus and attention on Haruka’s title reign.
先ほど行われました、春輝つくし選手引退会見の一部コメントです。 #iceribbon pic.twitter.com/3Yp32AzB3e
— アイスリボン《公式》 (@ICERIBBON_jp) March 4, 2022
Here’s hoping that Tsukushi Haruka can get the magnificent send-off she deserves before her retirement and gets the chance to have another instant classic or two before closing the book on her career.
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