Ryo Saito | |
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Saito in Oxford, November, 2009
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Born |
Yamagata-shi, Yamagata, Japan |
August 15, 1979
Professional wrestling career | |
Ring name(s) | Ryo Saito |
Billed height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) |
Billed weight | 82 kg (181 lb) |
Trained by |
Último Dragón Skayde |
Debut | May 11, 1999 |
Ryo Saito (斎藤 了 Saitō Ryō), is a Japanese professional wrestler, also known by the ring name Ryo "Jimmy" Saito. He wrestles for Dragon Gate, where he was a member of the Jimmyz stable. His name is sometimes abbreviated as SaiRyo, so as not to confuse him with SAITO.
Ryo Saito debuted in 1999 as a fourth term student. He fought in that year's Young Dragons Cup, but lost in the finals to the newly-heel Yasushi Kanda.
In 2000, he divided his time between Japan and Mexico, and in Japan he adopted the gimmick of a bicycling enthusiast, wearing a professional bicycler's outfit, helmet, and glasses and coming to the ring on a bicycle. He became something of a jobber, losing nearly 20 opening matches in a row to Kenichiro Arai. He also participated in that year's Young Dragons Cup, and made it to the finals again, but lost to the man who became his greatest foil, Milano Collection A.T. When he returned to Japan, his bicycle was stolen by Sumo "Dandy" Fuji 2000, starting up a feud between them that led into 2001. Saito eventually managed to win his bicycle back, and he and the now-renamed Big Fuji started teaming on and off as the Bicycle Brothers for the next couple of years.
2001 was also the year when Saito finally broke out of his small role and achieved some championship success. On August 14, he teamed with Magnum TOKYO and Dragon Kid to win the UWA World Trios Championship from CIMA, SUWA, and Big Fuji of Crazy MAX, and on September 30, he beat Susumu Mochizuki for the NWA World Welterweight Title. His momentum came to a halt in late 2001 when the T2P class arrived in Japan, and he spent the next few months losing to Milano Collection A.T. and feuding with the newly-heel Genki Horiguchi. It was during this time that he formed a close friendship with T2P student Anthony W. Mori.