AEW: Everything You Need to Know About Hikaru Shida

This morning on All Elite Wrestling’s Twitter page, they revealed the latest addition to the roster and a huge signing for AEW’s women’s division: Hikaru Shida.

If that name of this new AEW signee doesn’t ring any bells for you, it might be because you’re one of our American readers. Hikaru Shida hasn’t wrestled much outside of Japan, but in the Joshi world, she is an absolute force to be reckoned with.

She initially entered the business by debuting in 2008 for ICE Ribbon, where she stayed for the next six years of her career. There, she won the promotion’s top title – the ICEx60 Championship – and a four-time International Ribbon Tag Team Champion; one of those tag title reigns was during her ICEx60 reign, making her a double champion.

Upon leaving ICE Ribbon, Shida started to sprout her wings as a freelance worker. This led to notable appearances for OZ Academy, Sendai Girls, Makai, Pro Wrestling Wave, Pro-Wrestling: EVE and even Shimmer. For Shimmer, she had a spectacular match against Ember Moon, back in the latter’s days as Athena.

YouTube is filled with plenty of fantastic matches of Shida’s that highlights her high energy and in-ring prowess. She has squared off with the likes of Dakota Kai (back when she was Evie), Asuka (when she was Kana) Kenny Omega and Naomichi Marufiji. Yes, THAT Kenny Omega and THAT Naomichi Marufiji. Shida has been out here being an intergender legend for a while now. But above all of her matches, aspiring fans must see her work against Aja Kong.

If you check out any match from her catalog, go out of your way to watch her 25 minute classic against Aja Kong from last year’s OZ Academy Flower Bloom In Yokohama. The match was over the OZ Academy Openweight Championship and won the promotions year-end Best Bout award. What makes this match all the more interesting is knowing how close we are to a rematch now with Kong also under the AEW banner.

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Shida also has some of the most lethal kicks in all of wrestling. If you see Hikaru Shida kick her opponent in the mouth, it’s a pretty safe bet that the match is on its way to being over and that Shida is about to get her arm raised. Such kicks could come in handy when it comes to standing out against her competition in AEW’s women’s division. Especially when it comes time for AEW to introduce a women’s belt.

Also, it’s worth noting that Shida is an actress on the side. Between wrestling, martial arts and acting, Shida is something of a triple threat. Plus, she implements a bit of acting in her in-ring cosplays. She has come down to the ring dressed as the likes of Chun-Li and Wonder Woman.

To wrap this up nicely, there’s a lot of cool stuff about Hikaru Shida. She’s a badass in several respects and AEW fans should be excited for her debut.