With Hikaru Shida becoming the cornerstone of the AEW women’s division, and currently heading towards a 250 day title reign as AEW Women’s Champion, now seems like an excellent time to take a quick look back at her career so far.
Shida first made her debut for the Ice Ribbon promotion in Japan back in 2008, in a losing effort to Kazumi Shimouma. As is customary in Japan, most rookies find themselves on the losing effort and Shida was no different, only picking up one win in her rookie year which came against Miyako Matsumoto in November of 2008.
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In 2009 Shida began to pick up victories more regularly, and entered into a feud with Makoto. 2009 also saw Shida try her hand at MMA, as she ventured into the world of Jewel and took part in their 5th Ring event, however she would lose to Ayaka Hamasaki in just 38 seconds after submitting to an arm bar.
In the summer of 2010, Shida made several appearances for NEO Japan Pro Wrestling and in October would receive her first title match in Ice Ribbon. She and her partner Tsukasa Fujimoto received a title shot for the International Ribbon tag team titles, but found themselves on the losing end. In December, the duo would finally be victorious in defeating EMI Sakura and Nanae Takahashi to win the tag titles.
During their title run, the team crossed over to promotion Smash 17, where they defended the titles against Io Shirai and her sister Mio. They went on to hold onto the titles until March of 2011, where they dropped the titles back to Sakura and Takahashi.
December 2011 saw Shida defeat Ice x60 Champion Tsukasa Fujimoto to win the championship. Three days later Shida and Maki Narumiya would then successfully win the tag team titles, making her a double champion.
In January 2012, Hikaru Shida headlined Bull Nakano’s retirement show, where she went on to lose to World of Stardom champion Yuzuki Aikawa. In June of the same year, Shida took part in the first ever Reina X-World event, where she and Fujimoto would win the vacant Reina world tag titles. Shida then began working in Mexico with CMLL. In August she became the longest reigning Ice x60 champion in the history of the company, and finally dropped the Ice x60 title to Mio Shirai in September.
In March of 2014, Shida and Fujimoto successfully captured the International Ice Ribbon tag titles after they defeated Kurumi and Kyoko Inoue. Straight after the match, Shida officially announced her resignation from the company, though she would still compete in the promotion throughout the remainder of the year. Her final match with the organisation came in December of that year, where she was defeated by her long term partner Fujimoto. Following the match, the pair relinquished their tag titles – ending their 309-day title reign.
Over the next several years, Shida worked as a freelancer, and began to work in America on a regular basis for Shimmer, as well as Makai in Japan. One of the most notable matches she had whilst working freelance came when she teamed up with Masato Tanaka to take on Kana (Asuka) and Kenny Omega in an intergender match.
Shida went on to sign full time with the Makai promotion in February of 2017. The company was famous for mixing music, theatre and wrestling together. She would remain there until 2019 when she signed with All Elite Wrestling.
Hikaru Shida captured her first AEW title by defeating Nyla Rose in a No-DQ match at the Double or Nothing PPV in May of 2020. She has now held the title for 248 days (at the time of writing). Shida has quickly become the benchmark of the woman’s division in AEW, despite her reign unfortunately being held back somewhat by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
We look forward to seeing what the talented Hikaru Shida accomplishes next in her future career.
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