Biography
One of the original members of AEW's women's division, Hikaru Shida has spent 2026 showing a meaner side. Back on AEW television in April after more than a year away, she turned on her would-be tag partner Kris Statlander at Double or Nothing in May, then won the vacant AEW TBS Championship in the company's first Survival of the Fittest match on 1 July. The reign was brief: Maya World beat her for the title at Redemption on 26 July, but the change of attitude has given a veteran of nearly two decades a fresh edge.
Shida came to wrestling through acting. A judo and kendo practitioner (she holds third dan in kendo), she was cast as the lead in Three Count, a film set in the world of wrestling, and trained under Emi Sakura at the Ice Ribbon dojo for the part. She liked it enough to stay, debuting for Ice Ribbon on 20 July 2008. She grew into one of the promotion's leading names, winning the ICE×60 Championship at RibbonMania 2011 and setting what was then a record 273-day reign, while her partnership with Tsukasa Fujimoto, Muscle Venus, set records of its own with the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship.
Shida left Ice Ribbon in 2014 and thrived as a freelancer. That summer she won Pro Wrestling Wave's Catch the Wave tournament and its singles title, and she collected tag gold in Oz Academy with Aja Kong and later Syuri, as well as in Sendai Girls. She also performed for the theatrical Makai company as Tsuruhime and made regular trips to the United States for Shimmer.
AEW signed her in April 2019, before the promotion had run a show. After a slow start, she beat Nyla Rose in a no disqualification match at Double or Nothing 2020 to become AEW Women's World Champion, and over the next 372 days, the longest reign in the title's history, she turned back challengers including Thunder Rosa and Ryo Mizunami before losing to Britt Baker at Double or Nothing 2021. In 2023 she won the title twice more, from Toni Storm in August and Saraya in October, to become the first three-time holder. She also kept up her links with Japan, winning the Wave title again in 2022.
After an ROH title challenge to Athena and a TBS Championship match against Mercedes Moné in 2024, Shida disappeared from AEW screens for well over a year, later explaining that visa issues were to blame before confirming a new contract. Since her 2026 return she has played the villain, and she heads into the autumn looking for a way back to championship gold.
