Meeting All Elite Wrestling AEW star Hikaru Shida in 2016
Watching All Elite Wrestling Double Or Nothing recently made me realise that I had a met a wrestler on that show many years ago that now in 2019 is getting ready to take the world by storm that wrestler a Japanese joshi wrestler Hikaru Shida.
Reading up and in preparation for this blog I did some research on Hikaru Shida and I found out some interesting things about her and her journey in pro wrestling here's a quick summary for you
- Hikaru Shida has trained in Judo and Kendo
- Hikaru Shida was trained by Emi Sakura
- Hikaru Shida first match was against Haruna Akagi on 20th July 2008 in Japanese ice ribbon promotion
- Hikaru Shida has previously appeared in a number of TV shows,Films and music videos in Japan
- Hikaru Shida has been a multi time champion in a number of promotions across the world.
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| Me and Hikaru Shida in 2016 |
I had never seen Hikaru before and this show was special for me as it was the first show I was backstage and filming promos with some of the talent after their matches that night, so for most of the show that evening I was behind the curtain.
When the first match started I was backstage watching the show through a curtain and next to me walks Hikaru Shida and she sits down and starts watching the show, she is watching all the matches intently and she was looking at the crowd too and taking it all in, I always remembered that.
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| A Picture of Hikaru Shida i took in 2016 (Sorry for the Blurry Image!) |
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| Nadia Sapphire and Me in 2016 |
Here is a short 2 min highlight from their match at that show
Hikaru was the first Japanese female wrestler I had seen live and she showed so much potential she was fast, had so much agility and was so fluid,I had my eyes opened back in 2016 about how good Japanese women's wrestling could be and given the chance what they could be able to achieve.
On a complete side note......
One of the coolest things I've ever seen happened involving Hikaru Shida, I was talking to Kenny Omega and she came up to us and Kenny said "excuse me a moment" and Kenny went from Fluid English straight into talking to Hikaru Shida in fluid Japanese, I was totally in awe of that & that a skill i wish i had.
Back to the blog.........
On a complete side note......
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| Me and Kenny Oemga from Taunton 2016 |
Back to the blog.........
I was surprised that New Japan as they expanded and got more traction outside of Japan and got bigger didn't include Hikaru Shida and others like Emi Sakura in their shows and have Women's matches as the ladies are incredible athletes and just so different from what was on the scene.
Kenny Omega however explained in a recent interview that New Japan didn't want to have Female wrestlers on their shows because they felt it was part of their tradition not to have women on the show as they never had before. I believe Kenny Omega proposed bringing these Japanese ladies wrestlers to New Japan but despite all his efforts it never happened, New japan definitely missed out.
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| Emi Sakura |
Hikaru Shida now gets her opportunity to wrestle in All Elite Wrestling (AEW) alongside a whole host of Japanese female wrestlers and I think after what we all saw in 6 person tag match that their style of wrestling is going to fit in perfectly and be a huge highlight of the shows and I believe Hikaru Shida has the ability to become the brightest star in the whole division in 2019.
Thanks for Reading
@jon422002
Jonathan Orchard
@jon422002
Jonathan Orchard
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