Former AEW Women’s World Champion reveals she’s re-signed with company
Hikaru Shida says she recently re-signed with AEW.
The former AEW Women’s World Champion revealed the news during a YouTube livestream on Friday. She said fans had been asking if she was retiring after she played the role of a retiring pro wrestler in a stage play last month in Japan.
Shida said:
“I was the main character. The show was almost two hours. I think only five minutes without me during whole show,” she said. “It was the hardest stage play for me, whole ten years but it was really great.”
Shida, under the name Tsuruhime, has performed in MAKAI productions since 2014. MAKAI produces live shows that combine elements of musical theatre, stage drama, and wrestling.
Shida continued about her most recent performance with MAKAI:
“It’s about a wrestler. The title was ‘Retirement’ and this is the story of the wrestler (who) just announced her retirement, and that’s me. Actually, after the show many fans asked me like ‘Are you retiring or is it just a play?’ And of course it’s just a play. I’m not retiring, I just renewed my Visa and contract so I’m not retiring. But fans asked me so that means my acting was too good.”
The play ran from September 18 to 21. On October 2, Shida posted to X that she was returning to the United States. Her most recent AEW match, a loss to Kris Statlander, took place on the November 20, 2024 edition of AEW Dynamite.
Shida’s full livestream is below:
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.