AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida appeared on the latest Talk Is Jericho podcast to promote Sunday’s AEW All In where she will defend her title in a four-way match with Dr. Britt Baker, DMD, Saraya, and Toni Storm. Here are the highlights:
How she joined the promotion:
“It was Kenny (Omega). He also wrestled in Ice Ribbon (where Hikaru wrestled). He contacted me and the first time, I think it was just the first Double or Nothing. So just one match. He mentioned the contract, but I said, ‘I can’t because I have the actress show, like a stage play show in Japan. It’s called Makai and I’m the main character of that so I can’t quit. So I can’t go to the U.S.’ but he called me, ‘You can keep doing the Makai and you can also do AEW two. You can do both.’ That’s so much different than I imagined. It was crazy because I thought it would take longer, but it was like six months. So yeah, when I came here, I was like, Okay, I’m going to be a champion someday, yay, but after six months, oh my God, I’m champion now. But yeah, it was great but there were no crowds in the venue so I think I felt more kind of anxious.”
Whether she’s nervous for All In:
“I don’t know why, but not really yet for now. Toni, Britt, I know them well and we wrestled a couple times and actually, I like to wrestle them, so I think I can show my best with them at Wembley, so actually, I’m really excited.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription