Former World Champion Reveals She's Re-Signed With AEW

Due to visa issues, former AEW Women’s World Champion Hikaru Shida has not factored into AEW programming for quite some time, last appearing on AEW programming in November of 2024. During her stay back in Japan, Shida has continued competing in the ring, all the while Kenny Omega has been looking after her cats in the US.

Shida has cleared some things up when speaking on a livestream, explaining she’s been involved in a stage play recently about a retiring wrestler. This prompted some fans to ask whether or not she was retiring in real life, though Shida shot this down quickly, even revealing that she’d agreed a new deal with AEW.

“Actually, after the show, many fans asked me, like, are you retiring or it’s just play? Of course it’s just 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.”

Shida has been a staple of AEW programming from the start, reigning three times as AEW Women’s World Champion, and to date holding the record for longest reigning world champion in AEW’s entire history. H/T Fightful