Hikaru Shida (志田 光, Shida Hikaru, born June 11, 1988) is a Japanese professional wrestler, martial artist, actress, and model currently signed to All Elite Wrestling.
While Shida was originally (and occasionally still is) an actress, she was enamored by the sport while training for a role. She then decided to pursue it and made her professional debut as a pro wrestler in 2008, training under Emi Sakura in her Ice Ribbon promotion. She had background in both judo and kendo beforehand so she had little to no trouble finding her feet. She would stay at the promotion until 2014.
After departing Ice Ribbon, Shida became a freelance wrestler and competed on many promotions, most notably SHIMMER, Pro Wrestling Wave, and Oz Academy. In 2019, Shida signed with then newly established American promotion All Elite Wrestling. Shida became one of the most notable wrestlers in the company, especially in their women's division. When Shida eventually won her first AEW's Women's title in May 2020, she would hold onto it for 372 days, the longest championship reign in the promotion's history until January 2023 (when Jade Cargill's inaugural 508 day reign as AEW TBS Champion
surpassed it).
Throughout her career, Shida has been a 3X AEW Women's World Champion, 1X ICEx60 Champion, 5X International Tag team Championnote , 1X Oz Academy Openweight Champion, 2X Oz Academy Tag team Championnote , 2X Wave Single Champion, 1X Wave Tag Team Championnote , 1X Cath the Wave (2014) winner, 3X Reina World Tag Team Championnote , 1X Revolution Championship Wrestling Women's Champion, 1X Sendai Girls Tag Team Championnote .
Outside of wrestling, Shida does theatrical work. She also has a YouTube channel.
"Holy Tropes":
- The Ace: She's an excellent wrestler, and is dubbed "Comical Ace" for a reason. She's also the first woman to legitimately win the AEW Women's Championship thrice note .
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Beautiful and always composed.
- Arch-Enemy: Serena Deeb, Nyla Rose, and Britt Baker are her most personal and consistent enemies in AEW. Subverted in Britt's case as of May 2023, where they befriended each other due to their mutual feud with The Outcasts.
- Assumed Win:
- Shida was challenged to a match by Kris Statlander when Shida was #1 contender and Kris had not won a match yet. One piledriver later, and Shida had lost in surprising fashion. One hell of a way for Statlander to make her mark, and a Crack Defeat for Shida, shaking her mentally.
- Shida later faced Serena Deeb in match where, if she won, she would have been the first woman in AEW to get 50 wins. AEW even had a special glass plaque pre-made for Shida at ringside. Deeb didn't take kindly to this, forcing Shida to submit to her Serenity Lock finisher, and adding insult to injury, smashed Shida's plaque into her head after defeating her.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Wore a white suit around the time of the Women's Eliminator tournament.
- Breakout Character: One of the most popular wrestlers in AEW.
- Cosplay Otaku Girl: Does cosplay fairly often, including for characters like Cammy and Chun-Li (Street Fighter), San (Princess Mononoke), and Tifa Lockhart (Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, particularly Final Fantasy VII Remake).
- Crack Defeat: Has three of these in AEW, all which visibly shook Shida's resolve. The first was to Kris Statlander, with how humiliating the loss was (Statlander had not won a match yet, she beat Shida rather easily, and the pin itself was especially embarrassing), and the consequences (Shida was #1 contender, and that loss put her out of the title picture for months). The second was losing the AEW Women's Championship to Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D, where the shame of losing like she did (Shida was champion for over a year, but was forced to submit to Baker's Lockjaw finisher, with Shida being unable to stand the pain for very long), took Shida off of AEW TV for nearly five months. The third was to Serena Deeb, who, upset with Shida assuming she would defeat Deeb for her 50th win in AEW, not only forced Shida to submit, but also cracked Shida's own trophy over her head after the match.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: Ever since sporting a much shorter bob cut she's been displaying a growing mean streak in her matches.
- Finishing Move: She has three: Ōhōri no Tamashii, a running single leg high knee to the face of a kneeling or seated opponent; Falcon Arrow, sometimes from the top rope; Full Metal Muffler, an arm trap Argentine leglock.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Before, she was bitter rivals with Britt Baker. However, due to both having a grudge against The Outcasts, Shida began to work together with Britt against the faction, resulting in them growing a mutual respect for eachother. Afterwards, the two started to regularly team-up or accompany the other to the ring.
- Friendly Rivalry: She and Kris Statlander have traded blows as much as they tagged together throughout their AEW tenure.
- Game-Breaking Injury: During a match with Serena Deeb, Deeb targeted Shida's knee, injuring it so badly that it has hampered Shida's mobility for months. It's gotten to the point where Shida's been forced to submit to submission holds targeting that knee (one from Deeb's Serenity Lock, another from Nyla Rose using a Stretch Muffler hold), which, considering the only time Shida tapped out in AEW before was to Britt Baker's Lockjaw, shows how devastating and painful that injury is.
- Iconic Outfit: Shida did not debut her popular Tifa Lockheart-inspired red outfit until a year into AEW's formation.
- Lady of War: Has the composure and the sword (or shinai) to match.
- Ms. Fanservice: She's a Head-Turning Beauty, being an actress and model, and wrestles with a Stripperiffic wrestling gear.
- Red Baron: "Comical Ace", "Holy Shida", and "Shining Samurai" are her most known monikers.
- Red Is Heroic: One of AEW's top faces and is generally dressed in red.
- Shout-Out: Her outfit when facing Abadon on the October 28, 2023 episode of Collision is the same dress Ada Wong wore in the original release of Resident Evil 4.
- Signature Move: Uses a lot of knee strikes, especially against bigger opponents like Nyla Rose.
- Surpassed the Teacher: She defeated her mentor Emi Sakura in her last match in Japan before coming to the U.S.
- Tag Team:
- Tsukasa Fujimoto and Syuri are her two most frequent partners, winning multiple Tag Team gold with those two.
- Kris Statlander and Riho are her most frequent Tag partners in AEW.
- Wardrobe Malfunction: During Shida's final title defence at Double or Nothing 2021 against Britt Baker, there was a stretch of the match where the action noticeably slumped and became slow and awkward. What had actually happened was that Shida's top was damaged and started to come undone, forcing the two women to be extremely careful until they could manage to resecure it, for fear of her accidentally flashing the crowd. Fortunately, they managed to avoid any inappropriate accidents.
- Warrior Poet: Other than wrestling, she also participates in theatrical productions.
- Whole Costume Reference: Her wrestling gear starting May 2020 is based on Tifa Lockhart's attire in Final Fantasy VII Remake but with more red.
- Wooden Katanas Are Even Better: Her weapon, which she carries in her entrances during standard matches.
- Years Too Early: During the hype video for her match against Ryo Mizunami they both recount Ryo telling her that even if she wrestled for 100 years, she’d never be good enough to defeat Mizunami.
