Here's the match video of Hikaru Shida defending her AEW Women's Championship against Ryo Mizunami from Sunday's AEW show. Though Hikaru's idea to have a tournament to determine a title contender isn't a bad idea, AEW's lack of TV time meant that the execution was less than ideal. Only a couple of matches aired on Dynamite. The rest of them aired on the YouTube ghetto which means no one watched them. Then when they tried to air matches on Bleacher Report, the feed was geo blocked despite repeated BR promises that they would be made available to international viewers. Tony Khan apologized and moved them to YouTube. How do you make a big deal out of this with that kind of stuff going on? I watched the Japanese matches. Hikaru produced them including the TV part. So hopefully what AEW learned is that Hikaru is more than a great wrestler and champion. Despite losing her match, Maki Itoh was the breakout star from the Japan side mostly because of her prematch idol shtick. I guess her wrestling is passable but AEW brought her over for the PPV. I'm not sure what her contract status is with Tokyo Joshi Pro. But Khan can probably get her if he wants her. Before the tournament, a lot of fans thought Riho would win. But she is not under AEW contract. She's strictly freelance which is why I would never have made her champ in the first place. Ryo beat Aja Kong and then Nyla Rose to win the tournament. Most fans here don't know anything about Ryo or her rivalry with Hikaru. Ryo is 32 years old. Meiko Satomura trained her first at GAEA and then at Sendai Girls after GAEA closed in 2005. She worked mostly for WAVE from 2009 until they went on hiatus in 2019. And that's when she first worked for AEW. Excalibur tried to play up Hikaru's rivalry with Ryo during the match broadcast. They should have done that beforehand to make fans care about her. Ryo is a pretty good but not great wrestler. She lacks the looks and charisma that will get her over in America. For those reasons she would not have been my first choice to win the tournament. And the match reflected that. It was OK but it took a while to get out of first gear. And there were even communication issues near the end. Hikaru tried her best but I don't think the results were what she was after. Then after they brought out Britt Baker and the whole gang to set up a six woman match for Dynamite. So again, good idea with not so good execution. Enjoy the video!
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