Hikaru Shida Comments On Wrestling In AEW Dynamite Main Event

Hikaru Shida took on Jamie Hayter in the main event of "AEW Dynamite: Holiday Bash" on December 21, with the hope of winning the AEW Women's World Championship for the second time. Shida received this opportunity after defeating The Bunny on the December 9 edition of "AEW Rampage" — also successfully defending her Regina Di WAVE title in the process. On "Dynamite," Shida was ultimately defeated by Hayter, with Hayter nailing her with the Hayterade lariat after a hard-fought and physical match. Despite not walking away with the win and the title, Shida found a more personal victory in this being the first time she has wrestled in the main event of "Dynamite."

The match was well-received by fans in the building, as the live crowd at one point chanted "This is awesome!" for the two women. Following her main event match against Hayter, Shida tweeted out: "It was one of my goals for long time to be on #AEWDynamite main event. I really really wanted to win..... SAMURAI gonna rise again."

Women have not competed in the main event of "Dynamite" many times throughout AEW's history, as they typically only receive one match a week on the Wednesday night show. This was true during Shida's first reign as AEW Women's World Champion, which lasted over a year until she was defeated by Britt Baker at Double or Nothing 2021. Over her 372 days as champion, Shida defended the title successfully eight times, with five of those defenses coming on "Dynamite" — however, the title was never defended in the main event of either TV or a pay-per-view. Shida's reign as AEW Women's World Champion still stands as the longest title reign in the company to date.