AEW Women's Champion Hikaru Shida on how she transitioned from a career in movies to pro-wrestling
Not all wrestlers start training at an early age to fulfill their dreams, such is not always the case. Some wrestlers come into professional wrestling from other sports such as basketball, football, or MMA.
Some may have a background in other fields such as bodybuilding, gymnastics or film. One such individual is the reigning AEW Women's World Champion Hikaru Shida, who was an actress before she became a professional wrestler.
Shida has recently spoken to the AEW Unrestricted podcast, where she opened up on how she became a pro-wrestler.
AEW Women's Champion Hikaru Shida on how she became a pro wrestler
Ahead of AEW Dynamite's one-year anniversary, Hikaru Shida spoke to Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone on the latest episode of the AEW Unrestricted podcast. Shida revealed that she never watched pro-wrestling when she was an actress. However, for a part in a movie, the producer told her to undergo pro-wrestling training.
"I was an actress. I took a movie audition and a producer came in and stood in front of us, and he said, 'OK, you have to be a professional wrestler. If you debut as a professional wrestler, you can take a part in the movie.' I've watched wrestling before, but I started wrestling for the wrestling movie. I had only a month to train - that was crazy. I never watched before, so at the first training, I didn't know what I was doing." H/T: Wrestling Inc.
While WWE Superstars such as The Rock, Batista and John Cena have ventured into the silver screen after a successful career in WWE, it is rare to see the opposite occur. However, Shida, who trained under Emi Sakura in the latter's Ice Ribbon dojo, has done pretty well for herself.
After completing her training under Emi Sakura, Hikaru Shida embarked on a full-time career as a professional wrestler and has now found herself in AEW, where she sits on top of the women's division. Shida will be defending the AEW Women's World Championship against Big Swole on the one-year anniversary episode of AEW Dynamite on October 14th.