8 Upcoming Wrestling Matches That Are Already DOOMED!

2. Hikaru Shida vs Kris Statlander

Kris Statlander is enormously popular with AEW fans and the internet wrestling community at large. Powerful and charismatic, there is a slight sense of injustice around Statlander’s recent run with the AEW Women’s Championship. While Thekla is thriving with the belt and a regular fixture on AEW television, Statlander felt like more of an afterthought in Tony Khan’s booking while she held the gold in AEW.

Hikaru Shida has a great legacy in AEW, but has felt like a much less significant figure since returning to the company to challenge Willow Nightingale for the TBS title on the April 1st episode of Collision. Her slow heel turn has been purposefully as subtle as a brick, but the fact remains that AEW audiences are not really reacting to Shida after her 17 months away from TV.

As Statlander and Shida’s tag team is built on a foundation of berries and twigs, these two are clearly on a collision course with one another this summer. The problem is, will the audience care enough, and does this feel worthy of Statlander’s standing with fans? Both women are involved in the AEW women’s championship Fatal Four Way at Double Or Nothing, but the likeliest outcome is their union coming apart in Queens. It will need something special to make this feel like a feud to get excited about at this point.