All Elite Wrestling crowned Riho its first AEW Women’s World Champion on the first episode of Dynamite and announced today who she’ll face on its next pay-per-view, Full Gear. As revealed via the tweet below, Riho will defend her title against her trainer, Emi Sakura.
The #AEW Women's World Championship will be defended at #AEWFullGear when @riho_gtmv puts her championship on the line against @EmiSakura_gtmv
Full Gear broadcasts LIVE from Baltimore this SATURDAY night, and is available on all major providers, @FiteTV @ITVWrestling pic.twitter.com/6qLz1unmzo
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) November 6, 2019
Teacher & students. She became a Wrestler while in elementary school. That's why our matches were always prejudiced wherever we went. People fell something when watching a match. However, to make people wanna watch the match is a Pro Wrestler’s first job.#gtmv #AEWFullGear pic.twitter.com/KVg99Ctbf2
— Emi Sakura🍫 (@EmiSakura_gtmv) November 6, 2019
As the founder of Ice Ribbon and Gatoh Move and a twenty-five year veteran of the business, Sakura has pro wrestling bona fides to spare. In Japan this summer, she was also Riho’s last opponent in Gatoh Move before the younger wrestler moved to Stardom.
Does Emi Sakura have the win-loss record to make her the logical number one contender to the AEW World Women’s Championship, though? She won her most recent AEW match, a fatal four-way on last week’s episode of AEW Dark, but she has a losing record of 1-2 in the promotion. Meanwhile, according to the stats on AEW’s website, three women (besides Riho and Britt Baker, who just unsuccessfully challenged her) currently have winning records: Allie at 3-2, Brandi Rhodes at 1-0, and Hikaru Shida at 2-1. Riho vs. Sakura should be cool, but it also maybe doesn’t make sense under the system AEW has established for themselves.
The AEW World Women’s Championship match is the second women’s match to be announced for Full Gear, after a pre-show grudge match between Baker and Bea Priestly made official during last night’s AEW Dark. With these additions, here’s the Full Gear card as it stands right now:
- Pre-show: Britt Baker vs. Bea Priestly
- Unsanctioned match: Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega
- Santana and Ortiz vs. The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson)
- Adam Page vs. Pac
- AEW Women’s World Championship match: Riho (c) vs. Emi Sakura
- AEW World Championship match with a panel of judges to decide the result if there isn’t a clear winner or loser: Chris Jericho (c) vs Cody
