AEW Superstars Hikaru Shida and Tay Conti with Red Velvet and Ryo Mizunami

Wrestling Wednesday: The Making of a Tay Conti, Hikaru Shida Trilogy

April 21, 2021 Anthony Varriano

Hikaru Shida puts her All Elite Wrestling women’s championship on the line tonight on AEW Dynamite, accepting the challenge of her current tag team partner and apparent friend, Tay Conti. Based on what these two superstars have let us know about them on social media (both Shida and Conti are great Instagram follows) and on AEW Dark, Dark Elevation, and Dynamite, these are two of the nicest women in the world. So how do the AEW writers turn Tay Conti and Hikaru Shida against each other to create a trilogy of championship matches that’ll surely be commemorated with a t-shirt?

While Tay Conti and Hikaru Shida will enter the squared circle as friends tonight on TNT, I highly doubt they’ll exit the ring as friends. Championships sink friendships. But who makes the better heel? I’ve been waiting for Shida to portray anything but the people’s champion she’s been during the longest championship reign in AEW history. But the only way I see that happening is if she loses to Tay Conti tonight, which would be enough in itself to create a trilogy of matches culminating in a part three on pay-per-view. But if Conti got some help from her friends in the Dark Order to win the title, hooboy. Look out! Shida don’t play that shit.

While Conti respects Shida too much to cheat her out of the title, that doesn’t mean she couldn’t be the recipient of some unexpected help. That would be enough to rip their relationship apart. But I fully suspect a Tay Conti, Hikaru Shida trilogy regardless of the result tonight.

If Shida retains her title, she’ll do so having exhausted everything she’s got. Conti might be the most fundamentally sound women’s wrestler in AEW. And not to say Shida’s ducked legitimate challenges to her title, but she’s certainly played a part in becoming the longest reigning AEW champion. Shida simply avoiding a Tay Conti rematch will have the same effect it had on Nyla Rose. The longer Shida appears to duck Conti, the more Conti will resent Shida.

The most unexpected result of tonight’s title match would be Shida and Conti exiting the ring as friends, and if that’s the case, expect the alien from the Andromeda galaxy to play a part in pitting Shida and Conti against each other. Before the alien, Kris Statlander, injured her knee, she was Hikaru Shida’s preferred tag team partner. She shall be again, and Tay Conti won’t take kindly to that. This is the storyline that creates the most matches for AEW, pitting Best Friends against the Dark Order, especially when Conti’s first friend, Anna Jay (No. 99), returns from injury. Reuniting Conti and Jay as well as Statlander and Shida should be expected and welcomed. But trios and coed tag team matches between Best Friends and the Dark Order would also be excellent.

Kris Statlander and Hikaru Shida versus Anna Jay and Tay Conti? Yes please. Trent?, Chuck Taylor, Orange Cassidy, Kris Statlander, and Hikaru Shida versus Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, John Silver, Anna Jay, and Tay Conti?! Oh, hell yes. Give me all of that. This is why we need a Tay Conti, Hikaru Shida trilogy. It gives life to so many matches outside the trilogy that will entertain us on AEW Dark, Elevation, and Dynamite for months.

Also, please give me more tag team matches featuring “Legit” Leyla Hirsch and Ryo Mizunami. And more matches featuring the team of Red Velvet, Big Swole, and Kilynn King would also be appreciated. Thank you, AEW, and bless you.