AEW: Hikaru Shida on AEW Women’s Title Reign, Saraya Confirms WWE Talks, Gunn Club

Hikaru Shida Comments on Her AEW Women’s Championship Reign During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Sports Graphic Number held a recent interview with Hikaru Shida. One of the topics discussed included Shida’s thoughts on her time as AEW Women’s Champion during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I struggled with no audience and there was a lot of pressure on me. But I knew that what I had done had reached the other side of the camera, and it all paid off. It all paid off.”

Shida also gave her thoughts on her trips to Japan to work at MAKAI entertainment shows on the side of her AEW career.

“My contract with AEW was based on the premise that I would continue to perform in MAKAI. I believe that I am Hikaru Shida only when I do both wrestling and acting.”

English translation via PostWrestling.com

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Saraya Confirms Talks with WWE for Potential Return Prior to Signing with AEW

As noted before, Saraya recently signed an official contract with AEW. Prior to her signing, WWE had been interested in bringing back Saraya and included terms for a potential new deal that would have given her the chance to wrestle again. This was a departure from WWE’s previous stance of her career in the company following her neck injury in 2017.

A recent episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast had Saraya as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Saraya confirming that the reports of her being in talks with WWE prior to signing with AEW were true.

“Hunter did reach out to me and he wanted to talk to me. He thought it was my decision (to leave) because he wasn’t there at the time. He thought it was my decision to leave. ‘No, bro’ [laughs]. ‘It was Vince (McMahon) and Johnny (Laurinaitis).’ We got talking, but then I sat and talked to you guys, and I was like, man, I miss that side of wrestling where you can pitch your own ideas, and you can just have fun. I haven’t felt excited about wrestling in a very long time so the first day of being here, it was awesome. Everyone is so nice. It’s crazy just how different it can feel.”

Saraya also stated that she did consider the idea of returning to WWE but gave her reasons why she decided to go to AEW instead in the end.

“I was. I was thinking about it. Again, I don’t have issues with WWE. I just wish that some things were done differently, that’s the only thing I have against them. There are so many years where I could have been utilized more. My friends were around me, I was so depressed about it. I was thinking about going back there. Then I spoke to you [Jericho], I spoke to Mox [Jon Moxley], I was speaking to Britt (Baker), I got on the phone with Tony and he was so excited. I was like, ‘I think I’m going to give this a shot.’

If you [Jericho] wouldn’t have pushed it. I understand Tony is busy, he has two different football teams, British and American, and also this big company he has to run. I understand he’s busy. A few months had gone by, I was like, ‘I feel like he’s not interested,’ and that’s okay and totally fine. I was getting the calls from WWE and was like, ‘Should I? Am I going to be 100% happy going back?’ Then you guys called me and made it sound so exciting.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Austin & Colten Gunn Comment on Moving Away from Gunn Club Name

A recent episode of the AEW Unrestricted podcast had Austin and Colten Gunn as the guests. One of the topics discussed included the Gunn’s thoughts on moving away from their original The Gunn Club team name to their new name of The Gunns.

Austin Gunn – “Yeah, it was a name that me and my dad started together as a tag team. We’re about to go do my first match and we don’t have a name and he goes ‘What about the Gunn Club?’. I was like ‘Alright, cool’ and we just did that for the first match and it literally stuck with us for three years. The entire time, to me I was like this is goofy, I don’t wanna represent anything else like New Japan esque. You have Bullet Club and you have all of these clubs and I was like ‘Nah, this is not it’. For three years, we had to stick with that but when me and Colten turned on [Billy Gunn]… I realized it was time for me and Colten to kinda take charge of not only our characters but our career as well. We no longer live under the shadow of my dad so I was like let’s just go with The Gunns. Its cleaner, it’s more precise and it’s more serious.”

Colten Gunn – “Yeah and it’s not a club anymore. There’s only two of us, so.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com