AEW has finally announced the return of their Inaugural women’s champion Riho after almost 10 months of absence for the female star from the company.
The promotion announced a women’s eliminator tournament last week to determine the new #1 contender for the current champion Hikaru Shida.
The company then announced an interesting first-round match for the tournament during tonight’s episode of Dynamite, confirming that a returning Riho will be facing the current NWA women’s champion Sarena Deeb:
Riho was crowned the first-ever AEW women’s champion during the premiere episode of Dynamite back in October 2019 after defeating Hikaru Shida in a one on one match.
She held the title for 133 days before losing it to Nyla Rose in February last year. Shida then won the championship from Rose during Double Or Nothing in May.
The Japanese star took a leave from AEW not long after losing the championship due to the travel restrictions put in place to stop the spread of coronavirus.
Though the company has not provided any timetable for this bout just yet and so we will have to wait and see when the former women’s champion actually makes her return to AEW programming.