Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite featured a first-round match of the Women’s Title Eliminator Tournament.
Riho took on Serena Deeb on the show that aired live on TNT from Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place. Riho went over in the contest to advance in the tournament.
It turns out that Deeb worked the match while dealing with a bad knee. Dave Meltzer mentioned the injury and praised the match during today’s Wrestling Observer Radio.
“I thought this match was so good. It was so much better…like I expected a good match, but it was better than I expected. Serena Deeb’s got a bad knee so she was really limited so they really just had to wrestle, but they both wrestled so well, like both of them in and out of moves and everything. It was just a technical wrestling match, I think they both impressed everyone. I saw everyone after the match raving about the match.”
Riho hadn’t worked a match in AEW since March 18, 2020, when she competed in a fatal 4-way match along with Hikaru Shida, Kris Statlander, and Penelope Ford. She had been on hiatus due to COVID-related travel restrictions in Japan.
