Four years ago, under the banner of the Pro Wrestling: EVE promotion in England, Jamie Hayter and Emi Sakura collided for the very first time. At that moment, Hayter’s career was barely four years old and while she’d wrestled quite a bit during those years, she had nothing on the twenty-four years of experience Sakura had under her belt at that point. After 16 minutes of combat, Sakura defeated Hayter, but the younger competitor certainly demonstrated to Sakura she was a force to be reckoned with.
Perhaps that’s why, just a few months later when Emi was in pursuit of an AEW Women’s World Championship at FULL GEAR 2019, she teamed with Hayter to fight then-champion Riho and her partner Shanna. Clearly it was a smart choice because Emi and Jamie were victorious in that tag team battle, leading to Sakura’s unsuccessful championship bid against Riho just a few days later.
Fast forward to 2023 and the current landscape of All Elite Wrestling where Jamie Hayter has been embraced by the fans as a result of her hard work since returning to AEW in 2021 at the side of Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. While that relationship has had its tense moments, ultimately it has been a boon to both women’s careers, and certainly played a part in Hayter’s road to becoming the AEW Women’s World Champion at FULL GEAR 2022.
As for Emi Sakura, since returning to the AEW landscape in the fall of 2021 she has been one of the most prolific performers in the entire company, be it in the men’s or women’s locker room, competing in the majority of her 87 matches since August 2021. She’s done it in singles matches, tag team bouts, mixed tags, and trios bouts. She’s shown a willingness to have some fun at her opponent’s (and sometimes a referee) expense by having some tea time, but fans have also seen her mean streak come out.
So this Friday on RAMPAGE, Emi Sakura will have a huge opportunity when she meets Jamie Hayter in a Women’s World Title Eliminator Match, meaning a victory over the champion will earn the 27-year veteran another chance to become the top women in All Elite Wrestling. A repeat of her success in 2019 will bring Emi a World Championship match, but this is not the same Hayter she faced in England, not in all the ways that count once the bell rings. Jamie Hayter is now the woman who has climbed to the top of the ladder in the best women’s locker room in all of professional wrestling, she is now the measuring stick, and Sakura is going to have to fight with every bit of experience she’s earned to stop the momentum Hayter has built.
As much as it’s about Emi earning her shot, it’s also about Jamie Hayter proving to Emi how far she’s come since that first meeting in 2019. This one is going to hit hard!