WWE’s newest signee, Io Shirai, was on hand at the WWE live event in Tokyo this morning. She was officially unveiled as the newest addition to the roster. Shirai will be assigned to the NXT brand.
Shirai is a former 2x Wonder of Stardom champion. She has been voted as Tokyo Sports’ Joshi Puroresu Grand Prize winner (the equivalent of woman’s wrestler of the year award) the last 3 years in a row.
Io Shirai
Shirai was rumored to be heading to WWE last year but failed medical evaluations prevented this from happening. It was reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that neck and heart problems caused WWE to back away from signing her. She continued to compete for Stardom the following year after not signing with WWE.
Pro Wrestling Illustrated ranked Shirai #6 in their female top-50 rankings in 2017.
Shirai confirmed her departure from Stardom back in late May with many speculating she would be headed to WWE.
Parts of Shirai’s blog in late May revealing her departure from Stardom were run through Google Translate.
“I’m going to leave Stardom with me aiming for a further leap of pro-wrestling life in the future.
The Korakuen Hall show on June 17 will be the last for Stardom.”
World of Stardom also Tweeted out the following facts about Shirai’s time with the promotion:
“Io Shirai’s done it all in Stardom.
World of Stardom champion twice, 1014 days.
Wonder of Stardom champion twice, 375 days.
Tag champion 407 days.
High Speed champion.
Artist of Stardom champion 6 times.
SWA champion.
5 Star Grand Prix champion.
Now she will show it to the world.”
