From The WWE Rumor Mill: Io Shirai still hoping to get signed by WWE

What’s the story?

During the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter, respected Pro Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer reported that Japanese superstar and current Wonder of Stardom Champion Io Shirai is still hoping to get signed with the WWE in the near future.

In case you didn’t know…

Io Shirai is one of the most popular Japanese female wrestlers of all time, who is currently working under Japanese Joshi Puroresu, World Wonder Ring Stardom, where Shirai is considered as the “ace” of the promotion.

Shirai, who has been working for Stardom for almost eight years now, is a record six-time and current Artist of Stardom Champion and Wonder of Stardom Champion as well. The 27-year-old has also previously held numerous other championships in Stardom such as the Goddess of Stardom Championship, High-Speed Championship, SWA Championship, and the World of Stardom Title as well.

In her professional wrestling career, Shirai has also worked in Mexico where she competed for Lucha Libre Triple-A and Lucha Underground as well, as part of the Black Lotus Triad faction along with WWE superstar Kairi Sane and Mayu Iwatani.

The heart of the matter

According to Dave Meltzer’s latest speculations, Stardom superstar Io Shirai was originally scheduled to enter the on-going Women of Honor Championship tournament along with the likes of Hana Kimura, Mayu Iwatani, and former WWE superstar Emma (now known by her original name of Tenille Dashwood).

However, Meltzer believes that, Shirai apparently thinks that working under the Ring of Honor brand could potentially hurt her chances of not making it to the WWE in the near future and that is the sole reason why the former World of Stardom Champion decided to go against the Women of Honor Championship tournament in order to fulfil her eventual goals, which is to get cleared and go to the WWE.

It was previously noted that both Io Shirai and Kairi Sane had been contacted and offered WWE contracts, but, Shirai was apparently unable to sign with the company due to a neck injury that forced the WWE doctors to pass of Shirai’s signing with the promotion.

What’s next?

Io Shirai is currently fresh off a successful title defense against Watanabe and one of her upcoming singles matches will be against 18-year-old Xia Brookside.

Author’s Take

Being a huge fan of Io Shirai, I would love to see her compete in the WWE and I think that Shirai will eventually reach her goal of making it to the world’s biggest wrestling promotion.