Injured Superstar returns; Qualifies for No.1 Contender's Ladder match

An injury forced Io Shirai to miss around two months. But after an interesting turn of events on the latest episode of NXT, the Genius of the Sky is officially back in action. Aliyah was waiting in the ring for her qualifying match with Xia Li but the latter was unable to make it out to the ring. Cameras cut backstage and revealed that Li had been mysteriously attacked by someone.

Aliyah figured that she would automatically advance to the ladder match via forfeit, but announcer Greg Hamilton confirmed that someone who was medically cleared would be taking Li's place. Shirai's music hit much to the dismay of Aliyah.

With @XiaWWE unable to compete in the Qualifier battle for the No. 1 Contender's #LadderMatch, @WWE_Aliyah had to face off against another Superstar... Welcome back, @shirai_io! 👋#WWENXT pic.twitter.com/ZReG7fuTB0

— WWE (@WWE) March 26, 2020

Shirai displayed very little ring rust in quickly dispatching Aliyah. Now that she is back and has qualified for the ladder match, will she be able to make good on her return?

Oh, how we missed @shirai_io. 🌛#WWENXT pic.twitter.com/iFuaFe4Ohd

— WWE (@WWE) March 26, 2020

The NXT Women's Championship No.1 Contender's Ladder Match is slated to take place two weeks from tonight. A few more spots are up for grabs to round out the field of six women. As is usual following WrestleMania, call ups and debuts usually take place on the RAW after the Show of Shows.

Shirai's name made sense as one to make the move to either RAW or SmackDown. Now that she's officially back on the Black and Gold brand, however, it appears another NXT Women's title shot could be in the future of the Genius of the Sky.