Japanese female wrestling sensation Io Shirai is now a member of WWE.
According to Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer, Shirai has accepted WWE’s offer to join the company. Shirai, considered to be one of the top female wrestlers in Japan, if not the world, is a member of the all-female promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom
She had previously attended a WWE tryout at the Performance Center tryout back in March, though the company quickly wiped out all mentions of her in an accompanying article. She joins fellow Stardom roster member Kairi Hojo in leaving Japan for WWE. Hojo recently announced that she would be leaving the company and heading to the Performance Center. It had been rumored since late last year that the two were joining WWE.
Shirai, 27, has won many accolades and titles in her time at Stardom, including the Artist of Stardom Championship, Wonder of Stardom Championship and World of Stardom Championship. She recently lost the Wonder of Stardom Championship to Mayu Iwatani in a Stardom event at Korakuen Hall. Shirai had been wrestling since 2007.
Shirai also competed at Lucha Underground under the ring name Hitokiri, where she had a match against Pentagon.
Shirai and Hojo will also join current NXT Women’s Champion Asuka as WWE’s top Japanese female talent. The company has been busy in scouting female talent all over the world for their upcoming Women’s Tournament, which will begin tapings next month. There is no word on when Shirai will formally start working for WWE.
