Japanese Star Io Shirai Appears at WWE Show, Confirms WWE Signing

As previously reported, Japanese superstar Io Shirai, who was a top star in Japan’s Stardom promotion, has signed with WWE.

Shirai made her first appearance at a WWE show today in Tokyo, Japan, coming out to the ring and announcing to the crowd that she had signed with WWE and would be starting this summer. She is expected to start with NXT. There’s no word yet on if she’ll be part of this year’s Mae Young Classic tournament, which will be taped in August.

Shirai agreed to a WWE offer in May of last year and was expected to be part of the first Mae Young Classic, but WWE rescinded their offer after they discovered a heart issue during medical testing. She was, however, cleared to return to Stardom and continued to wrestle there. She has now apparently been cleared by WWE.

Welcome #WWE’s newest signee, #IoShirai! #WWETokyo

A post shared by WWE (@wwe) on Jun 30, 2018 at 7:31am PDT