Japan’s Io Shirai joining WWE

The Wrestling Observer is reporting that Io Shirai, the 27-year-old Japanese female wrestler who took the sport by storm over at that side of the world, has accepted to join WWE.

Shirai, considered the MVP of World Wonder Ring Stardom, attended a tryout at the WWE Performance Center this past March, although her tryout was different from the rest of the crew as she did not participate in the regular workouts. WWE brought Shirai over to check out the place and see the local area in hopes of wooing her to eventually join the company.

That move apparently worked and Shirai will be joining Kairi Hojo, one of the company’s champions, for a new life in the United States and in WWE. Hojo already announced her departure and is expected to report to Orlando imminently.

There is no date yet on when Shirai is joining.

Colin Vassallo has been editor of Wrestling-Online since 1996