5 things WWE fans need to know about Io Shirai

#2 Her English is said to be very good

Working the mic won't be as big a problem for Io as it's been for some of her countrymen

One big struggle that Japanese wrestlers in WWE have faced has been promo work. English is a notoriously difficult language to learn, but this seems to be particularly so for native Japanese speakers.

In addition to Japan having a poor English language education infrastructure, Shinsuke Nakamura has remarked on Talk is Jericho that the language contains pronunciations that don't exist in Japanese. As a result, Japanese people often struggle to speak the language.

For Io Shirai however, it probably won't be as big a problem as it has been with Asuka and others, because her mother was an English teacher, which exposed her to the language at an early age. It's also been reported that Io has been taking private lessons in the language at an expensive conversational school.

In fact, a fan who met her has reported that her English has improved dramatically, and that she was able to answer every question in the language without trouble.

Her only struggle appears to be with conjunctions. When introducing herself in English, her pronunciation appeared crisp and readily comprehensible.

As a result, Io will start in WWE with a tremendous advantage that most of her Japanese counterparts in the company hadn't enjoyed. It seems that she knows fully well the emphasis the company puts on promo work and has been preparing accordingly.