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A new report suggests former NXT Women's Champion Io Shirai is done with WWE.
Io Shirai was one of the hottest prospects from Stardom who signed with WWE. After appearing in the second Mae Young Classic, Shirai signed with the company and began working for the black-and-gold brand.
The 32-year-old is a former NXT Women's and Tag Team Champion. She defeated Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley to win the title and later dropped it to Raquel Gonzalez (now known as Raquel Rodriguez) after almost a year.
A new report suggests that Shirai will be leaving the company. Earlier, there were rumors of Io becoming a free agent in August. On a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer stated that Io Shirai has pretty much left the company.
“Io Shirai’s pretty much got her foot out of the door. Pretty much gone.” [H/T - WrestleTalk]
The report also states that she will be leaving so she can be close to her family. Kairi Sane, Shirai's former partner, left WWE for similar reasons. It will be interesting to see whether Shirai returns before leaving or signs a new contract with the company.
Io Shirai has not been on WWE programming since Stand and Deliver
Io Shirai has been one of the top performers on the black-and-gold brand during their golden age. After turning to the dark side, The Genius of Sky feuded with Candice LeRae and won.
In 2020, she slowly tuned face and defeated Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley to win the NXT Women's Championship. After a lengthy reign, she lost the title to Raquel Gonzalez at NXT Stand and Deliver. However, this setback wasn't the end of Shirai in NXT.
Shirai began teaming up with Zoey Stark and they defeated The Way to win the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship. The duo lasted for a while until Stark got injured. Earlier this year, Io Shirai and Kay Lee Ray won the Women's Dusty Rhodes Classic and challenged Mandy Rose for the title.
Shirai has not competed on WWE TV since she came up short in her attempt to dethrone Rose. Time will tell what the future holds for the former NXT Women's Champion.
