For months, we had been hearing rumors and reports that WWE had signed World Wonder Ring Stardom’s two top acts, Kairi Hojo and Io Shirai. Hojo has since made her WWE television debut and has competed in the Mae Young Classic, renamed Kairi Sane since making the move. Shirai, meanwhile, was reported back in June to have a neck injury, which has delayed her signing with WWE. Dave Meltzer, at the time, said it could take “quite a while” for her to be healthy enough to sign with WWE.
Surprisingly, Shirai returned to Stardom on July 30, appearing after the main event. Shirai had already bid Stardom and the Japanese fans farewell before taking her physical with WWE, but at Sunday’s event, she recruited Viper to the Queen’s Quest stable and announced she would return to the Stardom ring on August 13. Shirai will also compete in the upcoming Five Star Grand Prix tournament.
According to the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Shirai contacted Stardom two days before her appearance and said she was ready to return full-time, as she won’t be going to WWE after all. Reportedly, Shirai took time off and rehabbed her neck after her WWE physical, as requested, but after being cleared to wrestle again, the deal was suddenly off the table.
Meltzer speculated WWE pulling the deal could be due to hesitance to bring in new wrestlers who have serious neck or concussion issues, but it may also be due to the fact that they feel like they have “enough” Japanese women under contract already, and that Shirai just suffered from a case of bad timing.
Either way, the woman many consider to be the best in the world is not coming to WWE, and her old stomping ground will be her home for the foreseeable future. That’s a bummer to wrestling fans who wanted to see her mix it up with the NXT and WWE rosters, but she’ll still be kicking butt over in Stardom for what’s likely a good long time to come.
