Amidst all the “OMG BAYLEY’S BACK AND SHE BROUGHT DAKOTA KAI & IO SHIRAI AND THERE ACTUALLY SEEMS TO BE A STORYLINE IN PLACE FOR THEM AGAINST BIANCA BELAIR AND HER NEW BABYFACE PAL BECKY LYNCH TRIPLE H’S WWE REALLY IS DIFFERENT” of the opening few minutes of SummerSlam last night (July 30), there was some confusion about Shirai’s name.
The screens in Nashville’s Nissan Stadium definitely said “Io Shirai”, the name she’s wrestled under throughout her career in Japan and NXT. But announcers Jimmy Smith, Corey Graves, & Byron Saxton were definitely calling her “Io Sky”.
A short time later, it was reported Shirai was being renamed for the main roster. And it wasn’t just her last name that was different. “Io” was switching to “Iyo”, presumably so the wider audience knows how to pronounce it. And based on how WWE’s web team is stylizing it, the new moniker is getting the ALL CAPS treatment too...
Io... er, I mean IYO... confirmed it recently on her Twitter, as well:
I’m back
— IYO SKY (@shirai_io) July 31, 2022
I’m here
I’m…
I Y O S K Y #SummerSlam pic.twitter.com/TZm5Upu1wu
Thoughts?
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