Tag: IYO SKY

IYO SKY Becomes First Grand Slam Champion Across Two Promotions

The Road to WrestleMania 41 took an unexpected turn last night on WWE RAW, as IYO SKY pulled off a stunning victory over Rhea Ripley to become the new WWE Women’s World Champion.

This marks SKY’s first reign with the prestigious title and cements her legacy as a history-maker in professional wrestling.

A Grand Slam in Two Promotions

With this win, SKY achieves a unique distinction—she is now the first woman to complete a Grand Slam in both WWE and STARDOM.

Before arriving in WWE, SKY dominated STARDOM, winning every major championship the promotion had to offer and becoming its first-ever Grand Slam Champion. Now, with WWE’s Women’s World Championship added to her résumé, she joins an elite group of WWE Grand Slam Champions, including:

  • Charlotte Flair
  • Mercedes Moné (FKA Sasha Banks)
  • Becky Lynch
  • Bayley
  • Rhea Ripley
  • Asuka

What’s Next for the Genius of the Sky?

SKY won’t have much time to celebrate, as her path to WrestleMania is already set. She will defend her newly won Women’s World Championship against Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas.

With the biggest show of the year on the horizon, the question now is: Can SKY hold onto the gold, or will Belair reclaim her spot at the top?

Stay tuned as the road to WrestleMania continues to heat up!

AJ Styles & IYO SKY Victorious At Japan Events

On Saturday morning, WWE Superstars AJ Styles and IYO SKY participated in separate matches as part of their return to Japan.

During the Pro Wrestling NOAH Destination 2024 co-main event at Budokan Hall, AJ Styles faced off against NOAH Vice President Naomichi Marufuji. Styles emerged victorious after executing a Styles Clash.

Before joining WWE in 2016, Styles had been a regular competitor in Japan for NJPW, where he won the IWGP World Heavyweight Title twice.

Meanwhile, IYO SKY also participated in a co-main event at the Marigold Summer Destiny show at Sumo Hall. SKY emerged victorious against Utami Hayashishita after executing a tombstone piledriver and a moonsault.

Post-match, SKY expressed her gratitude to Hayashishita, WWE, and Marigold. She used her WWE entrance music for the match and wore a mask reminiscent of the one she wore at STARDOM before joining WWE.

You can check out some highlights from the matches below:

https://twitter.com/PuroresuFlow/status/1812045692367437994
https://twitter.com/PuroresuFlow/status/1812038995330683294

Source: eWn

Rossy Ogawa’s Marigold Promotion Announces WWE Star Iyo Sky For Match At Summer Destiny Event

Rossy Ogawa’s new promotion Marigold has kicked off with a bang following the Fields Forever event at Korakuen Hall on May 20, and is currently embarking on its Grand Opening Wars Tour. However, the company’s next major event, Summer Destiny, on July 13 has just gotten a lot bigger, as a former WWE Women’s Champion has been announced for the card.

At the end of the company’s most recent show, Ogawa took to the microphone to inform Utami Hayashishita that he had finally found an opponent for her on July 13, before playing a video on the Korakuen Hall big screen that revealed IYO Sky. The WWE star told Hayashishita that she wants to write history in a Marigold ring, and that she can’t wait for her return to Japan, before the official match graphic was revealed.

The match has been given the title of “Queen of Queen” given that both Sky and Hayashishita are both former leaders of the Queen’s Quest faction in STARDOM. Sky, then known as Io Shirai, was the founding leader forming the group back in 2016 with HZK and Momo Watanabe. Once she left to join WWE in 2018, Watanabe led the group and brought Hayashishita in as an associate, before making her an official member towards the end of 2018. Hayashishita would take charge as leader in 2022, and would remain in that position until her departure from STARDOM in April 2024. July 13 will also be Sky’s first match in her home country in six years, as she has not performed in Japan since joining WWE in 2018. WWE last traveled to Japan in 2019 for a pair of live events in Ryogoku Sumo Hall in Tokyo, with Sky being part of the “NXT” roster at the time. 

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Kairi Sane Returns At WWE Crown Jewel, Helps IYO SKY Retain WWE Women’s Championship

Kairi Sane made her long-awaited return to WWE at Crown Jewel 2023. The “Pirate Princess” surprisingly appeared to aid Iyo Sky in retaining her WWE Women’s Championship over Bianca Belair. 

Sane addressed fans of STARDOM in October to announce that it could be the last time they would see her perform in the company, leading many to believe she was departing the promotion. Since then, multiple reports emerged to say that she was headed back to WWE, and it was recently indicated that she was listed on the internal roster and her return was imminent. Speculation turned to actualization during today’s event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as Sane made a surprise appearance to help Sky. 

Delivering her patented flying elbow drop, it was the first time Sane had been seen in a WWE ring since she faced Bayley in July 2020, serving to add another crinkle to Damage CTRL’s storyline of tension between the “Genius of the Sky” and the “Role-Model”. Sky and Sane previously held trios gold when they wrestled together in STARDOM in 2016, but are set to stand shoulder-to-shoulder for the first time in WWE. Similar to Sky, Sane boasted reigns with both the WWE Women’s Tag and “NXT” Women’s Championships before her departure in December 2021.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Backstage News On Last Minute Plans WWE Made For Bayley’s New Stable

One of the biggest, if not the biggest, stories coming out of WWE SummerSlam last weekend was the return of both Bayley and Dakota Kai, along with the main roster debut of Iyo Sky (fka Io Shirai). The new stable has quickly made an impact between their appearances at WWE SummerSlam and “WWE Raw” two days later, and it’s even more impressive given the last-minute nature of the stable’s conception.

According to PWInsider, things came together for the group so late that Sky’s new name wasn’t trademarked until July 31, the day after SummerSlam, a wildly uncharacteristic move for the promotion, which likes to trademark character names well before they debut. Indeed, Sky’s debut at SummerSlam was accompanied by video graphics that still displayed the Io Shirai name. PWI also noted that while Bayley was expected to be at SummerSlam, there were no “concrete” plans for her to appear when the creative was overseen by Vince McMahon.

PWInsider also confirmed that Kai had not originally been in the plans for SummerSlam. The WWE star, who was released by the promotion back in April and whose noncompete clause had long since elapsed, was reportedly contacted at the last minute and didn’t travel to Nashville, the site of SummerSlam, until the night before. Kai herself stated the deal came together quickly prior to the PLE in an appearance on “WWE: The Bump” this Wednesday.

While the group doesn’t have a formal name as of yet, Bayley hinted that the group could be called Control in a tweet shortly after their SummerSlam appearance. On “Raw,” the trio set the tone for the show, attacking Becky Lynch and brawling with “Raw” Women’s Champion Bianca Belair, Asuka, and Alexa Bliss shortly after Sky’s match with Belair, which ended in a no contest.

https://twitter.com/itsBayleyWWE/status/1553775548580724737

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Backstage News On SummerSlam Returns, Name Change Note

During last night’s WWE SummerSlam event, Bayley, Dakota Kai, and Io Shirai made their returns after the WWE “Raw” Women’s Title match with champion Bianca Belair and Becky Lynch.

The three would come out to confront Belair, but Lynch would return to the ring to give her backup.

There are several backstage updates about the returns of Bayley, Kai, and Shirai.

Io Shirai will now be going by the ring name, Iyo Sky according to PWInsider. 

According to Fightful Select, Sky’s contract was set to expire soon and there had been no creative plans for her in NXT after her injury. WWE officials couldn’t confirm a new contract had been signed beyond saying, “it appears so.”  Shirai has not been in the WWE ring since WWE WrestleMania 38 weekend when she competed in a fatal four-way match against Mandy Rose, Cora Jade, and Kay Lee Ray (now known as Alba Fyre) at “NXT” Stand And Deliver.

Bayley had been training at the WWE Performance Center and Flatbacks for weeks in preparation for her return to the ring, according to Fightful Select. She had been sidelined since July 2021 with a torn ACL.

Fightful Select also reported that Kai was a name that several people in the company thought Triple H would make a priority to bring back since he is now that he is the head of creative. Before she was released in April, Kai had several main roster looks. AEW talks were said to never move past an introduction.

It was also noted by Fightful Select that this new stable with Bayley, Sky, and Kai was pitched quite a while ago and it was before Kai was first released in April. Vince McMahon had reportedly rejected the idea. There were other versions pitched that include Kay Lee Ray and Raquel Rodriguez.

Source: Wrestling Inc.