Io Shirai trying out at the WWE Performance Center

[Big Red Machine]

Source: www.F4WOnline.com

By Bryan Rose | @br26 | Mar 15, 2017 2:50 pm

Io Shirai, the current World of Stardom Champion, is the top name at this week’s WWE tryouts at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

WWE.com posted an article about Shirai trying out that has since been taken down.

It has been known for a while that Shirai, one of the top wrestlers in the Stardom promotion in Japan, was on WWE’s radar. Dave Meltzer reported in the October 31st, 2016 edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that both she and fellow Stardom star Kairi Hojo had been offered deals to start with WWE in 2017.

It was later reported that both had decided to stay. However, in last week’s Observer, Meltzer wrote that Hojo had signed a three-year contract with WWE, telling Stardom she was leaving in April. He also noted that Shirai was reconsidering coming in as well.

Other names at this week’s tryouts are:

Ingrid “Kira” Hogtun and Kamilla “Natasja” Tjöstland (independent wrestlers from Norway)
Delilah Doom (Texas-based independent wrestler)
Chik Tormenta (independent wrestler from Mexico)
Katsiaryna Kavaleva (championship kickboxer/MMA fighter from Belarus)
Jaime Espinal (Dominican-born Olympic freestyle wrestler that represented Puerto Rico in 2012)
Wes Brisco (former FCW developmental talent, son of Gerald Brisco and nephew of Jack Brisco)

[cero2k]

go Wes Briscoe!

the smark in me really hopes Io doesn't go to WWE, the whole reason why Hojo likely left was to get out of Shirai's shadow anyway. I also had all the hopes in the world that the Lotus Tribe would return one day

[cero2k]

Today Meltzer had a beautiful take on this

Io Shirai (Masami Odate, 26), who is one of the two or three best woman wrestlers in the world right now, is in Orlando at this writing as part of a WWE tryout. In her case, this isn’t so much a tryout as her being there to do drills as WWE has been after her for months. But unlike the others at the tryout, the ball is in her court on whether to accept the offer or not. Unlike Kairi Hojo, who as noted last week has already signed her three-year contract, Shirai was invited to Orlando to check things out and then decide what she wanted to do. With Hojo leaving, if Shirai follows, and Mayu Iwatani retires, it would be a killer to Stardom, which had been the leading women’s pro wrestling organization in the world.