Io Shirai

Wrestler

Birthday May 8, 1990

Birth Sign Taurus

Birthplace Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan

Age 33 years old

Nationality Kanagawa

Height 5 ft 1 in

Weight 54 kg

#42577 Most Popular

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Masami Odate (大館昌美) is a Japanese professional wrestler.

she is signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Iyo Sky (イヨ・スカイ) (stylized in all caps), and has been the WWE Women's Champion since August 5, 2023 in her first reign.

She is a member of Damage CTRL and a former two-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champion with fellow stablemate Dakota Kai, as well as a former Women's Money in the Bank contract holder.

She previously wrestled in WWE's developmental brand NXT under the ring name Io Shirai (紫雷 イオ), where she was a former NXT Women's Champion and NXT Women's Tag Team Champion with Zoey Stark.

She is also known for her time in World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom), where she was a former two-time Wonder of Stardom Champion, six-time Artist of Stardom Champion, two-time World of Stardom Champion, the inaugural SWA World Champion, one-time Goddess of Stardom Champion, and one-time High Speed Champion.

2007

Making her debut in March 2007, she spent several years working as a tag team wrestler, teaming with her older sister Mio, with whom she wrestled for various promotions across Japan and Mexico, winning the TLW World Young Women's Tag Team Championship in the process.

Odate made her professional wrestling debut on March 4, 2007, alongside her older sister, with the two adopting the ring names Io and Mio Shirai, respectively ("Shirai" being Japanese for "Purple Thunder").

In their debut match, the Io sisters teamed with Toshie Uematsu to face the trio of Erika Ura, Nozomi Takesako and Yuri Urai.

At the time of her debut, Io was only 16 years old, working part-time while attending high school.

After graduating, she started working full-time as a professional wrestler.

Starting their careers as freelancers, the Shirai sisters represented Team Makehen, a stable made up of wrestlers trained by Tomohiko Hashimoto, in several independent promotions during their first year in the business, including Ibuki, Pro Wrestling Wave, JWP Joshi Puroresu, and Sendai Girls' Pro Wrestling.

2008

On October 19, 2008, Shirai and Mio made their debuts for one of Japan's largest professional wrestling promotions, All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), wrestling in a match, where they defeated the team of Kyoko Kimura and Mikado.

2009

From January to March 2009, the Shirais also made several appearances for another large promotion not usually known for female wrestling, Pro Wrestling Zero1.

On April 29, the Shirai sisters won their first championship by defeating Moeka Haruhi and Tomoka Nakagawa in a tournament final to become the first TLW (Totally Lethal Wrestling) World Young Women's Tag Team Champions.

Despite its name, the championship was owned and promoted by Pro Wrestling Wave.

On July 12, Io received her first singles title opportunity, when she unsuccessfully challenged Misaki Ohata for the JWP Junior and Princess of Pro-Wrestling Championships at Ibuki #30.

From July to November, the Shirais spent four months working for the Ice Ribbon promotion.

On November 12, 2009, the Shirais entered Pro Wrestling Wave's Captain's Fall Six Person Tag Team Tournament, teaming with Gami, but the trio was defeated in their first round match by Ran Yu-Yu, Ryo Mizunami and Toshie Uematsu.

However, the trio earned their way back into the tournament by defeating Misaki Ohata, Moeka Haruhi and Yumi Ohka in a consolation match later that same day.

On November 25, the Shirais and Gami first defeated Bullfight Sora, Cherry and Kaoru in the semi-finals and then Ayumi Kurihara, Kana and Shuu Shibutani in the finals to win the tournament, with Io, as the captain, scoring the deciding pinfall over Shibutani.

On December 23, the Shirais lost the TLW World Young Women's Tag Team Championship to Misaki Ohata and Moeka Haruhi.

2010

In June 2010, she and her sister came together with Kana to form the Triple Tails stable, which lasted for 15 months, before Io broke out of the group and embarked on her singles career in Stardom.

On May 30, 2010, Io entered the 2010 Catch the Wave tournament.

After three wins and one loss, Shirai finished tied at the top of her block, but was on August 10 eliminated from the tournament, after being defeated in a tiebreaker match by Ryo Mizunami.

On June 19, 2010, the Shirai sisters formed the Triple Tails stable with fellow freelancer Kana, defeating Ayumi Kurihara, Hikaru Shida and Yoshiko Tamura in their first match together at a NEO Japan Ladies Pro Wrestling event.

As a result, the Shirais received a shot Kurihara's and Tamura's NEO Tag Team Championship on July 4, but were defeated by the defending champions.

On August 1, Io teamed with Kana for another shot at title, but they were again defeated by Kurihara and Tamura.

Triple Tails returned to its winning ways on August 29, by defeating Asami Kawasaki, Hikaru Shida and Nagisa Nozaki in a six-woman tag team match.

On December 19, Triple Tails made its debut as a unit for Pro Wrestling Wave, defeating Cherry, Gami and Tomoka Nakagawa in a six-woman tag team main event.

2011

She worked for Stardom from 2011 until 2018, when she signed with WWE.

On January 29, 2011, the Shirais made their debuts for Smash, when the Triple Tails stable attacked Yusuke Kodama and Makoto after their matches, with the trio being both times chased out of the ring by Tajiri.

On February 13, Triple Tails produced its first own event, where the Shirai sisters wrestled male tag team Momo no Seishun Tag (Atsushi Kotoge and Daisuke Harada) in a losing effort.

On February 25, the Shirais made their Smash in-ring debuts at Smash.14, where they teamed with Kana to defeat Ken Ohka, Tajiri and Yoshiaki Yago in an intergender six person tag team match.

In March, Triple Tails took part in Osaka Pro Wrestling's Spring Samba Series, going undefeated in six person tag team matches for the duration of the tour.

On April 30 at Smash.16, Triple Tails was defeated in a six-woman tag team match by Makoto, Serena and Syuri.

On May 3 at Smash.17, the Shirai sisters were defeated in a tag team match by Hikaru Shida and Syuri.

Triple Tails' second event took place on May 8 and saw Io, Mio and Kana defeat Akino, Kagetsu and Syuri in a main event six woman tag team match.

On July 23, Triple Tails held a press conference to announce that, following the group's third self-produced event on September 18, Io was leaving the stable in order to pursue a singles career.

2013

Io quickly became one of the promotion's top stars, and in April 2013, she won the promotion's top title, the World of Stardom Championship, which she held twice, with each reign lasting for over a year.

2015

She was recognized as the "ace" of Stardom, and was the recipient of the 2015, 2016 and 2017 Tokyo Sports Joshi Puroresu Grand Prizes.