10 Women WWE Must Sign In 2017

by John Bills

1. Io Shirai

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Twitter, @shirai_io

Dave Meltzer recently reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE has already made moves to sign Io Shirai, arguably the number one female professional wrestler on the planet right now. Whether this is true or not we don't know, but if it isn't then someone in WWE needs to be slapped and slapped hard. Signing Io Shirai is a no-brainer.

The Ace of Stardom, Shirai has been turning heads and kicking faces in the company since 2011 and is almost certainly in need of fresh meat to destroy. Well, that may well mean old meat (not the best analogy, I'll admit), as Shirai has something of a history with the current NXT Women's Champion Asuka. The two never faced one-on-one (to the best of my knowledge), but teamed in the early stages of Shirai's career.

Still only 26 years old, if you aren't familiar with Io Shirai I suggest you take to the YouTubes immediately. Athletic, efficient, and supremely violent, Shirai is everything you and I love about Japanese wrestling in 2016 inside a more than marketable package. Will she arrive in WWE in 2017? If there's any sense in the world, yes.

I'm not saying all 10 of these women will turn up in WWE in 2017, but it is clear to see that the three women's divisions would be a whole lot healthier with this talent spread across the board. If a Women's Money in the Bank match is going to happen next year, it sure as sh*t doesn't need Nia Jax and Dana Brooke. It needs Io Shirai and Nixon Newell, Mia Yim and Toni Storm.

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Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.