8 Interesting Facts About Io Shirai
6. She Is Lionized By Her Peers In Japan
Professional Wrestling is a serious business in Japan, and Io Shirai's talents are taken very seriously there.
The Tokyo Sports Puroresu Awards are an annual "best of" awards that recognize talent from every major wrestling organization in Japan. These awards aren't simple glad-handing - they infamously refused to hand out an award to Best Female Wrestler of the Year between 2004-2008 after judging every female talent in Japan as unworthy of receiving the award.
Given that level of scrutiny, it shows just how impressive Io Shirai is that she's the only person to have won the award three times (2015-2017). To put that into further perspective, fellow WWE superstars Asuka and Kairi Sane never once received the award during their years in Japan despite their outstanding (and well-deserved!) reputations there. That fact alone highlights the calibre of pro wrestler the award is given to, and further emphasizes how special the Genius of the Sky is to win it an unprecedented three times. Maybe if she hadn't moved to WWE in 2018 we'd be discussing her as a four-time winner!
Having said that, if it wasn't for fate intervening Io would never have had the chance to collect her third victory...