Report: Stardom Want To Re-Sign WWE's Kairi Sane & Io Shirai
Stardom's new owners eyeing big moves when Sane & Shirai's contracts expire.
WWE duo Kairi Sane and Io Shirai are reported signing targets for their former promotion, World Wonder Ring Stardom, when their current contracts expire.
This is according to Dave Meltzer on a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, who notes that Bushiroad, whose subsidiary Kix Road bought the joshi promotion last month, want to bring the popular duo back to Japan.
Sane and Shirai both joined WWE directly from Stardom. Sane was signed in October 2016 and started the following March, commencing a reported three-year deal worth $800,000 per annum. If those reports were accurate, she'd be free to return to Stardom after March 2020.
Shirai, meanwhile, was originally supposed to join WWE at a similar time, though plans were scuppered after she turned the opportunity down. She didn't end up signing with the company until May 2018. There's no word on how long her current deal runs for.
Whether or not the former Sky Pirates would want to return to the promotion in which they made their name is up for debate. One would imagine Io is probably quite creatively fulfilled in NXT, though Sane's main roster run has been up and down, even as a Women's Tag Team Champion.