IYO SKY missed the beginning of the year due to an ankle injury.
At WWE SummerSlam, SKY made her comeback and main roster debut alongside Bayley and Dakota Kai, who were also making their comebacks. Prior to that, Shirai had not competed since April 2, when she took part in a Fatal 4 Way match with Alba Fyre, Cora Jade, and the winner, NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose. On August 1, she competed in her first match since returning, a No Contest match against RAW Women’s Champion Bianca Belair. Shirai had reportedly been hurt, but neither the type nor the extent of the injury was disclosed or even confirmed.
SKY recently spoke to Tokyo Sports and provided an update, sharing how she injured her right ankle during a moonsault on Fyre at Stand & Deliver. She injured her foot on the announcer’s table and underwent surgery at Birmingham, Alabama’s Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopaedic Center.
The following is a rough translation of SKY’s comments, “When I flew in a moonsault outside the ring against Kay Lee Ray, I hit my foot on the announcer’s table and broke my right ankle and had to have surgery. I was referred to a ‘master ankle surgeon’ in Alabama, who is a WWE official. Now I have one bolt in to hold the bone in place. I was unable to put any weight on my right leg for about a month, and I had to use a crutch and a wheelchair. It took me about three months to be able to put my full weight on it.”
When Kai, Bayley, and the former Io Shirai surprised everyone at SummerSlam last month, she debuted the new IYO SKY name. She discussed the name change with Tokyo Sports.
The following is a rough translation of what SKY said, “I think the image of the previous ‘Shirai’ can be conveyed in kanji to Japanese people, but that is not the case in the United States. I think it is a good name because the ‘SKY’ in it conveys the image. The first letter of ‘Io’ was capitalized and the second letter was lower-case ‘o’. So it looked like a lowercase L and O (lo), or like a number, and some people misread it. Now it’s all capitalized ‘IYO,’ which I think makes it easier to understand.”
As of right now, SKY and Kai are competing in the tournament for the vacant WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles. On this week’s RAW, they defeated Alexa Bliss and Asuka to advance to the finals after defeating WWE 24/7 Champion Dana Brooke and Tamina Snuka in the first round. The finals will feature SKY and Kai on RAW on August 29. This Friday on SmackDown, their opponents will be decided following a Second Chance Fatal 4 Way match between Brooke and Snuka, Natalya and Sonya Deville, Xia Li and Shotzi, and Nikki A.S.H. and Doudrop. The Fatal 4 Way winners will then compete that evening against Raquel Rodriguez and Aliyah, with the winner moving on to RAW to compete against SKY and Kai for the vacant straps.
SKY, Kai, and Bayley will also team up to take on Asuka, Bliss, and Belair in six-woman tag team action at WWE Clash at The Castle on September 3 in Cardiff, Wales.
