During a recent appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, WWE Superstar IYO SKY revealed the unexpected story of how her name changed from Io Shirai just days before her main roster debut at SummerSlam 2022.
SKY explained that she was still recovering from a broken ankle when she received a surprise call from Triple H, informing her of her main roster promotion.
“Hunter called me, ‘Are you ready to go to Raw?’ And I totally didn’t expect that,” she said. “He told me, ‘with Bayley and with Dakota Kai,’ because she was not even working on WWE. That makes me so happy, because Bayley, Dakota, and I make a new unit.”
According to SKY, the call-up came with an urgent additional request from Triple H.
“Then he says, ‘Oh, please think of a new ring name.’ Oh my gosh, I don’t have any time because maybe that was only five days before SummerSlam. I didn’t even have one week for sure,” she recalled.
She went on to explain the creative meaning behind her new name and how it ties to her original one.
“The Shirai means ‘purple thunder’ in Japanese. So that’s why I tried to think of something that when you’re hearing my name, you can imagine something,” she explained. “I came up with IYO SKY, because if you hear IYO SKY, you can easily be thinking of the sky, and you won’t forget my name. So that’s why I decided to put SKY.”
IYO SKY officially debuted on the main roster at SummerSlam 2022, forming Damage CTRL alongside Bayley and Dakota Kai. Since then, she has gone on to capture the WWE Women’s Championship, WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship, and the Money in the Bank briefcase, cementing herself as one of WWE’s top female stars.
