On a recent episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet, WWE superstar IYO SKY shared the surprising, last-minute story of how she changed her name from Io Shirai just days before her main roster debut at SummerSlam.
SKY explained that she used her original name for her entire run in NXT and was unexpectedly called up to the main roster by Triple H while recovering from a broken ankle. “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.”
The surprise call-up came with an urgent request. “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 explained the meaning behind her new name and how it connects to her old 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 debuted on the main roster at SummerSlam on July 30, 2022, forming the group Damage CTRL with Bayley and Dakota Kai. Since adopting her new name, she has captured the WWE Women’s Championship, the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship, and the Money in the Bank briefcase.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit Insight with Chris Van Vliet with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
