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Io Shirai earned three championship opportunities for the NXT Women’s Championship against then champion Shayna Baszler, but she was unable to defeat her in every single one of those occasions, a fact that was genuinely frustrating to ‘the Genius of the Sky’. Shirai felt that she was being held back by holding onto her past in Japan, while also having to worry about others like Candice LeRae. The combination of these unsuccessful challenges and the internal battle that she was experiencing lead to her snapping and completely overhauling who she was.
Io Shirai went on to unleash her fury on a singles bout against Candice LeRae on Takeover Toronto 2019, where she would brutalize LeRae until the referee had to call for the bell for the madness to stop. Io would carry her aggression until the rest of the year where, alongside ‘Team NXT’, they would be able to make a statement on Survivor Series by defeating the other brands on a team elimination 3-way.
Despite this good momentum, Io would not only fail to achieve what she was longing for, but it would be Candice herself who would win on the last opportunity that Shirai had that year to go after the NXT Women’s Championship once again. 2019 would not be the year where Io Shirai finally earned the championship, but fortunately for her, the story did not end there.
