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as a diehard Iyochad dating back to 2015, this feels so fucking good. I subscribed to Stardom World when it came out just to see Io, and remember watching her wrestle random matches on tiny shows in Japanese rec centers or whatever against Kaori Yoneyama and Saori Anou and Hiromi Mumura and etc etc and thinking "I'm watching the best wrestler in the world" but the prospect of her making it to WWE and making it to the top felt crushingly remote, like it was 100 million miles away.
I think of all the ups and downs, from her being courted by WWE in 2017 but ending up not signing because of a "neck injury", to her eventually going to NXT but getting treated like a jobber at first, to her heel turn and stealing the show at Takeover in Toronto, to her being insanely over and stealing the show again at the first women's War Games, to all the injury setbacks, to her finally winning the NXT title but having it happen during Covid, to feeling like she would never get out of NXT, to eventually reach these last few months where we get
>an all-time crowd reaction at Backlash
>winning MITB
>huge pop from 60k at Summerslam
>actually winning the fucking TITLE
i'm so proud of her bros. nothing was ever handed to her, there was no undefeated streak, no monster push, she came into the company jobbing to Toni Storm and Shayna Baszler and fucking Sonya Deville even. It felt like the deck was stacked against her every step of the way but she made it to the top anyway because she's just so damn good that it's undeniable.
Imagine not being an Iomaniac. Coudn't be me.
