Top Japanese Star Accepts Offer To Join WWE, New Referee Signs Deal

It’s going to be a big weekend for some of WWE’s Japanese stars, as Hideo Itami is set to challenge Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship at NXT TakeOver: Chicago, and Shinsuke Nakamura is going to be wrestling his first match on the main roster when he faces Dolph Ziggler at Backlash.

Some of Japan’s top stars have done well in WWE and NXT, and now the company has reportedly signed another big name. F4Wonline.com reports that Io Shirai has accepted WWE’s offer to join the company.

Shirai is one of the top stars in Japan’s Stardom promotion, and she received a tryout back in March. Io Shirai isn’t the first top star to leave Stardom recently, as Kairi Hojo announced her departure a few weeks ago, and she’s expected to report to the WWE Performance Center soon.

As of this writing it’s not yet known when Io Shirai will being working with WWE.

Squared Circle Sirens is reporting that WWE has signed independent wrestler Kennadi Brink to work for the company as a referee. Brink has previously worked for MCW, SHIMMER, SHINE, and ROH and she worked as a referee at two NXT events last month in Ocala and Jacksonville, Florida.

The Baltimore, Maryland started training at Gillberg’s Professional Wrestling Academy in Severn, Maryland in 2010 and she is also the winner of the 2014 Reid Flair scholarship, presented at the Mid-Atlantic Legends fan-fest in Charlotte, North Carolina.