When IYO SKY returned to WWE at SummerSlam to team up with Bayley and Dakota Kai in a group that may or may not end up being called Damage CTRL, it shook the future of current RAW Women’s Champion, Bianca Belair, to her core. After finally besting Becky Lynch in her home state, marking the end of a feud that had been raging on since before WrestleMania, the “EST of WWE” found herself facing off against a trio of former champions who wanted nothing more than to take everything she’s worked for.

But did you know that, at least for a time, the idea of SKY ever stepping foot in a WWE ring again was far from guaranteed? It’s true, Dave Meltzer reported that SKY was considering returning to Japan when her contract expired, and in an appearance on WWE’s After The Bell podcast with Corey Graves, she effectively confirmed that reporting, as you can read below via a transcription from Wrestle Zone.

“Yeah, it might have happened [returning to Japan]. I’ve been here four years. I came here to the United States 2018, and now we’re in 2022. I spent time the whole pandemic here, I came here by myself. Honestly, I don’t have family here and that time is so tough. I tried to think, ‘should I stay here more or not?’ I got injured and I took [time off after] surgery, and that time was thinking about my life again. Sometimes I think, ‘if I have family here, it makes my stay stable.'”

This desire to be alongside family, when coupled with Meltzer’s reporting that Sky felt dejected that she wasn’t afforded a push on the main roster after exhausting her opportunities in NXT, left plenty of uncertainty about the future of the woman once known as Io Shirai.

Fortunately, everything worked out for SKY, as she’s been elevated to the main roster as part of one of the hottest factions in WWE, and, according to an interview with Toko Sports that was passed along by The Wrestling Observer, it sure sounds like SKY is having a good time doing it.

IYO SKY has fully embraced her new role with WWE.

Since returning to the WWE Universe at SummerSlam, SKY's life has been a whirlwind. She went from rehabbing a broken ankle she suffered at NXT's Stand & Deliver “Premium Live Event” back in April to rehabbing in Orlando with her newfound buddies, Kai and Bayley, before taking on a full-time road schedule that has seen the Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan native wrestle five matches since August 1st, including two-straight appearances on house shows.

“My life has changed in a good way,” SKY told Tokyo Sports. “It's been less than a month (since my promotion), but I've been so busy that I don't even know how much time I've spent (laughs).”

SKY detailed how she has known Kai and Bayley for quite some time, with the former wrestling together in NXT and the latter rehabbing with her in Orlando as they prepared for a return to in-ring action. “Yes, all three of us made our comeback to the ring at the same time, although in different situations, so we have a strong bond. In fact, the three of us practiced together in Orlando (Florida) before our return.”

Really, the only controversy surrounding SKY's return to the ring came in that she had to change her name from Io Shari to IYO SKY, but as she detailed to Tokyo Sports, that has more to do with folks getting confused about how to pronounce her name than anything to do with being repackaged as a new performer. “I think it is a good name because the ‘sky' in it conveys the image. The first letter of ‘Io' was capitalized and the second letter was lowercase ‘Io.' So it looked like a lowercase L and O (lo), or like a number, and some people misread it. Now it's all capitalized ‘IYO,' which I think makes it easier to understand.”

Fortunately, whether she goes by Shirai, Sky, or Pie-o-My, the former NXT Women's Champion has already made a serious impact in less than a month on the main roster and will be competing for both the now-vacant WWE Women's Tag Team Championship belts, and in a trios match at Clash at the Castle with Bayley and Kai, versus Belair, Alexa Bliss, and Asuka; a performer she has wrestled in the past during their shared tenures in Japan who holds a special place in her heart.

“It was a period of my career that was very important for me (wrestling Asuka in Japan). I learned a lot from her, and she was like a big sister to me, and she has been ahead of me in the WWE as well. I am proud to be categorized as Japanese, but the fans tend to focus on Asuka-san. I want to break through that and express something different.”