IYO SKY made her official in-ring debut in 2007. At rhe age of 16, SKY recounts her first match. As to be expected with most first matches, it wasn’t smooth.
While speaking with Chris Van Vliet, SKY shared the following:
“My debut match was awful, everything was so bad. I didn’t know anything about wrestling. I was 16 years old, high school student. At that time, I feel like I was just so embarrassed because my debut match was so bad, and maybe the audience was only 30 people, but I felt so embarrassed. So I thought I want to quit, but actually I was so frustrated as well. So maybe I have to become stronger. I have to get better to change their mind, because 30 people think Io Shirai is a bad wrestler. I want to change something like that, to become Io Shirai is not a bad wrestler. So that’s why I want to quit but I should keep [going] until they are thinking, Io Shirai is not bad wrestler, and they just keep going, keep going, keep going. Then three years later, I become full enough to wrestle.” (Fighful/Transcript)
SKY has gone on to be one of the top names in WWE and arguably one of the best wrestlers in the industry regardless of gender.