Posted on 10/14/125 by Colin Vassallo
Iyo Sky sat down with Chris Van Vliet in Indianapolis,
Indiana to discuss her match of the year with Rhea Ripley
and Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 41, winning Money in the
Bank and cashing in to become Women’s Champion, the trash
can dive at Survivor Series, how her pointing taunt began,
future dream matches, and more!
On winning at WrestleMania 41:
“It meant so much to me, of course, also so much to Japanese
people as well. Because for a long time Japanese wrestlers
didn’t win at WrestleMania, even for women’s wrestling,
Japanese wrestler, first time ever in WWE to win at
WrestleMania. So I’m so honored, and even kind of
unexpected. I walk in as a champion, walk out as a
champion.”
On having a bad first match:
“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.”
On the moonsault trash can spot in WarGames:
“Yes, totally [I practiced it]. Because in my head, I think
of course I can do that. Yeah, put on the trash can and do
the back flip. Feels easy, but actually it is such a
dangerous move. I went to the WWE Performance Center, and
they have a normal trash can. I took off the plastic bag and
clean up myself, and make it a little bit cleaner, and I
hope nobody was watching what I’m doing. I put on my head,
and I did my own practice thing, and it worked. That was
only from the top rope, but I made it, so that’s why I
thought it should be fine from the cage. Make it double
high.”
On the trash can dive:
“I know I am crazy, that’s why I thought at that time, I
won’t practice it. So I just think in my head, oh, maybe I
can do that, because cross-body is my familiar move. Even
putting on the trash can doesn’t make me nervous, or make me
scared, or something like that. But actually, I was standing
on the edge and tried to put my head in the trash can, and I
realized at that time, oh my gosh, I can’t see anything. So
I didn’t think about I would be blind. I just think about
putting it on my head and jumping off. I didn’t think about
my vision. And, of course, in the trash can it was so dark
and I couldn’t see anything, and oh my gosh, I started to
get scared. Wow, I might have to jump off from here. Oh my
gosh. I can’t do that. Maybe I will get injured. One second,
two seconds, you know, oh my gosh, I can’t. No, I have to
just jump. So first time, I was so scared. But no, because
camera is here, so show must go on. I have to jump off. I
did it, and second time I was relaxed. I could do it
because, yeah, I knew it.”
On having great chemistry with Rhea Ripley:
“We are totally different people. She’s tall, she’s muscle,
she’s so cool. I’m not as cool as Rhea Ripley, she’s super
cool. I think [the great chemistry is because we are
opposites], because she has muscle. I’m running fast. I’m so
small, but I can flip and she’s not much of a flipping
wrestler, like so much the opposite. So that’s why I think
we have great chemistry.”