Via a Google Translate of her interview: “Now my eardrum is torn and I can’t hear…Each technique has its own weight and the match ignited. It was a different person from the previous kid. The eardrum was torn. But I’m happy. I’m happy with the pain.”
It’s unknown how long she will be out of action.
This was her first singles match since defeating Bayley on the July 20, 2020, episode of WWE Raw. She wrestled in a tag team match at Stardom World Climax: The Best on Saturday as well, teaming with Mayu Iwatani in a win over The Cosmic Angels (Tam Nakano & Unagi Sayaka).
It was her first match back in Stardom since 2017 and first match of any kind since July 2020.
The former Kairi Sane in WWE — now going by KAIRI — returned to in-ring action for the first time since July 2020 at Stardom’s World Climax The Best earlier today in Tokyo, Japan.
KAIRI and Mayu Iwatani picked up a tag team victory over Tam Nakano and Unagi Sayaka after a signature KAIRI elbow drop and an Iwatani moonsault.
She will have her first singles match tomorrow against Starlight Kid for Stardom.
This was KAIRI’s first match for Stardom since 2017, a promotion where she had held multiple titles wrestling as Kairi Hojo. She was there from 2012 through 2017 before signing with WWE.
Her return to Stardom and new name was announced in mid-February after her contract expired last month.
She returned to Japan in July 2020 to be with her husband during the pandemic and worked for WWE as an ambassador. Prior to that, she was a standout in both NXT and the WWE main roster, holding the NXT Women’s title and the then-WWE Women’s Tag Team titles once with Asuka.
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Friday News Update
We will have a special show tonight, and Bryan and I will be back tomorrow night with Wrestling Observer Radio covering the multitude of huge shows this weekend.
One of our biggest issues of the year is up right now, the 2021 Awards issue which lists the readers voting in dozens of different awards categories. The issue has a complete list of awards winners dating back to 1980. We also have the story on the departure of Cody Rhodes from AEW, lots of notes on this year’s WrestleMania and the upcoming AEW Revolution show, all the big events coming up this weekend and all the major news from around the world.
WWE
Smackdown is a taped show tonight featuring a Roman Reigns-Bill Goldberg faceoff as well as a Charlotte Flair & Sonya Deville vs. Ronda Rousey & Naomi angle. Only three matches were taped last Friday for the show which were Ivar vs. Jimmy Uso, Ricochet vs. Sheamus and Sami Zayn’s IC title win over Shinsuke Nakamura. Ratings will be interesting because we’ll see the difference between a live and taped show. All of the major stars left days ago for Saudi Arabia so it was impossible to do a live show this week.
The company also debuts Level Up tonight at 10 p.m. on Peacock. It’s the same show that was 205 Live, just with a new name. Matches are Harland vs. Javier Bernal, Fallon Henley (the bartender on NXT Tuesday night) & Kala Inlay vs. Ivy Nile & Tatum Paxley and Kushida vs. Edris Enofe. Kelly Kincaid (Quinn McKay) debuts as the ring announcer on the show.
The Elimination Chamber show starts at Noon Eastern time tomorrow from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia:
Rey Mysterio vs. The Miz
Usos vs. Viking Raiders for the Smackdown tag titles
Drew McIntyre vs. Madcap Moss falls count anywhere
Women’s Chamber, winner gets a Raw title match at WrestleMania with Bianca Belair vs. Liv Morgan vs. Doudrop vs. Nikki ASH vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Alexa Bliss
Becky Lynch vs. Lita for the Raw women’s title
Ronda Rousey (with one hand tied behind her back) & Naomi vs. Charlotte Flair & Sonya Deville
Roman Reigns vs. Bill Goldberg for the Universal title
Men’s chamber match for the WWE title with Bobby Lashley, Brock Lesnar, A.J. Styles, Riddle, Austin Theory and Seth Rollins
AEW
Regarding the Tony Khan announcement of something big he’s been working on, what we do know is he was in meetings all day yesterday trying to put it together.
Other Wrestling
Regarding the former Kairi Sane, whose WWE contract just expired, she is now with Stardom under the name KAIRI. Her first match will be 3/26 at Sumo Hall teaming with Mayu Iwatani vs. Tam Nakano & Unagi Sayaka. She will do a singles match on 3/27 at Sumo Hall. She legitimately picked who she wanted to work with on the two big shows. Right now the plan is for her not to work every show, but work the bigger events.
New Japan on New Japan World at 3 a.m. Eastern late tonight from Sapporo:
Togi Makabe & Kosei Fujita vs. Taka Michinoku & DOUKI
Minoru Suzuki & Taichi vs. Toru Yano & Ryohei Oiwa
Tomohiro Ishii & YOH vs. Dick Togo & SHO
Great-O-Khan vs. Tomoaki Honma
Kazuchika Okada & Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata vs. Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi
Tiger Mask & Robbie Eagles vs. El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Desperado vs Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi for the IWGP Jr. tag tiles
Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Evil & Yujiro Takahashi for the IWGP tag titles
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. SANADA for the US title
Other big events tomorrow include Impact No Surrender from New Orleans, AAA Rey de Reyes from Veracruz and GCW from the Showboat in Atlantic City. All are available live on FITE TV.
Gangrel debuts for MLW on the 2/26 show in Charlotte against Gnarls Gavin.
A 3/11 show at The State Room in South San Francisco, CA with West Coast Pro and Prestige, headlined by Malakai Black vs. Kevin Blackwood, is now sold out.
Game Related on 4/15 at The State Room in South San Francisco features Hall of Famer Yuji Nagata.
GCW on 3/12 at Center Stage in Atlanta has Blake Christian vs. Jonathan Gresham and AR Fox vs. Nick Wayne, plus Matt Cardona, Joey Janela, and more.
MCW tomorrow night in Baltimore at the FPX Theater features Lance Archer and Moses from ROH.
Renegades of Wrestling on 4/30 in Melbourne, Australia featuring the return to Australia of JONAH.
ISPW tonight in Butler, NJ at St. Anthony’s Church Gym headlined by Scotty 2 Hotty vs. Danny Morrison and H.C. Loc vs. Traxx.
Joaquin Buckley (183) vs. Abdul Razak Alhassan (186)
Gabriel Benitez (148) vs. David Onama (144.5)
Jessica-Rose Clark (135.5) vs. Stephanie Egger (135)
Chas Skelly (146) vs. Mark Striegl (145)
Diana Belbita (116) vs. Gloria de Paula (115.5)
Chad Anheliger (135) vs. Jesse Strader (135)
Jonathan Pearce (145.5) vs. Christian Rodriguez (146)
Mario Bautista (135.5) vs. Jay Perrin (136)
Benitez missed weight by two pounds and will be forfeiting 30 percent of his purse.
Joe Rogan is doing a live comedy show on 4/8 in Jacksonville at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Auditorium which tells you he’s going to be doing the UFC show that weekend.
Jimmy Crute will be out for one year due to knee reconstructive surgery.
Ilia Topuria vs. Jai Hebert has bee added to the 3/19 show in London.
Darren Elkins vs. Tristan Connelly is set for a 4/30 show.
Other MMA
Bellator tomorrow night on Showtime at 9 p.m. Eastern:
Davion Franklin (262.75) vs. Said Sowma (243)
Brennan Ward (174.8) vs. Brandon Bell (173.8)
Georgi Karakhanyan (156) vs. Adam Piccolotti (155.5)
Andrey Koreshkov (171) vs. Chance Rencountre (169.5)
Neiman Gracie (170.75) vs. Logan Storley (170.5)
The PFL Challengers series has a series of light heavyweight fights streaming on the Fubo Sports network tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern. Ray Lewis and Tyron Woodley are part of the broadcast team:
Josh Silveira (205) vs. Mohamed Jurna (205.2)
Alexander Poppeck (205.6) vs. Taylor Johnson (204.2)
Kairi Sane has officially made her return to Stardom.
Sane appeared during a press conference the promotion held this morning. It was soon confirmed she was returning to the company, being announced for the Stardom World Climax shows set to take place on March 26 and 27 at Sumo Hall. She will be using the name KAIRI going forward, stylized in all capital letters.
KAIRI wants to tag with Mayu Iwatani vs Tam Nakano & Unagi Sayaka at Ryogoku Kokugikan, which is a 2 day event, March 26 & 27! pic.twitter.com/aAKSZub2Tg
While the press conference was being held, Unagi Sayaka and Tam Nakano interrupted the proceedings. Sane expressed an interest in facing them at the Sumo Hall show, with Mayu Iwatani as a possible tag team partner. After the press conference had ended, members of the Oedo Tai stable attacked Sane.
Sane graduated to the Stardom roster in 2012 and spent the next six years with the promotion until signing with the WWE in 2017. She first wrestled in NXT, at one point winning the NXT Women’s title. In 2019, she was called up to the main roster as a partner for Asuka, where together they were known as the Kabuki Warriors, holding the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles once.
In July of 2020, Sane returned home to Japan and continued to work for WWE as an ambassador. Her contract was expected to expire this month.
“Kairi Sane publicly gave the impression she was not going to renew her WWE deal. She had stopped wrestling for WWE because she wanted to move back to Japan. She remained under contract with the promotion to work as an ambassador in the Japanese market, which also kept her from wrestling. If you recall [last year] Stardom attempted to work with WWE to get her to work the Budokan Hall show but WWE wouldn’t allow it,” Meltzer wrote.
“Her deal expires next month. She could if she wanted to wrestle in Japan and if the travel situation improves she could work for AEW where she’d be a great fit coming in for specific shows and times while still living in Japan.”
The 33-year-old Sane hasn’t wrestled since facing Bayley on an episode of Raw in July 2020. Sane, who had gotten married in February 2020, then returned to Japan.
Kairi Sane’s WWE contract has expired, making her a free agent.
Dave Meltzer reported the news in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
According to Meltzer, WWE wanted to renew her deal and have her return to the company but Sane didn’t want to live in the United States nor travel during the pandemic.
The 33-year-old moved back to Japan in the summer of 2020 to be with her husband. In February, Sane (Kairi Hojo) asked for permission to work on Stardom’s Budokan Hall event in March but the request was denied. Meltzer said Stardom would like to bring her back, but nothing has been set up in that direction as of now.
Sane signed with WWE in March 2017 and after winning that year’s Mae Young Classic, she became the NXT Women’s Champion in August 2018. A year later, she was called up to the main roster and won the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles with Asuka.
Sane’s last match was a July 2020 win over Bayley on WWE Raw.
According to Dave Meltzer in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Kairi Sane asked but was unable to get permission from WWE to work Stardom’s March 3rd show at Budokan Hall in Tokyo, Japan.
Pegged as the biggest show in the company’s history, Stardom was interested in having Sane (Kairi Hojo) in a high profile singles match or even in the legends Royal Rumble-style match if it made it easier to get permission. Still under contract to WWE and working as a Japanese ambassador for the company, the request was denied.
Sane left WWE and returned to Japan in July to be with her husband. Meltzer said there was talk about her working for Stardom upon her return, but she still has time left on her WWE deal.
The 32-year-old initially signed a three-year contract in March 2017, winning that year’s Mae Young Classic with a finals win over Shayna Baszler. She won the NXT Women’s title over then-champion Baszler in August 2018, holding the title until October when Baszler beat her to regain it.
She was called up to the main roster in April 2019, teaming with Asuka as the Kabuki Warriors, managed by Paige. The duo won the Women’s Tag Team titles in October 2019 at Hell In A Cell and held the titles for a record 180 days before losing them to Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross at last year’s WrestleMania. Sane spent time on both Raw and SmackDown during her run.
WWE has announced a few additions to the lineup for tonight’s episode of Raw.
WWE Champion Randy Orton and Drew McIntyre will face off in six-man tag team action tonight. Orton will team with The Miz & John Morrison against McIntyre & Raw Tag Team Champions The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods).
McIntyre, The Miz, and “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt have recently been positioned as potential challengers for Orton’s title. Miz holds the Money in the Bank briefcase and tried to cash in after McIntyre laid out Orton last week, but McIntyre stopped Miz. McIntyre said he’s going to be the person to take the WWE Championship from Orton. Later in the night, Orton dropped McIntyre with an RKO after McIntyre defeated Miz & Morrison in a handicap match. The Fiend’s laugh then played to close the show.
Kingston & Woods appearing on Miz TV with Miz & Morrison, Raw Women’s Champion Asuka vs. Nia Jax in a non-title match, and Ricochet vs. Mustafa Ali have also been added to tonight’s show. Plus, Jeff Hardy, Riddle, and Elias will face off in a triple threat second chance qualifying match to determine the final member of Raw’s Survivor Series men’s team.
A Moment of Bliss segment with McIntyre as the guest was originally announced for tonight’s show but is no longer listed on WWE’s preview.
A look at the very good, and the very bad, of Extreme Rules is the lead story in the new double issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. We also have a back-of-the-book feature on Carlton Haselrig, one of the greatest American heavyweight wrestlers in the history of the sport of wrestling.
The new issue also covers:
Interest levels in Extreme Rules and with the rating the next day, the lesson that tells us about certain types of angles, the background of Seth Rollins vs. Rey Mysterio, along with match-by-match coverage, star ratings and poll results on the show.
An examination of all facets of the Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson departure from WWE, including what makes sense, what doesn’t, why, how come they were signed, how come they were given such a strong offer to stay, their release, A.J. Styles, angles set up for them in New Japan and AEW last year, the booking of Raw under Paul Heyman and much more. This is a very detailed look not only at Gallows & Anderson, but the roles of a number of different people and how Raw fell off the creative tracks
Impact Slammiversary with match-by-match coverage with star ratings and poll results on the show.
Stephanie McMahon’s interview in Ad Age covering wrestling during the pandemic, testing and what changes look to be permanent, as well as race relations.
The current plan for WrestleMania and how it has shifted, the new WWE Board of Directors, next week’s Raw show, NXT North American title thoughts, notes on the next Takeover, update on Wendy Barlow and COVID, WWE producer let go, WWE loses major international deal and how it went down, WWE TV personality get bullied by fans, idea nixed for Raw this past week and all the different changes to the show, Adam Cole-Pat McAfee angel, Bellas update, sports ratings and Canadian TV ratings for the past week, another example of WWE marketing that ha led to the situation they are in, market value of WWE and the most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network.
This past weekend’s UFC show.
A feature on Haselrig, a Pennsylvania sports legend who could have been an Olympic medalist or an all-time great NFL player, but drugs curtailed his career, but not before he set a heavyweight record that may never be beat and another record that almost surely will never be beat.
Ratings of all the major shows, the key demos and quarters for AEW and WWE, what happened head-to-head and what can be learned from them.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
ORDERING INFO: Order the print Wrestling Observer right now and get it delivered via mail, by sending your name, address, Visa or Master Card number and an expiration date to [email protected] or by going to www.paypal.com directing funds to [email protected].
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WEDNESDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
WWE uploaded a video of Kairi Sane reflecting on her career in WWE.
Triple H tweeted about Sane: “A truly unique young woman with the ability to capture hearts, minds (and pirate ships!!!) Proud of @KairiSaneWWE’s growth as a performer and her time spent with #WWENXT and @WWE.”
Variety published a story on WWE’s declining ratings and Vince McMahon’s various explanations over the last few quarters as to why ratings have been down.
Jerry Lawler paid tribute to his son Brian, who passed away on this date two years ago: “Today is a sad anniversary. Two years ago today we got the horrible news that my son Brian had died. I miss him every day. We are headed to his gravesite now to visit. #RIPBrianChristopher #GrandMasterSexay #ToolCool”
Talking to Wrestling Inc, Doc Gallows said that AJ Styles would likely want another match with the Undertaker, one with a crowd. “The Boneyard Match was them doing the best they could do with what they had as a resource at the time,” he said. “Creatively, it was where to go and what to do. But I think that probably AJ would like to give Taker that match with a big crowd and a big reaction. I know that.”
Matt Riddle will be the guest on After The Bell with Corey Graves this week.
FS1 will air SummerSlam 2019 following its MLB coverage on August 11.
Other Wrestling
A seriesoftweets between FTR and Tony Khan revealed that FTR will “make a decision” today regarding their contracts with AEW.
In an interview with ESPN, Cody spoke about the status of a second weekly AEW show: “I think probably in four to six weeks I’ll have a firmer answer on that. That’s still very much the case. The format of that show might be different. It might rely on the production we have in place already, it might not. I know we’ve got all kinds of different plans converging on what we want. The goal of what the third hour would be is to showcase a different crop of talent from AEW. It’s very hard when you have this much talent and you only have a single weekly show. It’s hard to keep people in the mix. As a wrestler, it’s even hard to train for. The only way to train for wrestling is still wrestling. It’s been an adjustment, even without the pandemic.”
Jeremy Lambert of Fightful talked to Ricky Starks about his match on Dynamite tonight and working with Taz.
Ace Austin and Kylie Rae will make their GCW debuts on Sunday’s show in Indianapolis. ACH vs. Joey Janela has been announced for the event.
In the latest edition of the Aces High interview series, Hiroshi Tanahashi talked to NJPW‘s website about working as an assistant to Riki Choshu.
My time in the NXT & WWE locker rooms was incredible. Everyone was kind, funny, & talented, so every day was full of happiness. Also, I was saved by the supportive staff behind the scenes. I will forever love & respect all these professionals I had the pleasure of working with. I was able to accomplish so much in the last three years, but it wasn’t because of my ability or my strength. It was because of all of the constant, warm support from the fans. I am so thankful I could meet you all. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Kairi Sane.
WWE later confirmed that Sane is ‘preparing to leave’ WWE. It had been reported that Sane’s final day with the company was on July 20, when both last week’s episode of Raw and this week’s episode was taped.
On tonight’s episode of Raw, Sane was attacked by Bayley backstage during a match between Asuka and Sasha Banks for the Raw Women’s title. Asuka eventually rushed backstage to help Sane, allowing Banks to win the Raw Women’s title by disqualification.
Asuka backstage was later asked about the condition of Sane as she was coming out of the trainer’s room where both were being tended to. An upset Asuka angrily yelled in response.
Another match has been confirmed for tonight’s post-Extreme Rules episode of Raw.
WWE has announced that SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Kairi Sane in a non-title match is set for Raw tonight. Bayley and Sane’s tag team partners faced off at Extreme Rules, with Sasha Banks leaving with Asuka’s Raw Women’s title belt when Bayley interfered, put on the referee’s shirt, and counted the pin after Asuka accidentally spit green mist in the referee’s eyes.
Bayley retained her SmackDown Women’s Championship against Nikki Cross at Extreme Rules last night.
The main event of last week’s Raw was Bayley & Banks retaining their Women’s Tag Team titles against Sane & Asuka.
While reporting on today’s Raw tapings being delayed and rewritten, Dave Meltzer wrote about Sane’s status with WWE: “Another item scheduled for the original episode was the one talked about two weeks ago in the Observer regarding Kairi Sane leaving. There was a plan in place for tonight’s show where Sane would be written out via injury which would lead to a new feud for Asuka. It is not confirmed whether that is still on the show, but at the time tonight was Sane’s last night with the company as she will be returning to Japan after recently getting married. She may continue to be with the company while living in Japan but will not be a regular active roster performer.”
Randy Orton vs. Big Show in an unsanctioned match and Seth Rollins vs. Aleister Black have also been announced for tonight’s Raw, along with WWE following up on the situations with the Raw Women’s Championship and United States Championship coming out of Extreme Rules. MVP called himself the new United States Champion last night due to Apollo Crews not being able to compete in their scheduled match.
The final episode of Raw before Extreme Rules was headlined by a Women’s Tag Team title match.
Ahead of their Raw Women’s Championship match at Sunday’s pay-per-view, Asuka and Sasha Banks were part of last night’s tag team main event. A title change was teased when Kairi Sane hit the InSane Elbow on Banks, but Bayley pulled Sane out of the ring when she went for the pin. The finish of the match was then Banks submitting Sane with the Banks Statement after countering a sliding forearm attempt.
Last night’s show also featured the final build to Drew McIntyre vs. Dolph Ziggler and Rey Mysterio vs. Seth Rollins at Extreme Rules, Shayna Baszler and Bianca Belair returned to Raw, and an unsanctioned match between Randy Orton and Big Show was announced for next Monday.
Kairi Sane was back in action on tonight’s episode of Raw.
In her first match since May, Sane faced Sasha Banks on tonight’s show. The match ended by disqualification when Bayley interfered as Sane had Banks locked in her Anchor submission. As Bayley and Banks were fighting with Asuka on the outside after the match, Sane took out Bayley and Banks with an InSane Elbow from the top rope.
Sane was also in Asuka’s corner for Asuka vs. Bayley in the main event of tonight’s Raw. Next Monday’s episode will feature Asuka & Sane challenging Bayley & Banks for the Women’s Tag Team titles.
Prior to returning on tonight’s show, Sane was most recently in action when she was injured in a match against Nia Jax that was taped in May.
Dave Meltzer reported on Sane’s status in the most recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter:
Sane, 31, is returning to Japan to be with her husband. This has been in the works for a while and the company has known about it since May if not earlier. Sane was injured by Jax legit by being thrown into the ring steps hard when she was too close to the steps to control her bump on a Raw match taped on 5/26, which had to be stopped and was edited before it aired on television on 6/1. That’s why she hasn’t been around since, although she is cleared and is scheduled to appear on Raw soon as she is listed for the 7/3 tapings which would be for 7/6 and/or 7/13. But the decision at the time was to not harp on the injury on television nor talk about it at all publicly which is why they never played it up and her name hasn’t been talked about. The idea in play before the Sane-Jax legit injury was to do a career-ending injury angle with her later when it was time for her to leave, which was to set up Asuka against that person at SummerSlam for the title. This is also likely changed since Heyman left, and the person who would have most likely (not confirmed) been put in that spot would be either Flair, who may or may not be back by then, or Baszler, who Vince removed from television. The only thing we know is the person who ended her career was not scheduled to be Jax. While there’s been no talk about it of late, there had been talk that once her contract with WWE was up that she would wrestle one more year in Japan and then retire.
Kairi Sane suffered what is being described as a significant head cut during today’s Raw taping.
It happened during a match against Nia Jax that was taped for next week’s episode of Raw. According to Fightful Select, which first reported the story, the cut happened when Jax threw Sane into the stairs, with Sane’s head connecting with the corner of the stairs.
At that point, the match was stopped as WWE medical tended to Kairi Sane, bandaging her up. According to Dave Meltzer, Sane suffered a “significant” head cut.
Fightful further reported that Sane indicated that she was fine and insisted on finishing the match. Jax and Sane immediately went to the finish once the match resumed.
Next week’s episodes of Raw and SmackDown are being taped today at the WWE Performance Center. Announced for Raw next week is a non-title match between Asuka and Charlotte, Apollo Crews will defend the US title against an opponent of his choosing, and Seth Rollins will hold a Rey Mysterio retirement ceremony.
