Now, I know Kairi has a bad history when it comes to concussions. Hell, she had two in the two years right before she joined WWE, and she had a couple of them during her time on the main roster. But that should not have prevented the WWE from pushing her as a singles competitor. The Pirate Princess was turned from one of the best wrestlers on the planet to an afterthought in a team with Asuka. Asuka is phenomenal, don’t get me wrong here, but there is no reason at all that we couldn’t have seen the Kabuki Warriors break up and feud over the title. I honestly think that the WWE was afraid that a match between Kairi and Asuka would outshine any other match on the card for that night. Which, to be fair, they should have been.
Outside of her concussions, the only other time that I can recall her being injured was after a couple of matches against Nia Jax. I’m not going to go too into this because I am still furious that Nia hurt Kairi so many times, but suffice it to say that those injuries definitely had something to do with Kairi’s in-ring career ending when it did. I don’t fault her for wanting to return home to be with her husband. More power to her. I’m happy for her and I hope the two of them have a long and happy marriage with a couple of babies to come. However, I have a serious issue with WWE not utilizing her in the best possible way. Her only singles title reign lasted a mere 71 days. That is criminal. Both Asuka and Io Shirai had reigns that lasted well over 300 days each, Kairi could have, and should have, done the same. She wasn’t given a chance.
WWE sacrificed her title reign to Shayna Baszler. Shayna is damn good in the ring, don’t get me wrong, but I honestly feel that WWE did a disservice to the legacy of Kairi Sane by doing this. Outside of the WWE, Kairi is a 4 time Artist of Stardom Champion, a 3 time Goddess of Stardom Champion and a one time Champion for each of the Wonder of Stardom and World of Stardom championships. Between these reigns, that added up to 990 days as a champion. When you add her two WWE title reigns, of 71 days and 171 days respectively, that total goes up to 1,232 days as a champion. On Cagematch, Kairi has a rating of 9.33 and that puts her very high on the best wrestlers list. It goes to show that the fans all could see what Kairi could achieve and that WWE dropped the ball with her.
The future of Kairi Sane isn’t clear. Obviously, she wants to stay in Japan with her husband and live out the rest of her life there. But will she return to the ring? Only time will tell there. WWE blocked her from appearing on a Stardom anniversary show and from participating in the Hana Matane memorial event for Hana Kimura. If WWE didn’t want to push Kairi when she was active for them, why restrict her so much when she is back in Japan? I don’t understand. You had a golden opportunity to work with other promotions and honour the memory of one of the best wrestlers ever, and you denied the fans and Kairi those opportunities.
Kairi Sane had a short, but legendary, career in the professional wrestling industry. It’s a damn shame that WWE didn’t push her more, but we can only imagine what could have been at this point. No matter what Kairi does in the future, whether she retires permanently from in-ring competition or returns at some point, I want to thank her for the years she gave us. She has been one of my favourites to watch since her debut in Stardom back on January 7, 2012.
Kairi, if you read this, know that you have nothing left to prove. You gave us an amazing 10 years of near perfection in the ring and you will always be one of the greatest to compete in the squared circle. I hope you live a happy life in Japan with your husband and no matter what you choose to do in the future, you have a life-long fan in me. Thank you for everything you did in the ring and someday I hope to see you in it again. If not, then enjoy the rest of your life Princess. You deserve the world.