WWE: 3 Possible Farewell Matches for Kairi Sane
By Mark Justice
Kairi Sane has been reportedly rumored to be leaving WWE soon.
Kairi Sane, a pirate in WWE NXT and a Kabuki Warrior on the WWE main roster, has procured many championships over the course of her career, especially in Stardom where she became a three-time “Goddess of Stardom” and four-time “Artist of Stardom.” However, her success did not cease once she stepped foot on WWE’s proving grounds, exerting her influence on all three brands of NXT, SmackDown, and Raw consecutively throughout 2017-2020.
On NXT, Kairi Sane won the 2017’s Mae Young Classic by defeating Shayna Baszler in the finals and coincidentally won the NXT Women’s Championship by defeating Shayna Baszler in 2018’s NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn IV. Her insurmountable success in NXT as a singles performer and natural babyface persona assumedly cemented a promising future for her on the main roster. However, she debuted on the main roster as a tag wrestler and never left that spot up to now.
On SmackDown, Kairi Sane debuted on the main roster as a babyface Kabuki Warrior alongside Asuka with Paige as a manager. Since IIconics just won the Women’s Tag Team Championships at the time, the Kabuki Warriors’ momentum did not pick up as well as it should have. Nonetheless, they were consistently considered for championship opportunities due to being one of the most technically sound tag teams in the division.
On Raw, Kairi Sane won her first main roster tag team championship alongside Asuka. As the Kabuki Warriors, they won the Women’s Tag Team Championships at WWE Hell in a Cell 2019, where they defeated Bliss Cross Applesauce (i.e. Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross) nefariously with green mist. This nefarious victory as well as their abandonment of their then-manager, Paige, signified their heel run as Women’s Tag Team Champions for six months.
After losing the Women’s Tag Team Championships back to Bliss Cross Applesauce at WrestleMania 36 in 2020, only one member of the Kabuki Warriors has been basking in the prominence of the main event scene while the other disintegrated into obscurity. Unfortunately, the latter description applies to Kairi Sane, who has been persistently booked as Asuka’s sidekick or ‘lackey’ rather than her equal.
While the WWE’s underutilization of Sane’s untapped potential and/or the injuries she sustained in her matches with Nia Jax recently could be perceived as reasons she is leaving the WWE, it has been reported rumored by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Sane wanted to move back to Japan to be with her husband once her contract expires with WWE. Nonetheless, the following will focus on three farewell matches for Sane.