“There once was a ship that put to seaThe name of the ship was the Billy O’ TeaThe winds blew up, her bow dipped down Oh blow, my bully boys, blow”
The lyrics to the song Wellerman is the first thing I thought of Kairi Sane’s initial 3 years in WWE as the pirate princess. It’s also the first thing I think of after seeing the recent price increase of streaming services (allegedly of course) or a guy named Luffy.
Like some of us, I wasn’t familiar with her work before she made her in-ring WWE debut at the first-ever Mae Young Classic (which, by the way, they should bring back. Maybe do that but with women’s tag team wrestling?)
However, I was looking forward to her presence on the big stage after seeing a few highlights on YouTube and the hype from fans and pundits alike with Davey Boy Meltzer stating in a news update from April 2016 that Kairi alongside Io Shy and current IWGP women’s champion Mayu Iwatani are “three of the best wrestlers in the world”.
The hype is justified for a multitude of reasons. The gimmick (thanks to her Yachting experience before arriving at Stardom), the presentation/entrance and most importantly, her finisher which is an elbow drop so ICONIC
That it rivals Macho Man Randy Savage’s version of the move. After seeing Kairi’s elbow drop, I don’t know what I felt the most, my back or lower abdomen.
Like I said earlier, my familiarity with Stardom is as good as Scott Steiner’s math so I’ll just briefly mention her run in the black and gold.
After winning the first-ever Mae Young Classic (a tournament that should come back), By far, her most notable run in WWE was when she teamed up with Asuka to form the Kabuki Warriors which, in my opinion, didn’t take off until they turned heel by utilizing the green mist on Alexa Bliss to win the women’s tag team titles.
By feuding with the likes of Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, The Kabuki Warriors have elevated the women’s tag team championship to a main event level that hasn’t been reached up until that point (and still hasn’t to this day).
Speaking of the women’s tag belts, Another highlight of Kairi Sane’s WWE run was her feud with the equivalent of the two women powertrip in Bayley and Sasha Banks where she was taken out of WWE by Michael Cole’s favourite wrestler other than Top Dolla via the safest place in WWE, backstage parking lot.
Sane went back to Japan, won the IWGP Women’s championship, and lost the women’s belt to Mercedes Mone. The same person who screwed her and Asuka at that time. I guess she was avenging that loss by going back to WWE several months later at Crown Jewel and beating the crap out of Mone’s best friend, Bayley.
Channeling her frustration during the pandemic which that’s pretty much all of us unless you’re something of a bourgeoisie. Sane did return to WWE due to her trust in Triple H’s creative process according to Dave Seltzer Water which considering Triple H’s handling of the women’s division, isn’t a wise thing to say.
But, to be fair, wrestlers aren’t known to be the wisest of the bunch. Just look at Tyrus. Considering that Asuka is also on the same Smackdown roster as the pirate princess, the question is, will she ditch Iyo and instead reunite with Asuka or have all of them team up instead?
Honestly, the possibility of all three women is something I could 1000% see especially since Damage CTRL hasn’t been the dominant faction that I thought they would be and having a Kabuki Warriors trio this time could be THE women’s faction on the blue show if utilized correctly.
On and all, Kairi Sane is probably one of my favourite performers right now and I’m hoping now as a member of the WWE roster, Sane with the full backing of the creative team, can metaphorically speaking, provide the “sugar and tea and rum”.
After tonguing is done. We’ll take our leave and go with the satisfaction that the pirate princess has sailed out of bad booking.
