10 Specific Ways WWE Could Debut NXT Stars On The Main Roster
7. Kairi Sane
It’s impossible not to approach this entry with a degree of cynicism.
It’s borderline racist to compare Kairi Sane with Asuka, purely because they share the same nationality, but it’s also borderline stupid not to expect WWE to do exactly that. This is a company that has long since depicted countless characters with an unhealthy and regressive focus. How long did it take WWE to remind everybody that Asuka is, in fact, Japanese, and unable to confidently spar with Alexa Bliss on the microphone?
Worse still, Sane is the sort of genuinely likeable and engaging character that tends not to do well in a company unable to gauge what makes a performer likeable and engaging. What the audience sees as endearing, WWE sees as geeky. A debut programme with Asuka, whose only redemption at this point lies within a heel turn, promises electric in-ring action but is patently unrealistic given that neither woman is particularly fluent in English and thus unable to build a feud via the mandated, lengthy verbal segments.
Ultimately, within WWE’s sports entertainment approach, perhaps the best way of channelling Sane’s cute strand of sympathy is by booking the IIconics to bully her ahead of a mini-series that eventually showcases her incredible flying elbow finish universal in its jaw-dropping appeal.