10 Things You Need To Know About WWE's New Signing Kairi Hojo
7. She's Relatively Inexperienced
Few professional wrestlers have ever developed as quickly as Kairi Hojo, particularly in Japan - a country notably cautious when it comes to pushing and developing younger wrestlers. Debuting in 2012, it took Hojo just a couple of years to be considered among the best wrestlers in the country. She has just five years’ experience to her name, and after signing with WWE, she has made it to the biggest wrestling promotion in the world in a remarkably short timescale.
Contrast this with current NXT Women’s Champion Asuka, who made her wrestling debut in 2004 but didn’t attract WWE’s attention until 2015. Similarly, Raw Women’s Champion Bayley started wrestling in 2008, SmackDown’s Becky Lynch started all the way back in 2002, and even Sasha Banks, at just 25 years old, has two years’ more experience than Hojo.
Like Charlotte Flair, Hojo’s wrestling ability defies her lack of tenure in the sport. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer called her one of the best wrestlers on the planet last year, and she’ll immediately be among NXT’s top performers from the moment she walks into the Performance Center. Provided she settles into American life, expect Kairi Hojo to be a fixture on WWE cards for many years to come.