10 Things You Need To Know About WWE's New Signing Kairi Hojo
2. WWE Have Pursued Her Before
Last week’s report that WWE had signed Kairi Hojo didn’t exactly come out of the blue. The promotion have seemingly been following her progress for a long, long time, and with a full-on women’s tournament on the horizon, they still have a number of spots to fill. It makes sense that they’d go after one of the best wrestlers in the world, but if WWE had their way, Hojo would have joined them a lot sooner.
According to an October 2016 edition of the Wrestling Observer, Hojo received her first WWE contract offer last summer. She didn’t accept it immediately, however. Hojo has experienced major concussion issues over the past few years, and feared that she wouldn’t be able to pass WWE’s strict medical. Those fears were fortunately unfounded, however, and it looks like she’s finally on her way.
Shinsuke Nakamura is said to have played a pivotal role in her signing, and convinced Hojo that she’d be a great fit for WWE. The concussion issue is troubling, given the publicity surrounding Daniel Bryan’s retirement, but if WWE thought it was going to hamper Hojo’s progress with the company, they wouldn’t sign her in the first place. Still, don’t be surprised if the company are incredibly cautious with her push to start with.