Kairi Sane Suffers Injury In Her STARDOM Singles Return

The former NXT Women's Champion looks set for a spell on the sidelines following World Climax.

by Andrew Pollard
Kairi Sane
WWE

Having returned to in-ring singles action with STARDOM earlier today, KAIRI - formerly Kairi Sane in WWE - has revealed she suffered an injury during this bout.

Speaking at the post-match press conference following her World Climax victory over Starlight Kid, the one-time NXT Women's Champion explained how she ruptured her eardrum.

Clearly struggling to hear what was being said to her, KAIRI stated how her "eardrum was torn, but I was happy, or rather than pain made me happy".

Advertisement

KAIRI returned to STARDOM action yesterday, teaming with Mayu Iwatani to defeat the Cosmic Angels pairing of Tam Nakano and Unagi Sayaka as part of this weekend's World Climax event.

That tag contest was the 33-year-old grappler's first match in nearly two years. Prior to tagging with Iwatani, KAIRI last wrestled on the 20 July 2020 episode of Raw, where she lost to Bayley in the confines of the empty WWE Performance Center. Before that, the Pirate Princess and Asuka had a 171-day reign as the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions; a reign that was brought to a halt by Nikki Cross and Alexa Bliss in March '20.

Advertisement

It remains to be seen how long this ruptured eardrum will keep KAIRI on the shelf for, but that sort of injury usually takes a couple of months to fully heal up.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.