It has been announced that a former NXT Women’s Champion will be part of NJPW’s IWGP Women’s Championship tournament.
The event, hosted by NJPW and STARDOM, will see KAIRI compete in the semi-finals of the tournament’s international bracket, with the former NXT Women’s Champion facing off against the winner of a match between Alpha Female and Ava White.
The winner of that match will then advance to the finals at NJPW X STARDOM Historic X-Over on November 20th to crown the first-ever IWGP Women’s Champion.
Starting in the semi-finals, KAIRI will get a free pass in the tournament’s first round, scheduled to take place on Night 2 of NJPW’s Royal Quest II pay-per-view in the UK which is reportedly nearing a sell-out.
The former NXT star left WWE in December 2021, wanting to return to her native Japan where she performs with Stardom as KAIRI.
Kairi Sane signed with WWE in March 2017, initially competing in the first ever Mae Young Classic. The “Pirate Princess” ended up winning the tournament following victories over the likes of Bianca Belair, Dakota Kai, Toni Storm and Shayna Baszler.
Sane made her NXT debut that October, reigniting her feud with Baszler the following year. The highlight of her run on the black and gold brand came against her long-time rival at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn IV where she defeated Baszler to win the NXT Women’s Championship. Although her run with the gold lasted only 71 days as he lost out to Baszler at Evolution.
Sane moved to the SmackDown roster in 2019 where she joined Asuka to form the Kabuki Warriors tag team with Paige as their manager. The pair were WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions for 171 days.