Kairi Sane To Compete For Huge International Championship

After departing WWE earlier this year, the former Kairi Sane (now known simply as KAIRI) returned to her former promotion Stardom back in Japan. But now it looks like there are bigger plans in store for her with Stardom announcing that KAIRI will be entering the IWGP Women's Championship tournament as part of the International Bracket and also receiving a first-round bye in the process.

It has not been smooth sailing for KAIRI since coming back to the promotion she came up in, as she suffered an injury in her first show back in addition to missing an event last month due to COVID-19. The Stardom star no doubt hopes to avoid any such issues heading into this tournament, which will crown the inaugural IWGP Women's Champion. 

The tournament bracket will be split into two: the Stardom half and the aforementioned International. KAIRI will be placed in the latter, likely due to her global popularity in large part from her time in WWE, and is set to face the winner of the first-round contest between Alpha Female and Ava White. Stardom is currently holding another tournament, known as the 5 Star Grand Prix, which will determine who represents the promotion on its side of the tournament bracket. 

The IWGP Women's Championship is to be defended at New Japan Pro-Wrestling shows — and possibly big Stardom events – further integrating the two companies that already exist under the same corporate umbrella. The finals of the tournament are set to take place at Stardom's "Historic x-Over" event on November 20.

KAIRI signed with WWE back in 2017. During her run, she would go on to win the Mae Young Classic, the "NXT" Women's Championship, and the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship (with Asuka).