Kairi Sane Explains Why She Left WWE

Former WWE star Kairi Sane has opened up on her decision to retire as a WWE in-ring talent in July of 2020, when she returned to her native Japan as an ambassador for the organisation.

Once her contract expired, she returned to in-ring action for Japan's Stardom group in March of this year. 

Speaking with Entame Next (with a translation via Reddit), the former WWE Women's Tag Team Champion said the following about why she left WWE: 

"When I left Japan in 2017, I promised my fans that I would go on a long journey, but that I would come back grown up. I told that to President Rossy Ogawa (now Executive Producer). In the first place, my goal was to learn first-class professional wrestling, and I didn't really intend to live permanently in the US. I thought about retiring from wrestling. This is a personal story, but I lost my best friend to illness. I made a vow at her graveside and promised to make it happen: I was going to participate in WrestleMania. I wanted to make it happen for sure. Thanks to that, I was able to compete in three WrestleManias, had a title match with Asuka as Kabuki Warriors, became a champion in both NXT and WWE, and even received an award for the NXT overall competitor of the year".

The Pirate Princess went on to say that she felt that she had accomplished everything possible in WWE, which influenced her departure: 

"After I moved to the U.S., my personal life was secondary to my professional life, and I was flying around and competing four times a week without a break, but then the pandemic hit, and I suddenly had time to myself. Then I took the time to do some introspection. I thought, 'Where am I going to go from here?'. I had a sense of accomplishment that I had fulfilled my promise to my best friend and that I had done everything I could in my three years with WWE, and after several consultations with WWE, I decided to leave".

Sane suffered an injury during her Stardom comeback, but recently returned to action at their Flashing Champions pay-per-view

H/T Fightful