Trivia / Kanako Urai

• Corpsing: She came to the ring in-character when Becky Lynch relinquished the Raw Women's Title to her. But once Becky reveals her pregnancy, Asuka couldn't contain her happiness and breaks character. Doubles as Enforced Method Acting, as Asuka had no idea what the announcement was, so her reaction was genuine.
• Doing It for the Art: She started claiming to be an artist who wrestles only to make her "twisted" kind of art a reality in the ring. While this new gimmick became very prominent on her social media after her feud with Becky Lynch in 2020, it never manifested in any way on live TV, unfortunately.
• Playing Against Type: As a Face in America. She's been typecast as a Heel in Japan after getting heat from the wrong people. NXT merged the two, where she was a face but very much Good is Not Nice. She did eventually turn heel on NXT in 2017, which was the first major heel turn for her in America, and later again in the Main Roster in 2019 as part of the Kabuki Warriors.
• What Could Have Been: She's had two big ones so far during her time in WWE.
  • During the middle of her undefeated run in NXT, someone realized that there actually was a woman employed by WWE who'd beaten her - trainer Sara Amato had several wins over Asuka dating back to their indy days as Kana and Sara Del Rey. There was talk of Amato coming out of retirement for a one-off with Asuka, but between concerns over the finish being obvious (would they really have Asuka's streak ended by an inactive wrestler that casual fans had never heard of?) and over match quality (Amato hadn't wrestled a match in 4+ years at that point) they decided against it.
  • In 2018, with rumors of Ronda Rousey coming to WWE, Asuka - still on her by-that-time-massive undefeated streak - started winning matches via armbar. It seemed obvious that they were building towards an Asuka/Rousey feud. Immediately after Asuka won the Woman's Royal Rumble, Rousey's signing was officially announced, and Rousey came out to the ring. Asuka, who'd never left the ring after winning the rumble, refused Rousey's handshake and sneered at her instead. And with the stage set, the whole thing was never mentioned again, with Rousey going to Raw and Asuka going to SmackDown. The two never met in the ring at all, Asuka quit using the armbar and her undefeated streak was anticlimactically broken by Charlotte.