If you are interested in the world of wrestling, you probably would have met this Japanese damsel that shows no mercy in the ring. We all know that Kanako Urai is a Japanese wrestler currently signed to WWE, that she performs on smackdown with the ring name many of us find as intriguing as we find her – Asuka, and it is no news that she was a smackdown women’s champion. As she was also a mixed martial artist, many have come to believe that her background has contributed to her success in wrestling in no small manner.
Among other things, Kanako was ranked No.1 of the top 50 female singles wrestlers in the PW1 female 50 in 2017 and the winner of the first-ever women’s royal rumble match. With these below her belt, she sure deserves all the respect befitting of a champion. Asuka is many things that we know, and a lot more that we may never imagine. Below are the things everyone should know about the Japanese wrestler.
5 Things You Didn’t Know About WWE Superstar Asuka
1. She Started Wrestling When She Was 23
If you do not already know this, Kanako Uria was born on the 26th of September and in the year 1981. Much has not being exposed about her heritage and family, except for the notoriously obvious fact – Asuka is Japanese. While we won’t bother you with the details of her educational pursuit, you should know that the wrestler studied at the Osaka University of Arts Junior College, and began her professional wrestling career under the ring name Kana in AtoZ promotion when she was 23 years old. Records have it that her first match was against a wrestler called Leo-na, who made her debut for the promotion about 4 years earlier before Kanako.
2. Asuka Retired From Wrestling Almost As Soon As She Started
Yeah, even though she would later get to compete in the biggest stage of all in the business, Kanako Uria left wrestling barely two years after she started. When she was 25, she was forced to retire due to a health condition known as Nephritis. Kanako suffered chronic nephritis, which is inflammation of the Kidneys. Thankfully, she returned to the love of her life one and a half years later and began to work as a freelancer for promotions.
She later dropped the ring name Kana and adopted the ring name Asuka in 2015 when she joined WWE’s developmental territory NXT. Meanwhile, on the 10th of October 2009, Kana, with Takahashi, defeated Hiroyo Matsumoto and Kyoko Inoue to win the NEO Tag Team Championship, which became Kana’s first professional wrestling title. She has many achievements to brag about, such as becoming the fourth winner in the NEO Tag Team Championship, JWP Openweight Championship, Reina World Women’s Championship, and the Smash Diva Championship.
Kana and Kurihana also won the Dual Shock Wave 2011 tournament, in which they defeated Ran Yu-Yu and Toshie Uematsu, and became the first-ever Wave Tag Team Champions, though they lost the championship four days later to Ran Yu-Yu and Toshie Uematsu – the same team that lost to them initially.
3. Asuka’s Family, Does She Have Husband and Kids?
Kanako Urai is a very private person, but we can tell that she has no husband and no kids. Nonetheless, she is currently in a wonderful relationship with the ring (wrestling), which many are not aware is the only love of her life. She would probably get hitched sometime in the future if she ever finds any man worthy of sharing her love with the ring.
4. What’s Kanako Urai’s Net Worth?
Kanako’s net worth is quite a fortune. Sources reveal that she is worth no less than 2 million US dollars as of 2019. A major bulk of that amount comes from her wrestling career, but Asuka is into other things as you will learn shortly.
5. Other Things Asuka Has Been Doing
Many know this multi-talented diva as a wrestler, but do not know she is also a video- game journalist and a graphic designer, who floated her own graphic design agency when she retired from wrestling during her illness and also has a hair salon called “Another heaven in Yokohama”.
You thought we were done, right? Not yet! Kanako Urai is also a writer and just this year (2019), she launched her own gaming channel on youtube. The game consoles she owns include Famicom (NES), Disk system, Super Famicom (SNES), Sega Mega Drive, Mega-CD, GAmeGEar, PC Engine, CD-ROM 2, GameBoy, GB Advance, Nintendo 64, etc.
See Also: Tenille Dashwood Bio – Five Fast Facts To Know About Her
Bonus Fact:
You already know that Kanako Urai is a champ, don’t you? What you may not know is that her reign as an NXT women’s champion is the longest that the title has ever recorded. She held it for a massive 510 days!
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