Kairi Hojo

[Grimmas]

Discuss here.

From Grimmas: 

"To me, one of the best babyface wrestlers of the last decade. Tremendously sympathetic, but also very charismatic and fun plus a killer in the ring with some vicious offense. She turned heel and ruled at that as well! Although she has only been great for 5 years and she may or may not be retired, that peak was so great she will make my list."

[NotJayTabb]

I'm probably going to do a little dig into Stardom because I think Io has a good shot at my list, and I think Hojo is going to be worth looking at too. The first time I saw her wrestle was in person, bizarrely in a small pub in Tooting, when Stardom did a co-promoted show, and despite being the smallest person in a tag match, she absolutely stood out in terms of ability and sheer in-ring charisma. I think she's someone who benefits from having a good few years in WWE, we've got to see her excel in a number of different roles, from TV worker to wrestling on big shows, working underdog face, vicious heel, tag and singles, it's a nice variety.

[jushin muta liger]

Kairi was the heart and soul of Stardom from the start of the Three Daughter of Stardom era until she left the company. Then became the heart and soul of NXT when she had the matches with Baszler at the same time Gargano's matches were becoming overproduced melodrama.

When Sasha was being promoted as the best women's wrestler in 2015, Kairi was overlooked and probably had better matches than Sasha did tbh.

She might be top 100 for me but she's fantastic wrestler. Only stuff I am willing to look into is her main roster WWE stuff cause I've skipped a lot of main roster stuff over the past couple of years. I know she got concussed in the main event ladder match with her & Asuka vs Becky & Charlotte and was able to still complete the match but it wasn't surprising when the news happened cause she's that type worker. One of my absolute favorites and I hope she returns to wrestling soon.

[Kadaveri]

The best WWE main roster Kairi stuff to look into is the Kairi & Asuka vs. Bayley & Sasha feud. Some recs:

Kairi vs. Sasha Banks - Raw 07/06/20
Asuka vs. Bayley - Raw 07/06/20
Asuka & Kairi vs. Bayley & Sasha Banks - Raw 13/07/20
Asuka vs. Sasha Banks - Extreme Rules 2020
Bayley vs. Kairi - Raw 07/20/20
Asuka vs. Sasha Banks - Raw 07/27/20

The matches Kairi isn't in she's valeting Asuka. You can always skip them if you prefer but I thought they'd help with the context and seeing her perform overall (plus you're seeing more of 3 other nominees anyway).

[jushin muta liger]

1 hour ago, Kadaveri said:

The best WWE main roster Kairi stuff to look into is the Kairi & Asuka vs. Bayley & Sasha feud. Some recs:

Kairi vs. Sasha Banks - Raw 07/06/20
Asuka vs. Bayley - Raw 07/06/20
Asuka & Kairi vs. Bayley & Sasha Banks - Raw 13/07/20
Asuka vs. Sasha Banks - Extreme Rules 2020
Bayley vs. Kairi - Raw 07/20/20
Asuka vs. Sasha Banks - Raw 07/27/20

The matches Kairi isn't in she's valeting Asuka. You can always skip them if you prefer but I thought they'd help with the context and seeing her perform overall (plus you're seeing more of 3 other nominees anyway).

Funny enough, I've seen these matches already. Liked the Kairi match vs Sasha more than Sasha's match with Io Shirai the week before. Probably will look to see if she had any good ones on the main roster before the pandemic.

[Kadaveri]

There's not much tbh. A lot of goofing around not really wrestling and then she gets injured in the TLC match. The only good match I have down for her before the pandemic was Kairi & Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair in a handicap match on Raw 12/02/19. Better than it sounds.

[The Prophet]

Easily one of the best babyfaces I've seen from this past decade. However, she's also impressed me a fair bit working heel with Kana/Asuka. The matches are far from her peak stuff, but I think it helps her out in terms of versatility.